Clicking sound from rear wheels

[LesAlbin]

Several weeks ago I noticed a loud clicking sound from the rear of my car during hard cornering on the first day of a DE weekend. Track mechanic checked, but could not find anything of concern. Ran second day with same noise occurring sometimes, but not all the time. Drove the car for several weeks on the street with the clicking coming and going. Sound was clearly related to rotation of the rear wheels. Finally yesterday the clicking started then stopped abruptly as did all power to the rear wheels. Car was taken to the shop where it was discovered that the right rear axle is broken.

[squidward]

holy crap.. Do you know where along the axle the break was exactly? A broken axle could have been disastrous.

Any way one could inspect for something like this easily?

[LesAlbin]

The shop working on my Elise removed the axle from my car yesterday and called me to advise me of the problem, but I had not seen it for myself until this morning. Turns out the shaft of the axle had not broken as I had been led to belive. Instead it was the CV joint in the middle of the right rear axle that had failed. Apparently the failure has been going on for some time which would account for the clicking sounds under certain load conditions.

Strange thing about the failure is that it looks like very little, if any, lubricant was applied to the CV joint when the axle was assembled. The boot covering the joint was in excellent shape and will be reused. The clamps securing the boot were tight also. It is remarkable that the joint lasted 65K miles with so little lubrication.

Good news is that the CV joint seems to be rebuildable so it does not look like I will be needing to spend $1,200 on an axle assembly that would take several weeks (at best) to get from Lotus.

Should have the car back on the road tomorrow. Will be checking the other CV joints to be sure they have grease.

[squidward]

Originally Posted by wolf007

Many thanks for your help, squid.

The car will go to my Lotus dealership this week - I hope they are able to help.

What I experienced so far:
- In cold conditions the noise is not present, it takes around 3 kilometers until you hear it.
- When driving backward it is not present, only when driving forward.

Only to eleminate some causes I wanted to ask you:
I have seen in your "garage" that your car is a non-IPS, is that right ?

At the moment I think the problem is brake related and is perhaps coming
from the pads which move forward and backwards slightly in the caliper body.
Also I found similar problems from other vehicle manufacturers in other forums ...

Perhaps it is the right trace ... I will keep you informed

I can't believe it. I think I just found the culprit. Lately the sound came back and it got progressively worse. It clicked with the rotation of the wheel an only did so when veering to the right such as in a turn or taking a ramp. It really felt like something was loose and with the g-force applied it is binding up with something.

With that theory in mind I meticulously inspecting the hub for anything loose. Lo and behold I found that the retaining screw on the rear driver-side rotor was quite loose.

I used an Allen wrench to tighten it down. It was loose by just a couple of turns but had plenty of wiggle to it. Anyway doing so resolved the problem when I took it for an immediate test drive. Nice!!

I can't really explain why the clicking happens. Anyway I'm glad I fixed another problem my dealership wasn't able to.

[squidward]

the culprit is that little screw between the lug bolt holes

[tbd_Evora]

How deep are those ridges on the disc? They look horrible, but it could just be the flash.

[squidward]

Originally Posted by tbd_Evora

How deep are those ridges on the disc? They look horrible, but it could just be the flash.

yeah, I was asking about it just a short while ago on here. No flash was used, but it was bright out. But yeah, they look pretty deep don't they. I haven't really measured it but if I were to guess, I'd say a millimeter at the deepest grooves. Somebody enlightened me to the fact that this is the nature of drilled rotors. But you know, I've had absolutely no braking issues and when I checked the pads I have a surprising amount of material left on them (2/3cm to be precise) even with roughly 30K miles of mostly street driving. I guess I don't brake much. lol

[Plackslayer]

Those look like so many other Evoras I have seen.

[wolf007]

Originally Posted by squidward

I can't believe it. I think I just found the culprit. Lately the sound came back and it got progressively worse. It clicked with the rotation of the wheel an only did so when veering to the right such as in a turn or taking a ramp. It really felt like something was loose and with the g-force applied it is binding up with something.

With that theory in mind I meticulously inspecting the hub for anything loose. Lo and behold I found that the retaining screw on the rear driver-side rotor was quite loose.

I used an Allen wrench to tighten it down. It was loose by just a couple of turns but had plenty of wiggle to it. Anyway doing so resolved the problem when I took it for an immediate test drive. Nice!!

I can't really explain why the clicking happens. Anyway I'm glad I fixed another problem my dealership wasn't able to.

Hi squid,

when doing the modification on the breaking pads I also needed to release and tighten again this screw, should that have been the trick ?
But this screw only holds the drum in position to the threaded holes for the wheel bolts. Once the wheels are bolted there is no possibility for this screw to move in its hole.

Can it really be that a contact point of the screw to the drum will generate the metallic click noise(s) with each rotation at the exact same point ?

It would be great if you have found the worm inside the apple ...
At the moment my car is at my dealership for repairings, among other things he will also have a look for the clicking noise problem ...

But who knows what happens when the clicking stops

[tbd_Evora]

Actually, it would make sense. You tighten the screw before the wheels are bolted on, but that screw will certainly not apply the same force as the wheel bolts. So, when the wheels are tightened that could reduce the load on the screw, causing it to come loose.

Might be a good place for some loctite.

