Golf clacking sound - axle issue?

[dl8860]

Was driving my 03 Golf home from work tonight and started to hear a bit of a strange noise as I was going along. Stopped and got out to have a listen, but couldn't hear anything with the car stationary but engine going. Continued driving and the noise persisted, and it became clear the sound - something between a clacking and thudding sound - was happening with each rotation of the wheels. A fast thrum at higher speeds and a worse, getting close to a grindy noise at very low speeds.

Naturally this is very concerning, and would I have had a chance to end my journey earlier I would have done, but I was in a rush to get home and there were no points along the way to stop and get alternative transport. Worryingly, the closer I got to home, the worse the noise seemed to get, to the point where I could basically feel it through the footwell.

A little about the car, 13 years old, 75k miles 1.6 petrol. Last service was December last year, less than two months ago, and no mention made of anything related to this.

The car does have a slight issue with one of the cylinders having a valve not sat properly, which means the engine rumbles a little when idling or at low revs and the check engine light flashes constantly. The guy who did the service said I was looking at £1k+ to fix that, which is pretty much the value of the car at this point, and it would run OK enough as it was, so I left it. So I'm fairly happy to discount that as having any cause of the current problem unless obvious to anyone otherwise?

So just wondering if anyone has any thoughts what it could be. A google suggests possibility of a pebble or small stone stuck in the brake caliper, but would I rule that out based on the fact that it got worse the further I drove?

 

[Orionaut]

Was driving my 03 Golf home from work tonight and started to hear a bit of a strange noise as I was going along. Stopped and got out to have a listen, but couldn't hear anything with the car stationary but engine going. Continued driving and the noise persisted, and it became clear the sound - something between a clacking and thudding sound - was happening with each rotation of the wheels. A fast thrum at higher speeds and a worse, getting close to a grindy noise at very low speeds.

Naturally this is very concerning, and would I have had a chance to end my journey earlier I would have done, but I was in a rush to get home and there were no points along the way to stop and get alternative transport. Worryingly, the closer I got to home, the worse the noise seemed to get, to the point where I could basically feel it through the footwell.

A little about the car, 13 years old, 75k miles 1.6 petrol. Last service was December last year, less than two months ago, and no mention made of anything related to this.

The car does have a slight issue with one of the cylinders having a valve not sat properly, which means the engine rumbles a little when idling or at low revs and the check engine light flashes constantly. The guy who did the service said I was looking at £1k+ to fix that, which is pretty much the value of the car at this point, and it would run OK enough as it was, so I left it. So I'm fairly happy to discount that as having any cause of the current problem unless obvious to anyone otherwise?

So just wondering if anyone has any thoughts what it could be. A google suggests possibility of a pebble or small stone stuck in the brake caliper, but would I rule that out based on the fact that it got worse the further I drove?

Possible outer CV joint.

Likely (but not guaranteed) to be the "outer" one when you make a corner, say, on a roundabout.

(IE If you make RIGHT turn and it is noisy, then it is the LEFT CV joint and vice versa)

But this is just an opinion based on a limited description posted on the web. but from your description it would seem unlikely to be engine related.

Noises can actually be very difficult to tie down in practice. You need to find a mechanic who has a good instinct for this sort of thing, and even then do not expect him to necessarily get it right first time.!

(I have been doing this for over 30 years and transmission noises on "Driven" wheels generally are not easy to reliably diagnose without disassembly, often one just has to take a guess and hope it is right!)

 

[dl8860]

I also had a very minor collision recently where I was hit on the driver side rear, around the wheel arch. Very minimal cosmetic damage, but could this be causing the new problem? That was probably 3 weeks ago so I've driven about 500 miles since.

Also the sound is just as bad if not worse in a straight line than turning corners, would that rule out the CV joint you mentioned above?