[Resolved] Help diagnosing a clicking/pinging noise

[tuxbailey]

Jump to Solution: http://forums.thepaceline.net/showpost.php?p=1106216&postcount=35

My bike has developed some kind of clicking noise that is driving me nuts. Just want to get some opinions before taking everything apart.

Symptoms:

- Clicking, pinging noise when additional torque is applied such starting from stop, going uphill. If I climb out of saddle the bike will make a cricket of noise, truly annoying. Coasting yields no noise, uphill or downhill.

- Noise occasionally happens on the flat but for the most time the bike is smooth.

- A little instability when going downhill at speed. But it has been in situation with crosswind so it is not as big a concern, yet.


Fearing that the frame has cracked, I put the bike in a stand, took the wheels, and chain off and clean the bike. I have not found any visible indication that the frame has cracked.

Could the BB be toasted? It seems to spin fine. But my next step is to take the BB out and replace with a new one.

[AgilisMerlin]

a thought.

drop fork and grease bearings, cups, et. al


my axis bianchi , had a wafer thin washer below top bearing where it rested against frame. no grease equaled popping/clicking when climbing, and on the flats when handlebars got the dork torque.

the scott, my friends, which i looked at last week, made that horrible bottom bracket clicking noise last year during group rides. Find out it was his frame and a creeper crack.

good luck

[eddief]

if threadless, too much slop in the headset. wheel magnet hitting sensor. loose nut behind the wheel :). so many research opportunities.

i vote for loose spokes.

[AngryScientist]

Can you swap different wheels to isolate the problem? What bb are we talking about?

[tuxbailey]

if threadless, too much slop in the headset. wheel magnet hitting sensor. loose nut behind the wheel :). so many research opportunities.

i vote for loose spokes.

I eliminated the sensor as cause. I will check the chain ring bolts. I think I checked the spokes already but I will check it again.

If it is too much slop in the HS, do I get a bigger spacer? I didn't have this problem before though. Should I just put grease on the bearing cup like Agilis suggested? It is a King HS.

[tuxbailey]

Can you swap different wheels to isolate the problem? What bb are we talking about?

Chorus square tapered.

[CNY rider]

What's your bike made of?
Personally this happens more on my Ti bikes.
The two most recent causes:
Bottom bracket cups not tight enough.
Creaking from skewer.

It always sounds like it's coming from the BB, even though it can be things like seatpost, skewers, FD clamp.

You'll find it.

[AgilisMerlin]

alum fork dropouts, alum. skewer, ride in wet - creak creak

[tuxbailey]

What's your bike made of?
Personally this happens more on my Ti bikes.
The two most recent causes:
Bottom bracket cups not tight enough.
Creaking from skewer.

It always sounds like it's coming from the BB, even though it can be things like seatpost, skewers, FD clamp.

You'll find it.

It is Ti. I don't think it is BB cups since it is a square tapered BB.

[farmallguy]

I had the same problem and it turned out to be creaking spoke heads at the hub on the rear wheel. It was a Mavic Ksyrium wheel if that helps. Just a litte lube on the heads and squeezed the spokes where they cross to work it in and wipe off excess. Swapping wheels would help to confirm this first.

Jack

[tuxbailey]

I had the same problem and it turned out to be creaking spoke heads at the hub on the rear wheel. It was a Mavic Ksyrium wheel if that helps. Just a litte lube on the heads and squeezed the spokes where they cross to work it in and wipe off excess. Swapping wheels would help to confirm this first.

Jack

Well, my wheels are indeed Mavic Ksyrium ES. Unfortunately I don't have another set of Campy wheels to try. So I will apply some lube and verify in my next ride.

[Peter P.]

Easy thing to test is to borrow a pair of wheels to swap out. That will eliminate a huge chunk of possibilities. It's worth the effort to find a generous, willing friend to assist you.

Report back after doing this.

[henry14]

I had some weird clicking sounds before and after regreasing the threads on my pedals, the clicking went away. Drove me crazy trying to isolate the sound. Thought it was the bottom bracket, stem, etc.

[biker72]

My clicking noises turned out to be a loose skewer on one occasion and a chainring bolt on another.

[Louis]

If it is too much slop in the HS, do I get a bigger spacer?

No.

On a threadless headset system you tighten things by loosening the stem-steerer clamp bolts, tighten the bolt in the top cap, then re-tighten the stem-steerer bolts. Be sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions and torque recommendations.

The Park Tool web site has lots of good info on how to do this sort of thing. The CK site also has info on how to install and/or adjust their headsets.

Good Luck

[martinrjensen]

Check handlebars to. This is easy enough to do. when it starts to click, just take all weight off the bars. try the same with the pedals also. I have had clicks in both those that I swore were in the bottom bracket. Once you assume something, it's so easy to convince yourself o something.

