My wife's Clubman Estate makes an odd and intermittent sound which sounds like it's coming from the front right driveshaft. It sounds just like loose tappets, but it's driveline and not engine elated as it varies with road speed and not engine speed.

My mechanic could see anything that looked like it was catching, and I can see anything obvious but not really my area of expertise.

Could it be the pot joint? It doesn't feel like the CV @ the hub as it doesn't click when you turn; it does it in a straight line. Sometimes it makes no noise, and sometimes it sounds just like tappets.

Where should I investigate?

A possibility is this,

My first mini tore the body away where the left engine steady attached, this caused an unusual clicky noise from the left inner pot joint.
Mostly noticable when accalerating, no change when steering.

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Dean Hutton's first car was a Mini.

when i snapped from cone/trumpet and the car lowered, it put extra stress on the inner pot joints, this then made a clicky noise, but it did sound like it was low in the car and my initial thought was diff problem.

how old are the rubber donuts on the trumpets, they could be compressed, my old ones when removed were about an inch shorter than the replacements.

soon as i replaced both trumpets and donuts on both sides the noise went away. (thanks to fredznuts&co and justfangin)

Other than that could be a CV joint that is lacking grease/moly, after a time the grease loses its liquidity and turns clay like, might be worth taking the CV boot off and checking what its like inside.

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Aussie Leyland, Aussie Factory, Aussie Mini S.

I've put two brand new CVs on my driver's side drive shaft in the last two years. The first started clicking under acceleration and braking in a straight line, and then slightly when cornering also. After I replaced it the noise went away, but now the one I replaced it with is starting to do it as well. Both were sourced from MiniSpares UK.

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Simon

The adventures of an owner builder in the Tallarook Ranges

Thanks the the replies. It's now not doing it, so it may have had something to do with not being used as much. It's my wife's daily driver and she's been using the Volvo wagon instead but she's much keener on her mini.

I'm planning on fitting a Smootharide kit, so will have a much closer look while I'm doing that. I strongly suspect it's something to do with the inner pot joint.