BTW. I looked at my discs yesterday. I've got about 20 K miles on the Evora, but there are no ridges. The discs are still very smooth, though I've crtainly done some hard high speed brakings.

[alp]

scott, forgot to update you. No ridges on mine either. But then I have low miles.

Also, good find on the clicking sound. tbd_Evora's suggestion using loctite is good. Make sure it's blue not red loctite. Cos when it's time to change the rotors, last thing you need is that locator screw stuck in its place!

[wolf007]

Hello squid,
I wanted to ask you about your experience with the clicking noise.
Did the screw fixing help ?

Unfortunately the changed shape of the brake pads didn't fix the problem.
Perhaps I need to wait until the clicking gets louder again and bring the car
to my dealership in the hope that he finds the solution.

[metrocube]

I had a clicking noise one time in the Exige, and it was something I would never have thought.

The plastic wheel liner had melted a little bit and a small piece had curled and lifted away... in exactly the right spot to touch the raised lettering off the tire sidewall. So it was clicking like a playing card in a bicycle spoke.

[squidward]

Originally Posted by wolf007

Hello squid,
I wanted to ask you about your experience with the clicking noise.
Did the screw fixing help ?

Unfortunately the changed shape of the brake pads didn't fix the problem.
Perhaps I need to wait until the clicking gets louder again and bring the car
to my dealership in the hope that he finds the solution.

It's back. Perhaps it got loose again. Shrug. Anyway I'm pretty sure it will go away after my tire change in the next month or two...

Whatever it is I'm certain it's something loose. As it is only present when pulling G's on right hand turns. A very low G turn would result in barely audible clicking or none at all. And the harder the turn the more pronounced it is.. It suggests that whatever is making the clicks is a loose object that seems to be rubbing up against a rotating object-- likely the backside of the hub, caused by the change in inertia. Either way it doesn't bother me as I can barely hear it most times anyway over the loud music generated by my exhaust . It's definitely not something binding like I originally thought, so I'm much less concerned about it now. Just a minor annoyance that seems to come and go with wheel/tire changes.

[mattjk]

last time I heard a wheel click, one of the spokes on a rota wheel had a hairline crack in it.

If the noise is from the screw, you can just remove the screw. it's only function is to hold the rotor in place if the wheel is off.

[Jack]

Originally Posted by mattjk

last time I heard a wheel click, one of the spokes on a rota wheel had a hairline crack in it.

Ditto. Same issue but on a different brand of wheel which has seen lots of tracking.

Hairline crack on a spoke caused a rotational clicking noise and the crack was not easy to spot -- a careful and up-close inspection is needed.

[wolf007]

Hello all,

the clicking was getting louder and louder, at least it was a rattling noise.
So I decided to do some researches and finally found the problem causing
this clicking sound.
Have a look at the pics below and you will know what to do

[squidward]

nice.. what did you use to clean all that? especially the wheel bolt hole. Scouring pad isn't going to work there!

[squidward]

Originally Posted by squidward

It's back. Perhaps it got loose again. Shrug. Anyway I'm pretty sure it will go away after my tire change in the next month or two...

Whatever it is I'm certain it's something loose. As it is only present when pulling G's on right hand turns. A very low G turn would result in barely audible clicking or none at all. And the harder the turn the more pronounced it is.. It suggests that whatever is making the clicks is a loose object that seems to be rubbing up against a rotating object-- likely the backside of the hub, caused by the change in inertia. Either way it doesn't bother me as I can barely hear it most times anyway over the loud music generated by my exhaust . It's definitely not something binding like I originally thought, so I'm much less concerned about it now. Just a minor annoyance that seems to come and go with wheel/tire changes.

Turns out for me, it was the Dynaplug brass tips from the installed tire plugs that fell into the wheel causing the noise.. I'm not convinced this was the same problem as before, as I recall reporting clicking sounds well before ever using Dynaplugs to repair my tires.



I don't think this would be enough to stop me from using my Dynaplug repair tool (it's awesome). But it does make their claim that these plugs are rated for permanent repair (in EU) a bit dubious to me.

Anyway, Wolf007, you believe your clicking was attributed to all of the dirt/debris between all the surfaces of the wheel assembly. I'll try that as well if the problem comes back..

These are two separate problems, both of which I had. The first one clicked when the wheel was moving very slowly (Wolf and I had videos of this). No way could those brass tips cause such a sound. The second problem I have is the fast clicking sound whenever I'd make a right turn. That sounds much more like the loose debris in the tire. I hope it's just that and nothing more serious.

Anyway only time will tell.

Thanks

[wolf007]

For the wheel bolt hole I used a cordless drill machine, clamped a rubber tube (5cm long) in the drill chuck and covered the rubber tube with a cloth scraps.
In addition I used brake cleaner fluid.
To protect the edges of the bolt hole I would recommend to cover it with an adhesive tape.
Before mounting the tires I lubricated the screws and holes with an aluminium paste.
I also increased the tightening torque to 150Nm - I would advise to ask your dealership about the maximum allowed torque for your wheels.

All the other parts I have only brushed and degreased.

I hope this works also for you - just let me mention that I had the same behaviour as described by you:
- clicking noise when moving slowly with every rotation
- clicking noise getting louder when cornering
- clicking noise getting faster with higher velocity