creaky bottom bracket

[zizou]

Got a creak coming from the bottom bracket (shimano hollowtech ii) is there anything i can do to sort this or is it just a case of replacing?

There doesn't seem to be any wobbling or anything just making an almighty racket, which initially was only when climbing but now seems to be constant!

(Its definitely coming from the bb, have checked the saddle, bars, pedals etc)

 

[Svendo]

Three options, given there's no play in it:

1) Remove cranks and cups, clean regrease and reassemble.
2) Replace as BBs are fairly inexpensive.
3) Ignore it as it'll probably go away (This is my preferred option and has worked for me more than once!)

If there's play in the cranks then it's options 1) or 2)

 

[2Loose]

I doubt you'd need to replace it, they seem pretty hard wearing so far.
If there is dirt in the threads it can cause this, so I prefer Option 1 as it normally only takes 10 minutes and I can clean the hard to reach areas of the chainwheels at the same time, while it is off.
Do grease all splines and threads on reassembly though...

 

[HLaB]

If there's no play in it I doubt it needs replacing. I had a creak from that area but did have play in mine so I replaced it, still had a creak though. The other night I took off, the pedals, chainrings, derailleur hanger & derailleur bolt and cleaned and regreased and it seems to have done the trick.

 

[Arjimlad]

Co-incidentally I just took my Giant into the LBS about this but because I bought it online it's a £40 service. I will probably get that done in another couple of hundred miles. In the meantime I bought the little tool to remove the cap from the left crank, and will whip the cranks out, clean regrease & reassemble.

 

[Hawk]

Above suggestions sound good. I would suggest you check your rear wheel for play when it's not turning, can you shake the wheel from side to side at all? I swore such a play was a creaking bottom bracket but in reality it's very difficult to tell where it's coming from when on the saddle, my bearings needed adjusted and away I went

 

[fossyant]

Strip and reassemble for an off the shelf bike. Oh and buy the tools too.

Bikes are assembled too quick sometimes.

 

[Arjimlad]

One of the bolts on my left crank was not tight at all.. I suspect this was the cause of the creaking I had.

 

[MontyVeda]

One of the bolts on my left crank was not tight at all... I suspect this was the cause of the creaking I had.

last year i thought i needed a new BB, but it turned out just tightening the cranks did the trick too.
last week I thought I needed a new BB, but taking apart and putting the pedals back together with all new grease has done the trick.

When I am finally going to need a new BB i don't know, it's been in 10 years!

 

[PpPete]

Left cranks often work loose, and especially on square taper the hole in the (soft aluminium) crank quickly rounds slightly - and then you will never get rid of the creaking.

I had an annoying creaky sort of click on my bike on some recent long rides... never there when I put the bike on the stand, never in testing on short rides from home. Stripped down, serviced, cleaned, re-indexed everything after every ride, and every time this bloody clicking would come back after 50 - 80 miles. Was really begining to fret about it because it's a Campag triple (square taper) ... and it's not cheap to replace bits from that.

On yesterday's Dean 300 km I finally tracked it down, by listening carefully I decided it was in time with the pedal revs - whichever gear I was in. I'd previously checked BB and pedal bearings, so it wasn't that. Finally I was starting to feel the click through the soles of my feet, so decided it pretty much had to be pedals. Thinks - will have to swap the fancy A600 pedals on it for some ordinary M520s when for the next long ride, to see if I'm right. But in the meantime I was facing another 100 noisy miles and it was not a pleasant prospect.

What other moving parts are there apart from the bearings? Well there's the release mechanism....holding my foot at a different angle seemed to cure it, but I couldn't do that and still exert any pressure up hills. Finally when I stopped at the Chepstow control I put a couple of drops of oil on the spring in the release mechanism.... and hey presto the clicking was gone.

 

[zizou]

removed it and it felt a bit notchy and sounded gritty when so decided to just fit the new one and get out and ride when i saw the weather this morning! Will have a play about with the old one but think it was a goner anyway. Hope i get longer service out of this one!

 

[Arjimlad]

Mine's a hollowtech BB, and it was one of the two allen bolts on the left crank which had loosened off... I had 14 miles of smooth near silent riding this morning, so I have definitely fixed it !

 

[I like Skol]

I was about to start a new thread but as this one deals with the Hollowtech II BB I may as well pitch my problem in here.

While fitting a new chain and general cleaning around the chainset area today I noticed a little play in the BB. I also found that if I spun the chainset with no chain on there was a distinct bad bearing rumbling transmitted through the frame. Clearly the BB is past its best so I see little to gain from trying to strip and rebuild it.

As I see it there are two options-

1. buy replacement SM-BB51 (£13.99) and tool (£9.99) and stick with stock items, or
2. I spotted THESE GUYS who rebuild the existing cups with better bearings and are currently fitting the new bearing FOC if you send your old cups to them.

Option 2 is a little bit dearer and I would still need the BB tool but I like the idea of upgrading rather than just replacing. Has anyone else done this? I am dissapointed with the lifespan of the original, only about 15-16 months and a little over 3000 miles. Is this typical? Obviously I would like to improve on this considerably.

 

[I like Skol]

Incidentally - I came across THIS SHIMANO DOCUMENT while googling Hollowtech bearings. It really makes me larf Obviously loses something in translation "Loose, worn or damaged parts may cause the bicycle to fall over and serious injury may occur as a result"

 

[Damaged Hero]

I am going to strip my bb down this week (first time ) as its making a horrible squeaking noise that over time is now constant where as it started only when putting a lot of pressure through the pedals.I found a great video on the web showing how its done,but when putting it all back together i am unsure what type of grease to use on all the bits that need greasing ?
Any suggestions would be great,Thanks.