Hi all,

From one issue to another...

Soon after replacing the clutch on my wife's 500, it started having some harsh noise when driving with the wheels steered right (left is just fine).

The mecanic said it's the exhaust (not the wheel bearing or drive shaft) but the noise wasn't there before replacing the clutch. Would be too much of a coincidence for the catalytic converter to break in the past week (which btw, i found today as suspect for the tappety noise).

Can you please suggest me what can i check for? Any chance for the drive shaft to have been wrongfully fitter back? Driving left of straight works fine.

Thank you!

If it were the exhaust, shouldn't it
also vibrate when i drove right?

The driveshafts would be disturbed.. to temove the gearbox.. gaining access to clutch..


Exhaust ... could have been unbolted

And disturbed.. which engine type?

It's the 1.2 petrol 69 HP engine.

The shafts i had seen they have been removed to replace the clutch. The exhaust, i don't remember seeing it unbolted, don't know if it was optional step.

Hi

Maybe the wheel area.. rubbing brake.. or the thin metal shield.. easily knocked out of position when doing the job

Left Hand Side.. as the RHS was probably untouched

Thank you for the suggestions! Definitely worth checking, maybe they'll have me back in the next days to verify on the elevator.

Could the gearbox support mount also be misplaced maybe?

It would be useful if you could describe the noise...

If it's a light scraping noise, then it's very likely to be the brake dust shield on the inside of the disc.

It's a big disc of sheet steel and can get bent slightly during a clutch replacement (or even when changing the brake pads). When the wheel turns, there's probably enough float in there to make the shield touch the disc, which makes it scrape. It'll be more likely to get distorted and it will move more if it's old and rusty, since they become less rigid with age.

If it was me, to remove the driveshaft I'd pull the inner CV spider out of the CV cup, rather than remove the cup from the transmission casing, and it's very difficult to re-assemble this wrong. They would have put more grease in there, since it all falls out doing it this way.. but if there was a problem in the assembly you would hear it grumbling all the time, not just turning right. The outer CV and the wheel bearing don't get touched.. but I presume/hope they tightened up the hub nut. If it starts knocking/hammering, don't drive it anywhere.

They really would not need to touch the exhaust to get the gearbox out.. so they're either being dumb or lazy (or both). If the noise is a rattle, it could be one of the exhaust heat shields (cat' shield is a good place to start looking). This may have been knocked or bent during the work, so it's vibrating against the exhaust... but I struggle to understand how they could have managed that, if it's this.


Ralf S.

Thank you for replying, Ralf!

I should take my wife's car for another ride today, check again on symptoms to be able to describe better.

Ralf S. said:

but if there was a problem in the assembly you would hear it grumbling all the time, not just turning right.

Click to expand...

This gives me a great relief, thanks!

They completely removed the drive shaft from both wheel hub and CV ... I'm saying "they" because because 3 people worked on this job (started by one mechanic, finished by another, idea which I don't like at all).
I hope too they tightened the hub nut... same for the nuts holding the wheel to the hub (they only used the impact gun when tightening them, whereas I would have expected to use a torque wrench at the end). I will stop the car for sure if the noise gets louder.

I presume they didn't touch the exhaust, they would have seen the split catalytic converter before I had them check it specifically. I will have a look around the exhaust heat shield as soon as I get a chance. Well, to be honest, I bought this car in such a bad shape that this noise may have been covered by other ones until recently, when I did significant repairs on the car.

I will keep everyone posted here, I'm currently also looking to buy a used catalytic converter and replace existing one. I hope the problem is around the exhaust area.

Thank you!

Catalytic converter wasn't split as it turned out. Heat shield was also checked and is in place.

Noise seems to be rather related to quick accelerations from standstill (turning the wheel may only increase vibration, but not cause it by itself). I'm currently suspecting engine mounts, brake disc shields and anti-roll bar drop links.

Going by my current problem I am having I would say it’s likely the wheel bearing.

Thank you, typecastboy! The mechanic previously told me the bearings don't cause any noise for me, that however was before ruling out the catalytic converted which he accused. I'm putting wheel bearing back on the "suspects list". Will try ways to diagnose while driving.

if you want to diagnose a wheel bearing noise (not while driving) don't rely on your ears....jack up the car, spin the wheel as fast as you can, now lightly rest a finger on your coil spring...you will instantly feel a different vibration from rest and spin' (if u see what i mean)
cheers yann

Thanks for the advice, yann! Will try this the earliest I can.