While driving in my Riviera, it has slowly developed this strange knocking or tapping noise that I cannot figure out. Its not very loud at all. Its one of those noises you do not notice unless you drive the car for a while, and get used to its sounds, then something very faint and kinda quiet pops up and you can hear it, but nobody else notices it. If im cruising at 30mph, its a light tap tap tap tap tap. The faster my wheels roll, the faster the tapping pattern picks up, and sounds more like a knocking noise. There is nothing like nails or anything in the tires. Its more like a solid noise. Its not the engine, because it does not follow engine RPM's, and im positive its not the transmission. Its somewhere in the front suspension/ wheels, ect.. If I drive the car around for a good 30minutes or so, the noise gets slightly louder. I cannot determine which wheel its coming from either. If I sit in the drivers seat, it sounds like the drivers side, my gf in the passenger seat says it sounds like the passenger side. I lean over towards the middle of the car, and it sounds like the noise if coming from the middle areas... I jacked up each wheel and spun them by hand and heard nothing. I pulled the wheels off and spun the drums and heard nothing. So I know the sound is only happening when there is a load on the front end. Both front wheel bearings are also new, and do not even have 500 miles on them yet. I then checked the suspension and steering for looseness and everything seems tight (except my upper control arm bushings are kinda bad off, but I do not see how they would cause this noise) I am kinda stumped at what this noise is, because I cannot pinpoint it down. Any ideas or suggestions on other things to check? Oh yea, front breaks work perfect and have all be recently rebuilt by the way.
Sounds like maybe a u-joint. When it shifts, can you hear a slight clunk, and when you jam the gas, does it make a similar sound? Drive line noise can be hard to pin down Does your car use a one-pice driveshaft, or two? Some Buicks used a tube within a tube, with a rubber insulator called a biscuit bewtween the two. Mine made noise for years. The biscuit are almost certainly worn out on any Buick that ever used them Another thought- when I was a kid, I used to drop pennies into hubcaps through a slot. That would make a random tapping sound. Still a fun trick Front suspension can ause a noise like that. the front end moves up and down all time even if you don't notice it yourself. metal on metal can cause a clicking sound as the metal galls Also, as the engine and tranny and rear and u-joints get run for a half hour, they heat up. that might be why you can't reproduce the problems with the car jacked up. Mystery noises can drive you nuts. I'd check to make sure the u-joints are good first thing, you don't want to go pole-vaulting in your car
The U-Joints are good. There is no clunk when it shifts, just a perfect pattern of tap tap tap tap... Also, the noise is there whether I have a load on the drivetrain or not. Im pretty positive that the noise is coming from the front end somewhere though.. 2 piece driveshaft with a brand new center support bearing. The driveshaft runs through the middle of the X frame. No hubcaps, just Buick rallye rims.. An idea that just struck me, could the speedometer cable be making a noise like this, because my speedo does bounce around constantly. It is the barrel type speedometer. At 50mph its bouncing between 40 and 80. Thanks for the ideas.
My old '66 developed that noise and it was a rear axle bearing. Almost sounded like a stone that was stuck in the tire. Chock the front wheels and put the rear up on stands and let it run in drive with the wheelsoff the ground. Get the speed up to about 30 and if you hear the noise, you have eliminated the front wheels. Your driveshaft could be making the noise, but when my cv joints made noise they squeaked when driving slower than about 30. All they needed was grease. Just be sure to slowly apply the brakes and make sure the wheels are not still turning when you put it back into park. My guess is that it's a rear wheel bearing. :bglasses:
Recheck the front wheel bearings, they may need to be tightened a little after 500 miles. Pull the speedo cable and lube it, checking it for kinks, and make sure the cable housing is routed with big curves and not crushed anywhere. Usually a speedo cable makes a kind of swishing noise instead of a solid tapping, but... Unless you replaced the u-joints recently, I wouldn't be so fast to rule them out. Even if the driveline doesn't "clunk" going into gear (which could be tranny/u-joints/rearend), they can still make noise under way, although usually it would change with loading. But I've had them go bad, and you'd have SWORN it was the front wheel bearings making all that noise. I like Joe's idea of isolating the front end from the driveline. :TU:
All 3 (im missing one) of my center caps were loose and clanging around real loud and annoying. I pulled them all off, including the brackets, and thats sorta how I found the noise.. :grin:
No. My center caps were clanging around making a bunch of noise, so I pulled them off and when I took away the clanging noise from the center caps, I then noticed the knocking/tapping noise.
Have you checked the exhaust pipe mounts/brackets? My car has been making a sounds like you describe for a few months. I finally discovered that the mount in front of my driver side muffler had snapped. You would be amazed at all the noises that it makes bouncing around.
I recently had the same one fixed. It was so bad that when I took off from a stop, it sounded like someone was beating on my floorboard.
Ok. Did as Joe said. Got the rear up and ran it in drive. Nothing. No noises. I am pretty positive that its coming from the front. Buuut. Went out to a local Buick meeting tonight. On the way there, the noise just all of a sudden stopped.
Do you here the noise with the windows down as well as up? If it's only with the windows down, a rock in the tires would do it.
Windows up or down. Nothing in the tires ( I checked them twice). Didnt even sound like something in the tires. The noise just quit. Hasnt came back yet, so I dunno.
I'm tellin' ya, the gremlin fell off. But I'll bet he's limping towards your house right now, so keep your eyes out. You ever re-check the front wheel bearings?
Really sounds like loose nuts and bolts in the front end sheetmetal to me now The reason it stopped could be that you lost the bolt while driving
Front wheel bearings are good. As for the Gremlin, I dont remember running into any AMC's. :laugh: Posibility, but for some reason, I do not think that was it. It was a constant repetitive pattern that sped up with tire movement. If it (the gremlin) comes back, ill do a really deep investigation to find out where its hiding.
