Loud grinding noise from front drivers side wheel area?

Hello all,

As the title suggests I'm getting an intermittent (happened twice in an hour long drive) and very loud grinding noise from the front drivers side wheel area. The best way I could describe it is like the sound you used to get when you put a Coke can on the back wheel of your bike as a kid, or adult with nothing better to do.

It seems to be occurring under braking or direction change but as it's only happened to me a grand total of 3 times, I wouldn't take that as gospel. The noise will disappear under braking, once I've either slowed down to a crawl or come to a complete stop.

I've checked for any evidence of bodywork coming into contact with the wheel but no sign of that happening. I'm thinking either a brake issue or possible a kingpin bearing issue (the dealer did change these out before I bought the car)

Anyway, I'll be taking the wheel off tomorrow for a poke around so any advice on where to concentrate my efforts would be much appreciated


Ta, MilkyRon

Check the wheel bearing for sure.

Other than that check both pads are whole. Check that the backing plate isn't touching the disc. Make sure there's no debris caught anywhere around the disc.

I can't think how kingpins would cause this sort of noise but could be wrong. Wheel bearing would be my prime suspect followed by something touch around the disc that shouldn't be

Yeah, no issues with obstruction. I've had the wheels at full lock in both directions to check clearance when I had the 195/80/15 tyres fitted.

My SAAB once had discs that were rusty and exfoliating at the edges - they made an intermittent grinding noise against the backplates - I used a piece of wood as a drift and a hammered the backplates away from the flakey discs

I've also had pieces of grit get stuck between the backplate and the disc that also caused an intermittent grinding noise that was only apparent when turning

So, had a poke around this morning. It does look like the disk backplates may have been the issue. Lots of rust and debris behind them and probably only a 3mm clearance. Bent both sides back a little and gave them a clean with a wire brush. The problem seems to have disappeared but I'll hold my breath until I've covered a few more miles.

Thanks chums for all the replies, It really helped me narrow down the issue!

Ta, MilkyRon

An elderly neighbour of mine got into a bit of a twist about a horrendous noise from her car - turned out it was a piece of grit too. Its more common than you'd think - particularly as they waste taxpayers money gritting roads these days

Well that didn't fix it. Now that it's happened a few times, the panic has worn off enough for me to do some investigative work. I'm certain that it's something to do with the front drivers side wheel, because:

1.While the noise was present, I slipped the car into neutral and biped the throttle a few times, no change in the tone or volume.

2.When passed by a car on the drivers side the volume greatly increases, which makes me think that it's coming from that wheel arch area due to the amount of sound being 'reflected' back

It's really difficult for me to pinpoint it due to the fact that it's so intermittent. Next course of action, take the disk brake assembly off and have a proper clean. If that fails, it's off to the garage to have it looked at by a grown-up.

Bit gutted as had a trip to Delamere Forest planned for tomorrow. Looks like we'll be taking the wife's car instead ಠ_ಠ

Did you check for play in the wheel? Did you rotate it by hand whilst it was off the ground?

So, It's been a few weeks now and I've still not got to the bottom of the issue. I did take the front brake assembly apart and all seemed fine, cleaned it up and put it all back together but the problem remained.

I've checked all 4 wheels for play and the bearings seem fine.

One thing I failed to mention is that pretty much as soon as I picked the Jim up, I changed the tyres out for a set of 195/80/15 AT tyres. I've checked to see if these are fowling anywhere but can't see any evidence. Trawling through the forum it doesn't look like anyone has had any issues with 195/80/15s and body contact before so I initially ruled this out. To my ear the noise doesn't sound like rubber contacting with plastic but I could be wrong.

I decided to install my cheapo dashcam this week so I could get some video evidence. It's not the best quality so apologies for that.



As you can see from the video, the noise goes once I come to an almost complete stop, there is also a bit of a 'clunk' as if something re-seats/releases. Anyone have any ideas?

Ta, MilkyRon