[Dan Le foot]

My clicking noises turned out to be a loose skewer .
+1
Sometimes its the easiest solution that works.
dan

[michael white]

kind of obvious, but for me the first things to do include check/tighten the cassette lockring, and remove both pedals and crank bolts, grease, replace.
Sometimes bikes creak when there's nothing wrong and a little grease makes an enormous difference.

also simple, but try using different wheels and/or pedals to help isolate the issue.

[tuxbailey]

Easy thing to test is to borrow a pair of wheels to swap out. That will eliminate a huge chunk of possibilities. It's worth the effort to find a generous, willing friend to assist you.

Report back after doing this.

Sigh, all my friends ride Shimano :o

[tuxbailey]

Thanks to all for the advice. I will go through them one by one. The answer probably won't be reveal for a few weeks unless I hit the jack pot in the first week.

I will keep you guys posted once I find the solution.

[dan682]

As others here have mentioned, I had a pinging noise when standing which turned out to be coming from the drive side spokes on my Neutron rear wheel. A drop of oil on each spoke where it crossed another spoke cured the noise.

[tribuddha]

this sounds like what I just went through..turns out my wheel was cracked in mutliple locations.. check your wheel or take it to the LBS and have them check it..good luck

[Bob Loblaw]

Guy Gadois went through this a while back. The cause ends up being the CO2 cartridge in his seat bag pinging against his multitool whenever the bike rocked.

Also try removing valve stem nuts.

BL

[oldpotatoe]

My bike has developed some kind of clicking noise that is driving me nuts. Just want to get some opinions before taking everything apart.

Symptoms:

- Clicking, pinging noise when additional torque is applied such starting from stop, going uphill. If I climb out of saddle the bike will make a cricket of noise, truly annoying. Coasting yields no noise, uphill or downhill.

- Noise occasionally happens on the flat but for the most time the bike is smooth.

- A little instability when going downhill at speed. But it has been in situation with crosswind so it is not as big a concern, yet.


Fearing that the frame has cracked, I put the bike in a stand, took the wheels, and chain off and clean the bike. I have not found any visible indication that the frame has cracked.

Could the BB be toasted? It seems to spin fine. But my next step is to take the BB out and replace with a new one.


These always interest me. We spend a lot of time chasing noises in the shop.

Not trying to be a smart ass bit 'hold the bike real close to the computer screen and make the noise', 'hold the bike real close to te phone and make the noise'......

Most of the noise we see are pedal cleat.
We have a procedure.

=Ride the bike w/o cycling shoes-still hear it?

-Swap pedals-ride the bike-still hear it?

-Swap rear wheel-still hear it?

-THEN maybe go to the BB.

Take the BB out, grease inside both cups(tap RH one off)..teflon tape and grease inside the BB shell.

BUT really tough w/o hearing it.

I had a noise, only heard it on cold rides...took the bike apart, completely apart, my bike. Rode it, noise gone(warm ride), HUZZA!..rode it on a cold morning, NOISE BACK!!!....***?

It was the zipper ticking back and forth on the vest I wore when it was cold so........

[tuxbailey]

Oh boy, this is going to be a long process.

I guess that is probably part of the fun :)

[cosmonaut]

I had a very similar problem, also with Ksyriums, and it took forever to diagnose. Someone advised that I grease the front skewer, I thought 'yeah, OK buddy', turned out to be correct.
Quick and cheap to see if that's the culprit. Best of luck.

[Louis]

A friend to help, rollers and a mechanic's stethoscope.

[rccardr]

My last one turned out to be a link in the chain that was just a teeny bit too tight, would slightly tension and then release the cage on the RD every time it went through. Couple of minutes with a chain tool solved it.

[tuxbailey]

I had a very similar problem, also with Ksyriums, and it took forever to diagnose. Someone advised that I grease the front skewer, I thought 'yeah, OK buddy', turned out to be correct.
Quick and cheap to see if that's the culprit. Best of luck.

Front skewer?! Come to think of it, when I remove the front wheel I did hear a "cling" sound. Maybe it is related.

Might as well grease the back one at the same time.

I am going to carry a bottle of chain lube with me and lubricate various parts as I ride

[Jaq]

First time I had noise like that, it turned out to be the spider on my old Topline cranks, which I'd cracked. Replaced the cranks.

The next (and last) time I heard popping was the rear derailleur/drive train wanting to drop into a smaller cog under high-torque situations, like coming off a light, sprinting, and climbing. Initially, that was cleaned up a little bit with a adjustment of the barrel-adjuster on the rear der. Ultimately, though, it required a rebuild of the right (rear) shifter (Campy 8-speeds), which was long overdue in any event.

[martinrjensen]

remember the first rule of troubleshooting is: do the easiest thing first. You got a lot of ideas here that are easy to do and can be done fairly quickly. I had a saddle click also. That's an easy one to check too ( stand up)

[MattTuck]

Can you swap different wheels to isolate the problem? What bb are we talking about?

Love it. You live up to your name.

