Any ideas?

[Gareth]

Hi All,
Any ideas what this noise could be on the Roadster? It only happens occasionally but when it does, it is always after I take my foot off the throttle, not straight away, and always as I take a slight right hand bend in the road and doing 30 to 50 ish.
The best way I can describe it is the kind of noise you'd get when running over an already flattened coke can lying in the road, or the sort of noise you'd get from quickly shorting out the terminals on the battery with a screw driver. It's that quick, might do it once or twice, and not happen again.
The car doesn't falter in any way, no misfire, there's no smell of burning, and I had someone following to see if they could detect anything.
Can't see anything shorting, wheel bearings feel ok, and the noise appears to come from under the offside of the car.
The alternator is on that side, but seems ok.
It happened again, yesterday, on the way back from Anglesey, coming down a hill into the town, I took my foot off, no braking, very slight bend to the right doing about 40, and did it twice.
Any thoughts???
Gareth.

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Any ideas?

Check the tie bar bushes? Starter motor wire shorting? just having a guess here.

[stephenlilley]

Re: Any ideas?

Had a similar thing on a different car which turned out to be a loose engine mounting. A bit like a metallic short clicking sound. Worth a look.

[lil_red_roadster]

Re: Any ideas?

As already advised, check all suspension mounts & bushes and the tightness of all relevant nuts & bolts.
Just out of interest do you have a B series & engine-driven fan..?
If so the blades should have been trimmed to clear the steering rack mounts - if you don't trim them far enough then when decelerating (i.e. the engine moves forward) they contact the rack bolts & make just that sort of transient noise.
If they weren't previously an issue but are now it suggests the engine mounting rubbers (and/or the gearbox mount) may be on the way out.

[jimbounden]

Re: Any ideas?

Check the alternator cooling fins aren't touching the steering u/j (and/or pinch bolt) when the engine cants over.

[Gareth]

Re: Any ideas?

Thanks guys for some good ideas! Will check all of above and report back. Gareth.

[b_caswell]

Re: Any ideas?

Check the leaf springs in the middle between the u bolts. If the spring has cracked it will creak under unloading. Mine parted company when I reversed up a bit quick.

[Gareth]

Re: Any ideas?

Thanks Ben. Hadn't checked for that one.