Ticky-ticky-ticky - wheel bearing or...?

[AdrianC]

Yep, still alive - and in Northern Spain, just outside Leon.

Coming through the mountains, we've had a bit of a ticky-ticky-ticky noise, suspected to be coming from the LH front wheel. It's an elusive one, and started to be noticed when accelerating (hah!) out of steep sharp corners, around 40kph or so. It gradually got a bit louder, more intrusive, and across a wider range of speeds and conditions, but definitely road-speed related. Since we've dropped out of the wigglies, though, it's gone away...

Sound like a front wheel bearing to you? I've not had the corner jacked up and wiggled it about yet, nor have I had the grease cap off to see what's going on. The one oddity is that the grease cap that side has a small hole in the middle of it, and something loose poking through. The other side doesn't. There's no extraneous grease kicking around behind that hubcap, nor is any wheel getting hotter than any other.

Front wheel bearings are all tied in to the disks, right? So does it make sense to swap the disks (and pads) at the same time? There's plenty of meat on the pads, and the disks look ancient but thick - I've not measured them, though.

[R0B]

Thats one end of your speedo cable

The one oddity is that the grease cap that side has a small hole in the middle of it, and something loose poking through. The other side doesn't.

[kevtherev]

...and it should be secured with a C clip

[AdrianC]

...and it should be secured with a C clip

On the outside of the grease cap? How... bizarre... The speedo's working just fine - a bit wobbly around 50kph, but otherwise alive.

[Hacksawbob]

hole in the grease cap can wear out and get rounded, likewise I guess the cable could too.

[Plasticman]

And when it slops about it can go clickety tick tick tick
then the hole goes round and you loose the clip and in the end you drill a small hole in the end of the cable and do this

fixed for good now
mike

[AdrianC]

And when it slops about it can go clickety tick tick tick

...but...but...but...but that'd mean the world ISN'T ending!?! Nah... Can't be that simple...

Thanks!

[AdrianC]

Yep, I think it must've been the speedo cable giving grief... The speedo stopped playing the other day. It's back again now, after a bit of intermittent, but definitely need to look at how that's fixed at the end.

How do the grease caps come off? Percussive maintenance, or something more technical?

[Ian Hulley]

Claw hammer behind the lip on the cap levering against a wheel stud is my prefered method. If you're near a garage make sure the wheel bearing's ok and get them to tack the cable to the cap.

Ian

[Plasticman]

get them to tack the cable to the cap.

Ian

with a stick welder

[Hacksawbob]

wiki'd

[AdrianC]

Thanks, Ian - thought I recalled something along those lines.

[CovKid]

In case anyone else stumbles across this thread, a bolt stuck in a tyre will produce a nice ticking noise too - as I discovered recently

[AdrianC]

Just a little update on this - we've had the grease cap off today, and managed to get the speedo cable re-attached to it, with a bit of welding wire through the hole.

Unfortunately, in doing so the speedo head end bit the dust - the plastic square drive came off the inner, and as soon as we looked at the clip it broke off the outer. Bugger. New cable on the way from serial-kombi, and will be fitted soon. With a circlip.