Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Evening all,

driving home tonight I was sure that I could hear a faint but persistant squeaking coming from (I think) the rear of the car. It seems to be constant at all speeds, and not dependant on braking, accelerating or changing gear... It's quite high pitched and sounds to all the world like a "squeaky wheel", but I haven't the foggiest what it might be...

any ideas? It's really annoying...

Rob
Check the glovebox,could be a mouse?

John

I'll guess anything from a bolt beginning to loosen on a rotoflex, to a wheel bearing going bad, or brake pad, or e-brake pad dragging. Does it go away if you slightly depress the brake pedal while traveling at speed or pull the emergency brake a notch or two? Does it vary if you move the steering wheel at speed, mildly veering the car?

Yes, I had that happen to me. The squeek persisted for a few days.

Then one morning on the way to work, in the fast lane at 75, the right rear wheel came off and rolled up ahead of me on the freeway.

There is a stress riser on the axle shaft. Many years of use, corrosion, etc, can finally cause a tiny stress crack that eventually propagates enough to cause failure.

The good news was that I got across four lanes of traffic and got the car stopped on three wheels, with no damage to the rear upright, or, amazingly, to the fiberglass - and I was running 185/60 tires so the clearance was non-existent. The wheel was lying a short distance away. I retrieved it, called auto club, and got to work only a little late.

David
1968 36/7988

David,

You should have posted that in the near miss thread

Steve,

I didn't realize there was a near miss thread. And I didn't really have time to think of it as a near miss!

But I had a similar experience in my MK II Jaguar. I had to brake suddenly in the fast lane, and the right front wheel came off (I guess with wear the spinner can back off). The wheel went up the freeway to the right, and I gingerly slowed down in the left hand run off area and got the car stopped with no damage. Amazingly, a huge gap appeared in the traffic, I ran across four lanes of freeway, retrieved the wheel (and the spinner!), called auto club, put the wheel back on and gingerly drove home.

David
1968 36/7988

...You could call yourself David "wheel off" .*

Anna

I had a similar squeak that I was having trouble finding. I thought it was the wheel bearing, so disassembled the left rear side of the car. Even dropped the Diff to check those bearings. Bearings were all fine, but discovered that the hub was not seating properly onto the shaft. A very small amount of flexing coupled with a mil extra play caused the squeak. Luckily the hub nut didn't work it's way loose. I followed the procedure in Dave Bean's parts catalogue and all was well.
Good luck
Paul
65 S2

Do the usual checks for loose bolts as mentioned above but it might be worth getting some rubber and nylon lubricant spray from Halfords - in a yellow can usually near the penetrating fluid/spray grease etc and squirting it round the suspension bushes maybe doing a side at a time.

After spraying if the noise goes away then you have a bush that is not being clamped properly.