what could the noise be

[Karen W]

Hi guys,

Ive had a few problems with my drive shaft, after much to ing and fro ing it got fixed. Now the noise it was making stopped for few days, however its now back. Its a rattling noise on acceleration up to and including 3rd gear. Once at cruising speed it stops and when i use the clutch it also stops. Any idea what the noise could be. Im totally stumped and a little annoyed with it now.

[Toms306]

Sounds like the clutch release bearing failing to me. Odd that the noise stopped briefly when you changed the shaft though!

[Karen W]

Is that an expensive job to do, I'm sat in my local Weatherspoons at the moment having brekkie, while the garage looks at my car. Being female and not knowing much I don't want to be conned. And thank you for your help

[Piggy]

Is the the noise there at idle? And if so, when you depress the clutch does the noise change?

Gearboxes are soft as cheese on 1.4s, lets hope it isnt that!

[Karen W]

It's not there at idle only as I'm accelerating, once I'm up to speed or put clutch down it stops

[Piggy]

Noises are difficult to understand without hearing them really...
Can you describe the rattle and where you think the area its coming from?
At what speed does it go away? Does it matter what gear its in?

[Karen W]

It's not there at idle only as I'm accelerating, once I'm up to speed or put clutch down it stops

[Matt-Rallye]

Is it just a noise or does it make any vibrations etc that you can feel though the pedals or the steering wheel when driving?

[Karen W]

its like a rattle thats going round and round (if that makes sense), does it in neutral if revving engine, and on acceleration up to and includung 3rd gear, however if at 1st 2nd and 3rd and engine is cruising it stops, no noise from 4th or 5th at any point from what i can hear. And no other problems with it ie no vibrations cant feel anything through pedels. Just got car back from garage and he is non the wiser, just said he would need a better look at it. Oh he did quote me for a new cam belt and tensioner that hasnt long been done lol, and said my clutch was heavy, which feels fine to me. But i do drive big old ambulances for a living and they are heavy as arseholes so have nothing to really compare it to. And thank you for all your advice guys, it appreciated. x

[mattsrallye]

Sorry if I've missed it but did you replace both driveshafts or just one?

[1616six]

Am I right in saying it's a 1.4? If so the gearboxes are literally made of cheese, so could be a box bearing?

[Karen W]

Sorry if I've missed it but did you replace both driveshafts or just one?

Just the drivers side one as that was the one causing problems, we do have a passenger side one floating about, would it be worth changing that one to

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Am I right in saying it's a 1.4? If so the gearboxes are literally made of cheese, so could be a box bearing?

yeah its a 1.4, i try not to drive it too hard, but sometimes i might push my luck lol. will pass on advice to the old boy

[Matt-Rallye]

Sorry if I've missed it but did you replace both driveshafts or just one?

Just the drivers side one as that was the one causing problems, we do have a passenger side one floating about, would it be worth changing that one to

---

Am I right in saying it's a 1.4? If so the gearboxes are literally made of cheese, so could be a box bearing?

yeah its a 1.4, i try not to drive it too hard, but sometimes i might push my luck lol. will pass on advice to the old boy

Usually if it was a box bearing it would be making vibrations depending how knackered it is,

does the car accelerate smoothly? no difficulty selecting gears?

Does the rattle increase with engine revs or road speed?

Sorry for the 101 questions but its hard to diagnose a problem over a forum without as much information as possible.

[Karen W]

Sorry if I've missed it but did you replace both driveshafts or just one?

Just the drivers side one as that was the one causing problems, we do have a passenger side one floating about, would it be worth changing that one to

---

Am I right in saying it's a 1.4? If so the gearboxes are literally made of cheese, so could be a box bearing?

yeah its a 1.4, i try not to drive it too hard, but sometimes i might push my luck lol. will pass on advice to the old boy

Usually if it was a box bearing it would be making vibrations depending how knackered it is,

does the car accelerate smoothly? no difficulty selecting gears?

Does the rattle increase with engine revs or road speed?

Sorry for the 101 questions but its hard to diagnose a problem over a forum without as much information as possible.

Car accelerates smoothly, and has no problems selecting gears. And rattle increases with revs.

And i don't mind answer questions, i'm just thankful for all the help.

[mattsrallye]

Just the drivers side one as that was the one causing problems, we do have a passenger side one floating about, would it be worth changing that one to

I asked because when the intermediate bearing on my drivers side driveshaft failed it started making a strange noise depending on load, so it would be noisy accelerating, then quiet when cruising, but if you've already replaced that then you can rule that out.

ETA if the noise varies with revs rather than road speed then it shouldn't be a driveshaft issue, could be input shaft in the gearbox, clutch, something like that as they change rpm with the engine.

[Toms306]

Its usually the diff bearing that fails on the 1.4s, and that makes the noise in any gear. I cant think of any bearing that only moves in 1st/2nd/3rd and not 4th/5th.

When you drained the gearbox (unless you just pulled the shaft out and let it dribble on the floor?) were there many filings on the drain plug?

[Karen W]

Hubby said magnetic nut hardly any shavings on it, and it's seems it does make the noise on 4th and 5th it's just that it's not so loud and I can't hear it, hubby has hearing like a bat lol

[1616six]

I'd put a fair amount of money on it being the box to be honest, either live with it & turn the radio up & it'll go kaput eventually, or source a replacement box!

[Karen W]

Ahh now you talking, turning radio up works for me, I've just put a subwoofer in boot hehe

[Grant]

Are the drain nut's on the gearbox even magnetic on your engine?

The one on my 1.8 wasn't, and nor was the one on my 2.0.

I hope I haven't missed anything, but what work was carried out exactly, when you were going back and forth trying to get the original problem fixed?

[Toms306]

The TU plugs usually come out with an afro of filings on them. I'm sure the XU/DW box drain plugs were magnetic as well!

Now you say it makes the noise in any gear, that does sound like the diff bearing tbh. I had 2 fail within a couple of months with the same fault!

TU box plugs -

[Karen W]

The back and forth bit was finding the correct drive shaft seems for what ever reason my ph2 has a ph1 drive shaft, the work done was driver side drive shaft replaced, new fluid put in. and showed hubby the pic and he said ours were not that bad. This of course is what im being told by the old man, im lost after the basics lol. Once again thank you all for your help