Chirping / clicking sound from wheel well area or transmission area

[Nick]

Hi All,

Owner of a MY18 Levorg in Australia with 71,000kms. My car has developing a slight chirping squeak sound that seems to be coming from the RH side wheel well are or underneath the car near the transmission area. Car was inspected by a mechanic who could not identify an issue with brakes, wheel hub or drive shaft. The mechanic was very honest and just suggested we monitor it rather than throw money replacing components. He did also add that they could only reproduce the sound under load. Not when it was on the hoist. He said that because he was leaning to something in the transmission. My observation is that noise is constant when the car is moving. No noise at idle. The noise speeds up and slows down in accordance with my acceleration. I would describe the noise as something in between a squeak and click. It almost sounds like a metallic click like when you have a screw in your tyre but it also has a slight squeak to it as well. I am the owner since new and the car has a complete service history. I can put up with it but it's a got me a little worried and I would prefer it was not there. Any ideas how to troubleshoot it further?

Cheers,

Nick

 

[nicodache]

does the sound aligns with the engine revs, gearbox speed change, or the vehicle speed ?

 

[Robsyuk]

You could change all of the fluids. They are all serviceable and if you did one at a time, you could see what part has the noise change with new fluid.
I'd suspect a wheel bearing

 

[Nick]

does the sound aligns with the engine revs, gearbox speed change, or the vehicle speed ?

G'day there,

The sound is very consistent with wheel rotation speed and does not seem to correlate to RPM. If I slow down, so does the squeak, if I speed up the squeak does too. I've coasted in neutral to a stop and the sound slows relative to my vehicle speed. The sound is not observable under 10km/h. If I was to hazard a guess the sound is probably emanating from the wheel well area rather than gearbox.

 

[Nick]

You could change all of the fluids. They are all serviceable and if you did one at a time, you could see what part has the noise change with new fluid.
I'd suspect a wheel bearing

Thank you - I'd probably lean to wheel bearing also based on a long drive last night and observing how the sound was relative to my vehicle speed. I said above the sound wasn't observable on speeds less than 10km/h but interestingly it was squeaky at very low speed on a bluestone laneway but not on smooth asphalt. Anything over 10km/h it is very consistently chirping. It's not loud. With windows up you won't hear it in the cabin. With windows down and when driving past a solid structure you can pick it up as a consistent chirping sound.

 

[Robsyuk]

Thank you - I'd probably lean to wheel bearing also based on a long drive last night and observing how the sound was relative to my vehicle speed. I said above the sound wasn't observable on speeds less than 10km/h but interestingly it was squeaky at very low speed on a bluestone laneway but not on smooth asphalt. Anything over 10km/h it is very consistently chirping. It's not loud. With windows up you won't hear it in the cabin. With windows down and when driving past a solid structure you can pick it up as a consistent chirping sound.

Have a look at the dust guard behind the disc. A stone could be lodged and rubbing.
Do you know how to check for a failing wheel bearing?