tick-tick noise: what could it be?
 

Have recently been getting a metallic tick sound from the driver's side of my car.
Mainly occurs when decellerating (not braking) and sometimes when hitting a bump/dip in the road.

I have listened and it seems to be coming from the front of the car.
Have taken the wheel off and nothing appears to be loose or rattles.
There are no visual signs of leaks or anything out of place.
underbonet shows no loose bolts at top of strut tower etc.

The car has covered 135000kms with whitline 30mm lowered springs and original factory shocks all-round. Whiteline ALK with F+R swaybars and poly bushes.

We drove to RallySchool in Bakers Hill last Sunday and 10kms was on unsealed road (it ticked before this) and the noise has NOT got any worse since. If there was a road that a failing part would come unstuck, then this would have been it.

suggestions?

Cheers in advance

Toni

I had a similar creak when going over bumps, and deccelerating;
it turned out that the sway bar bushes needed grease.

You havent managed to get a rock or screw stuck in a tyre?

Had a similar thing in an old car & it was a small rock stuck near the brakes.

Check the backing plate behind the disc hasn't been slightly bent, might be worth sticking a screwdriver between it & the disc & levering it back a fraction.

how do you know about that Tom ( ? )

similar problem here too.. initially thought it was something to do with the coilovers, checked and everything in there was fine, still havent figured out whats causing the ticking on deceleration...very annoying..

I have checked over all mentioned options above.

Did put some grease around the bushes to the sway bars.
I still have the sound.
Do I need to loosen them off to get the grease in there?
If so, how?
and will this throw any of the alignments out?

You will need to drop the bushes to get grease in properly
it will not effect alignment
just undo the bush clamp bolts
remove the clamp
the bush is split and will pull off
grease it and reinstall
use a really sticky grease

greased the bushes front and rear. looks {or should that be sounds} to have fixed the problem.

taking the car out all day tomorrow so will report back on how it goes.

cheers for the help guys.