Hey guys, I don't often post but I tend to lurk. Big fan of looking for my answer before posting actually!

That said, all of the answers I've seen, haven't truely been able to fit whats happening.. :S

THE PROBLEM :
Upon turning a heavy right turn, I started to hear a clicking or ticking sound. Which I believe MAY be related to wheel speed. Not sure.
It appears to be coming from the front left side (Maybe right?) But I'm fairly sure its not from the rear (which people with diff problems say)
Anyway, its been getting louder of recent, and becoming much of a concern. I'm starting to notice it when taking round abouts and the amount of steer needed to produce this sound is getting less and less! :S
It only seems to happen on right hand turns. I haven't noticed it on left hand turns (yet :S)

Anyway, about the diff.... It could be, although I'm not sure, as a mechanic I took it to in its early days (6 months ago) said he found "Bearing Material" in the diff fluid.
That said, I've had no noticable issue ever. (until now?)

Its a MY00 AP1 Right Hand Drive

I am willing to attempt mechanical repairs myself, as the dealers\mechanics down here are all dodgy and will charge an arm and a leg to just have a look at it.. =\

Any help would be greatly appriciated! Thanks in advance!

 

The clicking sounds like it could be your CV joints going bad.

 

I was under the impression that rwd cars didn't have CV joints on the front? Well, that's what I was told lol.
Anyway, that would be more regular, every corner, yea?
This, after testing it for the last couple of days seems to be very irregular ! :S doesn't matter if the car is hot or Cold, it does it almost randomly.. All I've worked out is that when the front left has added weight on it, it happens. Like going down a Hill and turning will produce the sound, but not uphill. Or under weight transfer from a roundabout.

Thank you so much for your reply though! (Just trying to paint a more detailed picture)
Is there anyway I could check to confirm it is or isnt them?
Thank you very much in advance!

 

you would be correct to think that our cars DO NOT have axles in the front. I would check into replacing the wheel bearing to be honest. I wouldn't know how bad it is for you(non-mechanic) to be able to check. but lift the front off the ground and grab the top and bottom of the wheel and push and pull alternating between your upper hand and lower hand in a rocking motion and feel for any "play" like a clunking feeling. and if you realy want to challenge yourself try spinning the wheel and grabbing the spring and see if you can feel any "roughness" or "vibration" in the spring created by the wheel spinning. may be hard to tell with untrained hands for both tests.

 

The wheel bearing seems to be a very reasonable guess. I wouldn't be surprised if a bad front left wheel bearing making noise is more noticeable with right hand turns because the weight transfer will put more on the outside.

If it's a bad wheel bearing, the sound will likely get worse over time until it is very obvious (i.e. jack up the front end and spin the wheel by hand; it will make noise).

 

whoops. I should have read more carefully. I didn't realize it was coming from the front. Good luck! Hope you figure it out.

 

I've heard of other members replacing the CV nuts and torqueing them down to correct specs alleviated this problem. Are you lowered? Do you have driveshaft spacers?

 

UPDATE!

I tried out VPS_AP1's and dwight's method of testing the wheel bearing. I pushed, pulled and rotated BOTH front wheels to no results. Both felt the same and there was no irregular noise or vibration.

My S has aftermarket rear shocks as the stockies went bust, roughly the same height, no other mods than that.
The noise appeared well after they were installed though

I thought maybe I was misplacing the sound, I did the same tests on the rear but nothing.
While I had both rears up in the air, I went to test the diff.
We've got Torsen type 2 differentials yea? So the standard LSD test shouldn't work should it? (where you spin one wheel and the other spins the opposite direction)

How DO you test these diff's to see if they are still working?

Yea,forum searching "differential test" did nothing haha

Any other ideas?
The noise sounds like a standing fan that you are stopping from rotating. That's seriously the best way to put it haha, that repetitive click :S

Thank you all for your help!

 

i have a thread up about the LSD and rear noise on slow turns and parking. currently conclusion is that the LSD is sticky and should be good.

 

Hey guys, for those that are interested . . .
Once again thank you for all of your input and opinions they are much appreciated!
But after researching for hours and hours, I can't pin-point the problem. No other video or description seems to show my problem fully. Its more than likely a whole range of things! Haha, I hope not.
I'll be taking the S to a mechanic later on this week, fingers crossed!

Anyway, I'll post what the problem ends up being as soon as I find out
I hope that this can help someone else eventually =\


I've read up on sticking diff's and it just doesn't sound like the problem. It seems to be getting louder and\or worse!
I will definately be suggesting this to the mechanic though,thanks!