Clicking from left front

I know this is a long shot, but I thought I'd ask...

Vehicle is a Plymouth Grand Voyager with about 100K miles. I recently
noticed a clicking coming from the vicinity of the left front wheel
starting at about 50 mph. It seems to be at the speed the wheel
rotates, so my first thought was a nail in the tire, second was a CV
joint.

I jacked up the front end and took a look- the boots on the CV joints
are good, rotating the tire by hand I couldn't see or hear anything
unusual. Lug nuts are tight. I pried a few bits of gravel out of the
tread (month old tires, lotsa tread), didn't find any nails.

So I'm stumped. It's hard to troubleshoot something that only appears
above 50 mph.

Any ideas?
-Paul

 

how fast can u run???
jack up that side and grab the wheel at the top and bottom then see if it
moves that way if it does then there is a good chance you have a bad
wheel bearing
did you inspect the brakes good??

 

If you have cast aluminum wheels then ignore the rest of this.

Try removing the hub cap/ wheel cover and then see if the noise is still
there.

Could well be a CV joint or wheel bearing. But could also be due to
some flex in the plastic wheel cover, or flex in the tire sidewall at 50
mph that is rubbing on the wheel cover.

This is what has happened on my Intrepid. Clicks like crazy with the
wheel cover in place; no click when the wheel cover is removed. It only
cost me a replacement half-shaft to learn that the clicking wasn't
coming from the CV joints (since the sound was still there after the
replacement).

Phil

 

OK, that's easy enough to check. I'll remove the wheel cover and drive
it tomorrow.
-Paul

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I did check the wheel for play, and looked
at the visible part of the brake disc. No play in the wheel. I don't
feel anything thru the steering wheel either.
-Paul

 

Now this is strange- I drove it without the plastic wheel cover and it
did it one more time then stopped. It seems to be gone. I'll try
replacing the wheel cover now, but I think what ever it was, it's gone.
Thanks for the suggestion.
-Paul

 

That's weird Paul. Keep us posted.

Phil

 

I put the wheel cover back on, and the clicking is still gone. I don't
know what it was, but I'm sure glad it wasn't something serious.
-Paul

 

Umm - a rock that was trapped - you removed the wheel cover - the rock
hit one more time then fell out - you put the cover back on - no more noise.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

There was nothing loose under the wheel cover. One of the first things
I did was take it off and look it over carefully, including checking
each lug nut for tightness.

I'm guessing it was something like a stick in the brake area, which is
hard to see without removing the wheel. The clicking would start at 50
mph, so I'm thinking centrifugal force at that speed caused it to start
hitting something once with each revolution of the wheel.

I couldn't feel anything unusual thru the steering wheel, nor did
braking affect the noise.
I'm just glad it went away without costing me a fortune. ;-)
-Paul