A couple of weeks ago I had a wheel change on our 2003 cooper. Ever since I`ve heard a kind of cracking noise when driving and turning the steeringwheel. I`ve tried opening the hood and turning the wheel in my garage, but then there`s no sound, only when driving. It sounds like it`s coming from the left wheel/inner wheel arch(?). Anyone with any idea of what`s going on?

I`m sorry I can`t explain the problem better, my "tech-english" is rather limited..

I had a similar problem and may be able to help...

My 2001 Cooper was MOT'd a couple of weeks ago - a part of the MOT is to jack the front wheels up and move the steering from lock to lock. The car passed, but immediately after driving away I too had a loud crack from the nearside suspension leg. As the chap at the garage is a friend I told him immediately then last weekend finally got round to letting him take a look. When he put the car on the ramp he could see that the bearing at the top of the Macphearson strut had broken. Apparently it is like two rings with a series of bearings between them. What had happened was that when the suspension was jacked up, the weight was taken off the bearing allowing it to seperate slightly and when the steering was moved the two halves became slightly mis-aligned and that was it.

I asked my mate to fix it and when the part came in it was the wrong one - so he put it back together and assures me that its not dangerous and has probably been like that for ages. I will get it fixed at some point but am not rushing as after he put it back together the noise has stopped :)

The fact that your car has been jacked up too makes me thing that this could be the same issue. If it is the part is about £70-£80 and it should take about an hour to fit by a garage.

Obviously I cant guarantee that your problem is the same, but I reckon that there's a chance as it sounds very similar to the problem I had. Hope that this helps - but I would get it checked in case it is something more serious.

Thanks for the tip Slipmat! This sounds pretty much like the same procedure resulting the same problem. I`ll try jacking the car up again tomorrow to get a look at the bearing, and hopefully this is where the problem is! Thanks again!

Could this affect alignment aswell?.. Just had shocks, springs, top mount and strut brace fitted yesterday.. fully locked it reversing today made ell of a noise!