Knocking

Apologies if this appears twice. I posted it earlier and had a reply but I'm fooked if I can find it again.

I'm in France on a three week trip but 700 miles in I've got a knocking noise on the FOS. It's a rotational noise as opposed to constant. It's not loud or head turning but just worrying. It doesn't clunk over a bump. The wheel has slight play side to side and its pulling to the right a little also. Anyone any suggestions and if so, how many miles will it last.. 50, 100, 500? Or does anyone know of Any good VW garages/club members St Malo way.

Please, no witty, smart comments.

Slight play with the wheel jacked up or can you detect it whilst in the ground? Who last did the wheel bearings - could they have been overtightened? I say this from experience when our old van had one explode after being over-tightened. That started making itself known by a rotational noise and then finally locked solid whilst driving.


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It has some side to side play but not top to bottom. Looking underside theres nothing apparent that's moving apart from the wheel on the hub. It's not graunching at all, just a quiet knock. To be fair, it's a pretty original van with 65k on clock. It is probably the original running gear!

When I say wheel in hub, there's about 1mm of movement.

I had a similar thing with mine.

If you have adaptors for front discs it could be them being slightly loose.

1mm of movement where? Makes a big difference depending on where you’re measuring it. And you didn’t say wheel off ground or on it.

More details needed to be honest in order to get some better replies, otherwise we’re left guessing a bit.


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With the wheel on the ground there is a little movement side to side. Looking underneath and rocking the wheel the play appears to be in the hub as opposed to any visible movement in joints etc. Same amount of movement when jacked up.

I’d say your wheel bearing is dying. Possibly it has run dry (that would explain the rotational noise) and as a result it has worn and developed play. If it moves with the wheel on the ground, I would personally not be driving it anywhere, it sounds as though it is about to disintegrate.


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Problem solved, or diagnosed. Passed a tyre garage and took it in. FNS tyre had become deformed. Also some slight play in the trailing arm centre bush.

Interesting outcome. The trailing arm is at the rear, so doesn’t explain the play in your front wheel! Never heard of a tyre suddenly becoming deformed, but certainly sounds like it was a good find to get that fixed before it goes pop.


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Tie rod sorry, not trailing arm! I think the tyre was probably on it's way out but I'd put the vibration down to the steering joint wear when actually there were two things going on. Back safely now anyway, thanks for your advice. 1822 miles and a worn tyre and some joint wear isn't bad. I'll search the forum for mpg posts too as I kept a record of every mile and every litre of fuel and the van has returned an amazing 37.9mpg!?

Glad to hear you got it sorted! Scary that a tie rod can develop that much play - normally an MOT would pick up the movement before it got anywhere close to that level of wear.