Hi all,

I have just had my engine rebuilt and I have noticed there is this strange clunking/ticking noise noticeable at lower speeds now. Any idea what could cause it? It does not happen when I am stationary nor does it occur more when I rev the engine.

When I close the windows it seems to coming from the centre of the car but really hard to pinpoint exactly where it is

Please see the video below for an idea of what I am experiencing. In the video I am going about 15/20 MPH in second gear.

Car Specs: 231, 6 speed manual, 2006


Thanks!

 

Does the frequency vary with speed? It sounds in time with your wheel rotation, which means something is rubbing around the wheels. Could be trivial like rust on your brake rotors or slightly bent brake heat shield.

Get the car in the air and try to turn the wheels by hand to see if you can recreate the sound.

If it varies with engine rpm then I'd worry more.

 

Thanks for the quick response Loki! Yeah it definitely seems tied to the wheel rotation and still makes the sound if I press in the clutch. Ok cool I'll jack up the front tomorrow and see if I can recreate it. Only thing is it doesn't happen immediately, like I don't hear it when I pull off the drive but will when I slow down on the road 30 seconds later. Again though thanks for the advice and will report back soon!

Edit: Forgot to actually answer your question, yeah the frequency does vary with speed

 

Did you forget to tighten your lug nuts all the way? Did that once, and there was a clunking sound at lower speeds and over speed bumps.

 

So I got the front end on some jack stands this evening and could not recreate the sound, or anything remotely similar. There didn't seem to be anything obvious that the wheel would be rubbing against either :/ I tried doing a couple of the tests for a worn wheel bearing but both sides seemed ok (in my unexperienced opinion). The lug nuts seemed pretty tight to get the wheels off but i've put them back on now and torqued them up so will give it another drive tomorrow and see if anything has changed. Almost certainly just going to need to take it back to the mechanics who did the rebuild and get them to investigate. I have had such rotten luck with this car over the past year but i'm far too emotionally invested in it now haha

Weirdly though when I spun the front right wheel with a decent amount of speed there was this ticking noise (completely different to the one in the video), it sounded electrical. No idea if that's related but just thought it was an interesting observation.