Irish Mini Owners Club

hi all

im gettin a kind of intermittent grid noise from the driver side front when i drive in a straight line. when i turn left or right the noise dissappears. any ideas driveshaft/cv joint?

she's an 998 auto 1989, i was looking through a couple of sites tryna get prices on a driveshaft for an auto and i can't seem to find much.

cheers, thanks

ciaran

CHECK THE BUSHINS ON THE TOP ENGINE STEADY BRACKET . ON
DRIVERS SIDE OF ENGINE ( FROM ENGINE TO BULKHEAD .

wheel barings??

The drive shaft itself is only a metal rod, the only thing that can go on them is the splines on either end where they connect into the CV joints. It is rare for them to give problems. Just for future reference, the drive shafts for auto Minis and manual Minis are the same, but there are two sizes of drive shaft, a smaller diameter one for drum braked cars and a larger one for disc braked cars.

If it is a grinding noise then I would suspect a bearing, either the wheel bearing in the hub or the diff bearing in the gearbox, but I would be leaning more towards the wheel bearing.

Jack up the front wheel and see if you can recreate the noise by spinning the wheel.

cheers

il get crackin