Hi all. I am new to the forums. My name is Lukas and i am from London.. I have joined this forum as i am experiencing issues with my Oct 2005 S40 1.6 SE D and i do hope i can find an answer here. I have a very strange ringing sound (could compare it to ringing bicycle bell). When i first start and drive when the car is still cold, everything is ok. As soon as it warms up a little bit, i get this strange ringing sound. It happens only when i accelerate from stand still in slow speed in lower gears. The sound also comes everytime i step on a clutch pedal, change gear (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and step off the cluch pedal. I cant find the source of the sound but its coming from the front. Might be passenger side. Not sure. When the car is in neutral, i can rev up the engine and i hear nothing. Can anyone help me locating or identifying the issue please? All advice is hugely appreciated. Thank you all! And tganks for having me

 

There are a lot of other things that could be causing the problem - perished bushings (bushes in the UK) on the control arms or swaybar links - or even the swaybar bushings. Perhaps a motor mount.

It takes a little sleuthing to find the culprit. Since you're in one of the three or four good weeks of weather in Blighty you can take the opportunity to crawl around under your car to see what you can see. ;-)

It could be tricky to find, if it's only happening once on take-off, since it could be caused by almost any movement in the engine compartment. You could have someone (someone you trust!!!) apply the E-brake and gently simulate a take-off by partially releasing the clutch in 1st and Reverse. If you're getting a lot of movement in the engine / transmission, you know to look for a perished motor mount. If not, look for the other things (control arm or swaybar bushing, for example).

 

Ok thanks a lot. Friend is a mechanic and he reckon that it is a wheel issue. I dont really agree. Engine is fine. Mounts ok. Doesn't do it in neutral. I dont think its an engine issue but could be wrong. Also i jave this slight single crunch in a gas pedal when turning at slow speed? Its just like 1 crunch and then its gone. Could this be related to the main issue?

 

The "crunch" could be a bad CV axle, which could potentially be causing your other problem as well - though usually it's more of a pronounced, continuous noise or shake. You could check for a torn boot on one of the axles (this will usually result in a noisy bearing in pretty short order).

Something like this can be a frustrating thing to chase down, because it's only happening occasionally, and while moving. If nothing is visibly knackered, you're going to have to either live with the problem until it gets bad enough to identify, or (worse) start throwing money at replacement parts hoping to swap out the offending part by deduction (it can happen, or it can just waste time and money).