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loud slapping noise from my wheel

8K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  purist 
#1 ·
Question for you. So, do you remember putting baseball cards in the spokes of your old bicycles? Well I have a sound that is almost like that coming from my driver's side wheel, except that is is like someone but a really thick piece of plastic in the spokes instead of a flimsy baseball card. The other thing about it is that it isn't a consistent sound. Yes, it makes the sound whenever I drive - turning or not. Yes, the sound speeds up with the speed of the tires. Instead of being a constant slapping every x number of seconds it is an inconsistent slapping whose frequency of slapping does increase with the speed of the car but not necessarily every x number of seconds. So, in any given 5 second sampling of time at a constant speed of say 30 miles per hour the slapping might occur 25-35 times. Bring the speed up to 40 miles per hour and the number of slaps increases to 35 - 45 times. It is almost like morse code on crack.

Is it a tie rod? Doesn't sound like a CV joint to me. Not enough clunking. I could be totally wrong though. Any ideas?

Chris
94 se-r
 
#3 ·
It can't be a rock. I haven't checked it, but it makes this loud noise at 5 miles per hour. It is the same volume level no matter the speed. A pebble in the tread wouldn't make such a loud sound. It is very audible from the outside and of course from the inside.
 
#4 ·
Ha , we had a customer come in on thw 1st , he said he had a tick tick noise while the car was rolling , well after throwing it up on the hoist , we found the huge ZIP TIE that his co worker put on there ... it was pretty funny !!!
 
#5 ·
I was just going to say, many pranks involve multiple zip-ties on driveshafts, but if you mention the sound not being consistent, i would probably count that idea out. your best bet is to put the front of the car up on jackstands and have you and a friend spin the front wheels (while car is in neutral of course...and parking brake on, don't need any lawsuits). you should be able to find the noise then. most likely the coulprit is hidden withing your wheel/hub/brake assembly. From the way it sounds, the noise is not going to go away on its own. I'm not sure where you're from, I live in PA and it still pretty cold here, so you may want to find a garage, most often this type of thing, you'll find, is a stupid problem that is more a waste of your time than anything else
 
#6 ·
You guys have some crazy friends that would take the time to zip tie those parts. And run over cats?! Nasty!

So, I pulled off the wheel and found a cracked splash guard. I have pretty bad luck with mine. My car isn't that low either. Lucky though that it is a 10 dollar fix instead of a 300 dollar fix.
 
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