Everyone should have an extra set of wheels, just to diagnose mysterious sounds... I'd try to swap wheels, take off seat post and saddle and see if you can replicate the sound.

After that, I'm not going to be helpful.

[fiataccompli]

only thing I haven't seen on the thread already is a front derailleur clamp (assuming you have on) tweaking with some flex at the BB. I gather that happens with Ti frames.

I have a similar annoying ping on my Merlin Atreus running Campy Record. I've checked spokes, re-torqued the BB & chainring bolts. One thing I noticed was the BB "cups" are both loose from the BB, which is not the way my other Record/Campy BBs are made...each time I have thrown a couple random ideas at fixing it (re-torquing with a torque wrench, various points of oiling), but not really scientifically (ie, try one thing at a time & start with the easiest ones) and it's time to do just that. I gather that Ti is much less forgiving in terms of *not* muting those otherwise minor sounds bikes make sometimes....and the only thing I hate more than listening to someone else's bike make noises is listening to my bike make noises!

[JLP]

tiny bit of grease on the dropouts

[tuxbailey]

Yippie Kai Yay!

At 11 PM, I finally resolved the problem. What a relief!

My initial hunch was correct. Sometimes when you think a clicking noise is from the BB, it actually is.

Before arriving to that conclusion I followed the ideas given in this this thread and some helpful PMs and worked from the easiest suggestions first:

- Lubricate the hub/spoke interface in my Ksyrium rear wheel (non-drive side.)
- Remove pedals, clean and apply fresh anti-seize
- Swap pedals with a set of platforms
- Lubricate the dropouts
- Check for loose spokes
- Check bottle cages
- Drop the fork and put new grease in upper and lower crown races
- Remove stem from steer tube as well as bar and tighten them with torque wrench
- Remove FD, clean the clamp and seat tube of sand, road grime, etc and re-install
- Remove cable guide under the BB shell to make sure no crack is there
- Check chain ring bolts' tightness

Finally, I took out the BB (Chorus, square tapered.) I was going to replace it with the Token one I bought a while back as a spare. But I have read that while it is a good quality one, the spindle is not quite ISO and the crank won't go as far in, thus altering the chain line a bit.

I check the Chorus BB and it looks like that it is still in very good shape so I cleaned the threads, clean the inside of the non-drive side cup and put new grease in, clean the BB shell and then apply new anti-seize on all the threads. Re-installed the BB and that solved the problem.

I was so happy that I almost wanted to scream like a kid in the neighborhood. For the last two weeks, after I attempt one fix I will go out and go down the hill on my street and climb back out of saddle. But I usually know as soon as I spin the crank the first time. Usually I am wearing jeans, or work clothes with a rolled up pant leg.

I think if anyone saw me tonight they would have laughed. Dark street, a middle age guy wearing regular gym shorts and T-Shirt, no lights, no helmet but wearing a pair of white road shoes with no socks riding around the neighborhood with a stupid grin on his face. For good measure I also did some sprints to double check.

I think what happened is that the BB has not been serviced since it was put together circa 2005 (Bike is 2005 model) and it has been through 2 owners before I got it in 2010. The anti-seize that was in the shell appeared to have hardened and a small piece might have fallen out and the noise won't happen until I tried to crank hard, thus making it bounce inside the shell and resonate through the frame. So the lesson learned is that I will take it apart every winter to refresh it.

Thanks everyone for helping out and giving me ideas. The process was very educational since so I don't have prior experience with some of the suggestions, specially with BB. I always had some apprehension with messing with harder items on my bike because to me a bike is simple but very precise machine. At least I am not afraid in taking the bike apart now.

Thanks!

[eddief]

up and down the block. up and down the block. eventually the gods intervene and the noise goes away. sometimes the gods are right here on the forum.

[sivat]

A friend of mine discovered the mystery creak was the derailleur clamp against the bottle cage. Moved the cage up a mm, the noise went away.

[ultraman6970]

I would advice you to put teflon tape in case you dont have anti seize compound, teflon tape is cheaper :p

[tuxbailey]

I would advice you to put teflon tape in case you dont have anti seize compound, teflon tape is cheaper :p

Anti-seize is one of my favorite compound every since I took a sledgehammer to knock the brake rotors off my car a few years ago. After that I make sure that I always have a tube of that stuff in my house.

[Peter P.]

I returned to your "clicking" post because I'm dealing with a clicking issue myself.

After all my diagnostics, I'd isolated it to my headset. I figured I'd pull it apart and regrease it-it's an old Shimano Deore LX with cartridge bearings; I just apply grease to the cartridges where they fit into the cups.

I go to pull it apart last night and the lower bearing is seized in the cup. While trying to pry it free, the cartridge separated and the tiny bearings went flying everywhere! But half the cartridge retainer is still seized in the cup, which I suspect is the cause of my clicking.

So I gotta get a new headset which is too bad because after at least 10 years this one still spins smooth despite the annoying click. Of course, I'll be pissing fire if after I replace it, the click is still there!