Is my bottom bracket away?

[HLaB]

My bike has FSA cranks; the type with a single allen key. I've tried but I can't get it any tighter but there's still a 3-4mm play in the cranks. Noise wise, sometimes if I freewheel and hit a bump I get a noise like a car horn until I pedal again. My guess one the bearings falls slightly out of race and goes back into alignment when I pedal. The other noise I'm getting, is the typical rhythmic tick, it was happening only when I stood up but tonight it was also happening when I stay seated. What do others think is it fair to say after 14,221 miles (quite a bit of it in harsh weather) that the BB is on the way out?

 

[YahudaMoon]

Yes
Edit
They only cost £10-15 from the LBS if you can fit em yourself

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

My bike has FSA cranks; the type with a single allen key. I've tried but I can't get it any tighter but there's still a 3-4mm play in the cranks. Noise wise, sometimes if I freewheel and hit a bump I get a noise like a car horn until I pedal again. My guess one the bearings falls slightly out of race and goes back into alignment when I pedal. The other noise I'm getting, is the typical rhythmic tick, it was happening only when I stood up but tonight it was also happening when I stay seated. What do others think is it fair to say after 14,221 miles (quite a bit of it in harsh weather) that the BB is on the way out?

Single allen key fsa crank could be JIS square tapered or ISIS. If there is play between crank and bb (since you are talking about tightening the allen bolt) then chance is the crankset is knackered because it is usually alloy which is like cheese compared to the spindle which is steel. Last time when I had a noise like a car horn when freewheeling was when my Mavic freehub seal/bearing was on its way out - the crankset/bb don't spin when you are freewheeling right so why would it create such noise?

 

[HLaB]

Cheers folks. It the ISIS type. I took the left crank off tonight and I'll try and tap out the right crank tomorrow (I didn't want to make a racket at this time of night ). I can't see anything untoward in the left crank and its not dirty, I'll see in the morning if the right is in the same condition and regrease things up and take it up to my mate in the lbs, if its still making a racket, I'll book it in; I forewarned him on facebook. You could be right about the freehub its an old, wheel I had to put on temporarily to see me through winter before I put the new Planet X Model B's on in spring, at a guess the old Aksium is 8500miles old now. It seemed like the noise was coming from the BB, I could feel resistance in the cranks just before it happens and it coincided with me tightening the crank bolt but that could all be in my head .

 

[PpPete]

Cheers folks. It the ISIS type. I took the left crank off tonight and I'll try and tap out the right crank tomorrow (I didn't want to make a racket at this time of night ).

Don't tap it - use a proper crank extractor. Needs a slightly bigger diameter end if its ISIS or Octalink - but this usually comes as a removable magnetic "button" on modern crank extractors

 

[HLaB]

Don't tap it - use a proper crank extractor. Needs a slightly bigger diameter end if its ISIS or Octalink - but this usually comes as a removable magnetic "button" on modern crank extractors

This thing looks like this, its supposed to be self extracting but only the left would come off easy'ish so I gave up on the right and it'll be a visit to the lbs tomorrow; they were busy today.

 

[PpPete]

This thing looks like this, .

Ah - my bad, not come across those before