Clicking sound from a wheel at low speed

A steady click once per wheel revolution, in a straight line, is almost always something stuck in the tread: a stone wedged between the blocks, or a screw head tapping the road. A click that appears only when you turn, and gets louder the tighter the turn, is usually a worn CV joint, which is a mechanic's job and not ours.

You can tell which you have in the length of a parking lot.

The parking lot test

Wind the window down. Drive at walking pace with no radio.

In a straight line. A regular tick, tick, tick that speeds up with the car and keeps time with the wheels is a tread problem. Something hard is hitting the road once per revolution.

Now turn to full lock and drive a slow circle, then the other way. A rhythmic clicking or knocking that appears or gets sharply louder on full lock, usually on the outside wheel of the turn, is the classic worn constant velocity joint on a front-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive car. Driveline manufacturers list knocking and clicking that appears with a change in direction or load as a joint symptom rather than a tire one.

If the noise is unchanged in the turns, go to the tread inspection. If it appears or worsens in turns, read the CV joint section.

Finding what is in the tread

Park on a flat surface, engine off, parking brake on. Roll the car forward a foot at a time, or turn to full lock so you can see the whole tread face, and go round the circumference of the suspect tire. If you cannot tell which tire it is, chalk a mark across the tread of the one you suspect and count wheel revolutions against the clicks.

What you may find:

A stone. Wedged in a groove. The commonest answer and the cheapest. Lever it out with a flat screwdriver or the corner of a key. Harmless once gone.

A screw or a nail head. Sitting proud enough to tap the road. Leave it where it is. While it is in place it partly plugs the hole, so the tire often keeps enough pressure to stay on the rim, and removing it tells you nothing because the decision is made on the inside. Nail in a tire: can it be repaired sets out the rules. A piece of embedded metal or glass gets the same advice.

Nothing at all. Check the other side of the car and the rear wheels. Sound carries oddly inside a car.

When it is a CV joint, and why we cannot help

A constant velocity joint is the coupling at the end of a driveshaft that lets the wheel steer and move up and down while still being driven. It is packed with grease and sealed in a rubber boot. When the boot splits, grit gets in, grease gets out, and the joint wears. The wear shows under the load of a turn, because that is the angle at which the worn parts are loaded hardest.

Look at the inside of the front wheels for grease thrown in a ring across the underside of the car, and for a split or collapsed boot. That confirms it.

A split boot caught early is a much smaller repair than a joint run dry. We do not do driveshafts, joints, bearings, brakes or alignment. If this is what you have, we cannot sell you anything useful and we would rather say so.

Other things that click, none of them a tire

• A loose wheel nut, or a wheel not torqued properly. A click or light knock after recent wheel work. This one is genuinely urgent. Stop and check the nuts are tight.
• A hubcap or trim ring not seated. Clicks or rattles, then pops off on the highway. Push it home.
• A stone trapped between the brake dust shield and the disc. Usually a scrape rather than a click, and it often clears itself. A mechanic bends the shield clear in a minute.
• A brake wear indicator. More of a squeal, and it means the pads need attention. A mechanic.
• A wheel bearing. Usually a hum or growl, and it changes when you swerve gently. Humming or roaring that changes with speed has the test.

If it turns out to be a puncture

We come to the car at home or at work, take the wheel off, break the tire down, and inspect the inner liner. The US Tire Manufacturers Association rules decide it: tread area only, no larger than a quarter of an inch, tire off the wheel for inspection, and a plug and a patch together rather than a plug alone. If it passes we repair it; if not we supply and fit a replacement. Repair versus replace a tire explains the decision.

Questions people ask

• What causes a clicking noise from a wheel at low speed? Usually an object in the tread, most often a stone or a screw head tapping the road once per wheel revolution. Clicking that only appears when turning is usually a CV joint instead.
• How do I tell a tire click from a CV joint click? Drive a slow circle at full lock in both directions. A CV joint clicks loudly in the turn, particularly on the outside wheel. A tread object clicks the same in a straight line and in a turn.
• Should I pull a screw out of my tire? No. Leave it in and book an inspection. The screw is partly sealing the hole, and repairability is decided from the inside after the tire comes off the wheel.
• Is a stone in the tread a problem? Usually not. Lever it out with a screwdriver. A stone left a long time can wear the groove, but it does not normally damage the tire.
• Can you fix a CV joint? No. We supply and fit tires and do mobile puncture repair. Driveshafts, joints, bearings and brakes need a mechanic, and a split CV boot is cheaper to fix early.
• Could a clicking noise mean loose wheel nuts? Yes, particularly soon after any work that involved taking a wheel off. Check they are tight straight away, because that one is genuinely dangerous.