My 09 MCS recently started to develop a clicking type noise when I make left hand turns at slow and highway speed. If I turn the wheel about 10-20 degrees and hold it I can hear the noise come from the drivers side of the car. The car currently only has 13k miles on it so I am kind of dumbfounded as what it could be.

My only guess is possibly a bad axle?

 

Is the tire rubbing on the wheel liner? It also could be a bad wheel bearing. When the front axles went bad on my 01 325xi they would click when turning or make a high pitch whining noise at highway speeds.

 

stock wheels and same size tires as stock so no rubbing. True that it could also be a wheel bearing. Hard to believe either could be a possibility at only 13k miles

 

I was thinking wheel liner if it came unfastened to the car. Is the car still under warranty?

 

its a metal clicking sound. I called my local mini dealers service department to see if it is but I had to leave a message. I bought the car used but bought a warranty for it but hopefully its still under the factory one so I dont have to pay anything.

 

I bet it's either the wheel bearing or the axle shaft. The boots tear so dirt gets into the joint which siezes it.

 

This happened on our Toyota Camry when it was less than 1 year old. Had only 6k miles on the car ...we had to replace it at OUR expense. I was so pissed! -cost us about $750 or $800 from what I remember. Toyota's reasoning was that we didn't rotate the tires at 5k miles!!! -we only went over by 1k miles.. that was such BS.
Anyway, that car caused us a lot of headache ..and fortunately we no longer own it.

Hopefully MINI will treat that as an under warranty item.

 

Failed axles are not due to not rotating tires. That is so lame. I do not get why people buy Toyotas because of stories like yours eR1c.

 

With only 13k miles I really would like to doubt the wheel bearings are bad. My only experience with a failed wheel bearing is a constant grinding noise.

With only 40k on my clock I had a clicking during left hand turns. First things first, check the torque specs on the lugs. Mine where off by almost 15 ft-lbs each.

Have them re-torqued to 103 ft-lbs. Solved my problem. Eliminate the easy stuff.

 

Well I literally feel extremely dumb. I took the car last week to get new tires put on and apparently the shop I took the car to didnt torque them down properly. I came home and took off my lug nut cover and 3 of the studs I could turn with my hand for multiple turns. really scary that only one of the studs was at least hand tight. I should have checked them my self after i got the car back but I have been quite busy this week. thanks for the help guys.

 

Wayne, Don't feel dumb!! Most of us have made that mistake. On my 325xi the front passenger wheel had all 5 lug bolts were loose to the point the wheel could have fallen off.

 

Isn't 103 ft-lbs a little over kill? I thought somewhere between 80 and 90 ft-lbs was safe? Over tightening can cause studs to break off..

Wait, that reminds me - maybe you don't have studs!

Sorry, I didn't chime in for fun... I have the clicking sound too but I was thinking it was the end link.

 

No wheel studs on MINIs...

 

I think the manual says wheel torque is something like 103.3 ft/lb?