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MG MGF Technical - squeak, squeak

In the last week I have acquired a horrible squeak from the rear nearside wheel area which I thought might be the brakes. After stripping all four of them and freeing up the fairly free calipers and pistons I have no rolling friction and good one notch handbrake on both sides and normal footbrake performance. But still this horrible squeak/graunch especially when cold but subsides after a fast few miles. It returns again after slow manouvering eg town driving.
The noise changes between acceleration and overrun also worse on right handed corners at speed. Could it be some part of the drive shaft unlubricated? The gaiter is dry and intact(please not the gearbox!).
Any similar experiences out there? Thanks,
Charles
C.R.B. Simeon

Did you check the inside of the discs? I have had bad squeaking recently and I noticed both rears were only using about 1/5th of the inside of the rear discs!!!!, despite the outsides appearing normal. I changed discs and pads today and the squeals have gone
I Brown

I should have mentioned the car is a 96 MPi with 10k since new pads and discs all round earlier this year. I checked specifically for even pad wear but must confess without suspicions aroused did not actually check the inner face of the disc; thanks IB, will do.
C.R.B. Simeon

mate i have the same problem ..i here a little squeak when i pull away sounds like the drive shaft mine comes from the pass side front..

under 5 miles it happens the goes away once speed is up
darren
darren jeffery

i have the same problem .. i had new discs and pads done allround , that cant be the problem, squeaking ticking noise coming from the wheel as well, must be a drive shaft problem????
alex

Hi Charles,

Did you re-copperslip the backs of the pads liberally? Half a tub ought to do it...

NSR wheel bearing gets the most stress, so is usually the first to wear out. Unusual for this to give a squeak, but if the grease retaining seal has gone and let it run dry then feasibly it could be the source. Check for even the tiniest free play holding the wheel top & bottom, there should be absolutely none.

Darren, noise from the front won't be driveshaft related, if it ain't there it can't squeak ;o)

Alex, any free play in your bearing?
Mike Hankin

no mike the car has just passed the mot.. clean bill of health.. nothing wrong??? strange. will ask when i see bryan my mechanic.
alex

Mike, perhaps a little less than half a tub with the copperease but I was fairly generous as the NSR was the least free of all. As a matter of interest why does it get the most stress? The noise persists little changed bar roadspeed during braking so I feel brakes are not the sole/principal cause. Towards the wheel bearing theory then, and like the compliance washers(still in the packet) I will get around to it! Thanks,
Charles
C.R.B. Simeon

Hi Charles,

Stress factors include a mix of weight distribution, power delivery & road surface conditions, and possibly even a wee bit of human psychology...
- The rear is both the heavier end of the car and the driven end,
- The wheel nearest the edge of the road has a generally bumpier life, having more potholes, drains etc to deal with,
- The driving position of both the driver in relation to the car and the car in relation to the boundaries of the road means that, consciously or subconsciously, we tend to corner to the right harder than to the left, as the brain computes that the latter exposes us more to oncoming dangers. I used to think that was just me until I read a study on driving habits and was reassured that I am not alone in that ;o)

One other possibility is that a foreign body has got in between the outer CV joint body and the recess in the hub. I suspect that can be discounted by how long you've had the noise though, unless New Forest grit is unusually resilient..?
Mike Hankin

Er..lower ball joint on NSF shot to bits so fixing that and fitting Toyo proxes on the rear axle plus compliance washers.
Then I'll listen again - I didn't even guess the right end.
Darren - it might be worth jacking up the NSF and trying the wheel wobble test. Mine is dreadful - how does it stay on the road! This would explain the rather 'exciting' handling of late especially in the wet :-0
C.R.B. Simeon

hi mate yep done the wheel wobble test . guess what ?the track rod ends have gone. so bought some off ebay today, hope you get that noise sorted out? i just up the radio now..
darren jeffery

Compliance washers and proxes :o))))))but the noise is worse than ever(because of the extra grip and enthusiasm). Probably the NSR brake disc making the noise due to wear in the bearing according to mechanic on test drive. Replace the bearing as the next 'cheap' option otherwise driveshaft. :o(
C.R.B. Simeon

OK; for the archive the bearing was not the principal culprit, the inner end was rotating within the enlarged hole in the flange which also needed replacement.
So in normal driving the bearing was quietly doing what it should, but when lateral stress was applied it managed to wear a b****y great hole in the flange. How on earth did that start - violent removal of the old discs? The noise was akin to very fast pinking latterly. It is now expensively quiet!
C.R.B. Simeon

Not uncommon for a bearing to munch its way into the shaft of the drive flange, but your description suggests it has in this case attacked the hub body? Bill at the MGF Centre favours replacement of the whole hub over replacing just the bearing, presumably because he's seen this quite a few times... Sadly it's one of those situations where the full story is only known when the bearing is removed, Catch 22 8-/

As to what started it, hard to say. It seems the bearing casings are tougher than the cast items (hub & drive flange) so perhaps this is another case of Metro parts not quite being up to the F'ing job...
Mike Hankin

This thread was discussed between 09/09/2006 and 06/10/2006

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