# 2011 Trek Madone 4.5 bottom bracket clicking



## mjfink (Jul 20, 2013)

Argh, this problem is driving me nuts. 

Got the bike last year; ridden about 5K miles on it, and I'm now on my 3rd bottom bracket. Went from the stock bracket (105) to an Ultegra and now my LBS put in an MTB bracket (XTR, IIRC) to try to stop it from failing on me. 

This time the new BB lasted about 1 mile before it started clicking up a storm. Every power stroke with significant torque, clicking like mad. However, today I did discover something very interesting.  I was so pissed off that I took my water bottle and sprayed the brand new bottom bracket in the vain hope that it would somehow lubricate it and shut it up.

And... Low and behold.. 15 miles or so of bliss. The shot of water immediately shut it up, ran smooth as silk and was such a welcome relief I felt like riding a century just for the heck of it. Well, then, 15 miles later, back comes the click. However, this time, I was more deliberate, I took the water bottle and just sprayed a tiny bit over the drive side. And again, instant silence.. Lasted for the rest of my ride that time. 

I'm at my wits end here (obviously, I'm spraying water into my brand new BB intentionally). Any ideas? I'm going to take it back to the LBS again (about the 10th time for this issue), but I really need some direction to give them. Is the frame out of round? Is the BB being installed incorrectly? It is the crank? Why on earth does spraying water on it fix the problem?!?

Thank you for any help!


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## cxwrench (Nov 9, 2004)

Something weird is going on here. I can't imagine that it's the bottom brackets going bad and 'clicking' after a couple thousand miles. These are the same external cup bottom brackets that get installed in thousands of bikes every year. If your shop can't figure it out after this long, you can probably guess what i'm gonna say next. 

Find another shop. 

I worked on a Trek tt bike we built for a guy last year just this afternoon. He *swore up and down* that it was his bottom bracket that was making noise. I had just killed another noise last week by cleaning and greasing the h/s bearings. I was pretty sure it wasn't the bb, so i rode it around. I swapped wheels w/ one from my bike. Noise gone. Put his wheel in my bike, i got the noise again. His spokes had proper tension, so i took his Bontrager(DT) hub apart and took off the free hub and put a new one just for the hell of it. Silent. It took me at max 30mins to figure this out. Obviously i'm not saying this is your noise, but you get my point. Someone that's got some experience should be able to make your bike quiet. It's not rocket science.


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## mjfink (Jul 20, 2013)

"Something weird is going on here. I can't imagine that it's the bottom brackets going bad and 'clicking' after a couple thousand miles."

There's absolutely no doubt the sound is coming from the bottom bracket. And, at the same time, agree with you, there's absolutely no way a brand new bearing went bad in 1 mile. So, the bearing is good, and yet, the clicking continues. I've had it on a trainer with the chain off, off the saddle and hands off the bar (still clicks); and, given my experience with the water, there's simply no way that it's anything but the bottom bracket making the noise.

So, let's rule out other sources of the noise. What on earth could make a brand new bottom bracket click like crazy and then, with the addition of a squirt of water, get totally silent? I'm thinking that the frame isn't holding the bearings correctly and there is play between the bearing and the frame, allowing it to rotate and make noise. The water is lubricating this area and shutting it up. Or, my crank isn't true and the water is lubricating something that's popping against it. 

I may get a new shop to take a look at it. I really like the guys I work with, but this is ridiculous. It would have taken than 10 seconds on a trainer to realize that the noise was still there, they should have checked it after replacing the BB (AGAIN). 

I watch him install one of the bottom brackets and he horsed on it like he was trying to set the heads on a V8 engine. I've heard a lot of chatter about "preload", does that apply to the bottom bracket on my bike? Perhaps it's bad installation? That and "out of round frame" are really the only guesses that I have left.


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## mjfink (Jul 20, 2013)

I spoke with the shop, they want another run at it and are pretty sure they know what the problem is. I'm going to take it there on Monday, but they already told me they don't expect it to be the frame. I'll let everyone know what they try this time and if it's a "final" fix for this vexing issue!


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## slypx (Mar 26, 2011)

I have a 2011 Madone 5.2 and my BB went Noisy at 60 miles !!! My LBS changed it and the new one started doing some noise again after 100 miles ... The LBS changed it again but went thru Trek that supply them with a "supposely" new version of the BB90 called "V2" ...

Now I'm riding it since then with over 2000 miles without a noise ...

Here's a thread about BB90 failure .. 2011 5.9 BB90 Bearing Failures


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