Our 1994 75SX has started making a ticking noise from the offside rear wheel. This is at wheel rotation speed but only happens when there is load in the back of the car. One or two up no problem, but if I have a passenger in the back the noise starts. I've also noticed that it lessens on right handers. I can't figure how a road speed related noise is dependent on how far the suspension is compressed. Any ideas where I should start looking?

could be a nail in the side of the tyre.

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I've checked for nails - It's not that.

dont know if this is any use to you and dont want to scare you but lol

on my dads last car, wich wasnt a fiat i admit it was a old datsun stanza, anyways started getting a ticking noise from rear wheel justa constant tick when going down roads from driver side rear. we stripped door out and remvoed all pannels as thought sumthing had fell in panel and was rattling, anyway couldnt find anything soo just put up woith noise. but 2 weeks later on wat hom from holiday i was driving it and when we went round left hander making car suspension work hard on driver side. the rear suspension collapsed. turned out it was the cup that the coil spring sits in had given way. wich resulted in teh spring coming down and resting on the tyre wich isnt good. when this was fixed the ticking disapeared so must of been sumthing to do with that. anyway dont want to scare you as your problem may be sumthing less disastrous but just hought i would say.

May be the wheel bearing. I had this problem on the front wheel of a vauxhall astra once. Going round a right hander transfers weight off the offside wheel so the ticking stops. Does a left hander make it worse as more weight goes onto the affected wheel?

Punto Paul

Puntopaul, Yes it is worse on lefthanders which also makes me think wheel bearing but what puzzles me is why it doesn't make a noise unless there is a load in the back to compress the rear suspension. Anyway, weather permitting I'll have a look at it this weekend and report what I find.

I should have taken the wheel off and looked more carefully the last time. It was indeed a nail. It was 3" job that had gone in parallel to the tread and hadn't punctured it amazingly. The part that was showing was deep between the tread blocks and must only have been contacting the road when the tyre was squashed enough, hence the load dependent nature of the noise.
I had a look at the wheels and brakes all round and found something even more alarming. One of the nearside front pads had been incorrectly fitted with one edge sitting on top of the carrier. The piston acting on the pad had bent it by about 1/4 of an inch and the braking material was beginning to seperate from the backing.[:0]
A new set of pads was bought immediately. I've never trusted anyone else to work on my vehicles and this just goes to prove , if you want to be sure that something is done right - do it youself.