when i'm driving, especially at low speeds, i hear a clicking sound coming from the front driver's side wheel. the sound becomes faster as i go faster and vice versa. does this have to do with the alignment?

 

Its gotta be the brake pads clicking around loose in the Iron calipers. They are notorious for this. Lots of stop squeak goo on the back side if the pads and make sure the "ear tabs" are bent and secured properly after install. See an owners service manual if you need a visual reference.

Does the noise stop when you are pressing the brakes? If so then thats the culprit.

 

No. Alignments have to do with tire wear. Sounds like maybe a worn wheel bearing, or (this may sound stupid but I've had customers come in about it) maybe even a rock or nail stuck in the tread.

 

I once left my lug nut key inside where my center cap is that made a clicking noise as well, could also be a screw or something of the sort stuck in your tire.

Dave

 

i checked my tire out today, no foreign objects. any other theories?

 

you dont have those brake dust covers, do you? i used to have some (not like im showing off my big brakes, and man they kept the front wheels clean), and they got a ltitle bent so it would barely contact the caliper on one side.

 

i listened closely today on the way to school. it sometimes makes a clicking sound when stopping hard. and when i pulled into my parking spot, every time i let off the brakes it made a squeeking sound (tho i think that's just because of brake dust, i haven't sprayed my rotors in a while). what do you guys think?

 

I still say its the brake pads loose in the calipers.

You are going to have to pull the wheel off to check this (with a GTA you must have the mess wheels and can't reach through them). The outside pad will wobble if it is loose, thus you could take your hand and jiggle it briskly and simulate the clicking noise.
You will see the "ear tabs" at the top of the pad where they meet the caliper (90* bends over caliper) USe some stop sqeak goo under those tabs, then with a large channel lock wrench- squeeze those tabs flat against the caliper (squishing the goo underneath) rattle and click will be gone.

 

it's worth a shot. i'll check it out when i get home after school. thanks guys

 

Ok, so resurrecting this old thread... I have this same issue which has been getting progressively worse now for the last month or so... Just like the previous posts here I am getting a clicking noise which varies with speed. It sounds like its coming from both of the front wheels... Not unlike baseball cards stuck in between bicycle wheels. The sound is present at all speeds but more noticeable when traveling slow, probably just because there’s less road noise... I did a thorough inspection of the tire, wheel, caliper, and rotor area and could not see anything that might be hitting or rubbing to make that clicking noise and tried spinning the wheel with the car jacked up and could not reproduce the noise...

The search function is still not working so I cannot be 100% sure this hasn't been covered before but I read through as much of the forum as I could and it looks like there’s been three possibilities outlined for this problem... 1) Something stuck in the tires, 2) Brake shoes loose in the calipers, and 3) Wheel bearings. So I jacked up the car and replaced the wheel bearings (Inner and Outer) and raceways, put the hubs back together, and replaced the brake pads, ensuring that the tabs were bent and they were held tight inside the calipers, and did an inspection of the tires to be sure there was nothing stuck in them... After all this I put the car back on the road and the clicking is not only still there but possibly even louder!! If any one has any ideas about what might be going on I'm definitely open to checking things out. I can't think of anything else this might be and need help . Thanks!

 

I used to have a problem like that. It turned out that my rims were cracked. I was running Weld Superlites. The problem with all of the light weight rims is that they will not hold up to any sort of aggressive cornering. Even street tires will crack them eventually.

They were cracking near the center, so they didn't lose air. The cracks were in the aluminum that makes up the front and rear sides of the rim, just outside (diameter) of the center section. If you draw a circle on the rim at the point outside the lug nut holes where it gets thinner, that is where they were cracking. They were small hair line cracks and you really couldn't tell with out a VERY cloose inspection.

When I tossed the rims in the dumpster my clicking noise went with them.

 

Wow, I never thought that could happen.. do all of these aluminum wheels do this? I will check out my wheels tomorrow in the light. Is this something I would be able to see on the inside of the wheel, looking near to the lug nuts? or would I actually need the tire off to see the cracks?

I am running a set of Eagle Alloys Series 203 17X8s http://www.aewheel.com/eagle_alloy_wheels.cfm?id=8 which have maybe 25,000 miles on them. The tires are high performance Eagle F1 GS D3s so they definitely put alot of stress on the wheel during corning. I'm a little unsure how this would make the clicking noise though.. just stress on the wheel I guess?