All fitted, torqued up and driving fine. Still this ringing / squealing sound on acceleration, near the drivers side wheel, sounds like it may get worse with increasing speed. 

While turning the wheel there was no sign of the sound. No rattle, sound like spinning metal on metal, making a hollow constant bell type sound. 

I think I can definitely rule out the driveshaft retaining bolt / wheel hub bolt now, given its new and torqued correctly. 
 

I checked the intermediate driveshaft bareing / bracket while I had the wheel off. All feels sturdy, with the outer stationary and the driveshaft spinning as it should be. No play left to right or up and down, just a slight play in and out possibly 5mm, which I understand to be a normal tolerance, however open to being corrected. 
 

Any ideas? 

I just spoke to a couple garages about the “bell type” sound coming from near the front driver side wheel, one mentioned a wheel bareing, what I might have expected. 
 

Another garage mentioned the bell type sound may be a failing catalytic converter. I didn’t mention I had a P0420 code come up a month or so back. Might he be on the money with this one? 
 

Also reading, others with similar symptoms mention a loose heat shield, however I’ve not been working anywhere near that.
 

Thought it best to run past you guys before I get roped into a very expensive job that may not fix the problem. 

Ok! Good news! It may be a little early to say, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
 

Had the wheel back off, and tried to locate the sound. At the intermediate drive shaft baring/bracket it sounded very scratchy when rotating the wheel. While I cleaned the bracket when putting all back together, I did not clean the intermediate drive shaft baring. I gave the intermediate driveshaft barring a good spray down with brake cleaner, and used a brush to dislodge what I could from the side of the baring.

Popped the wheel back on and just run it around the block at 30mph. No sign of the sound and running as smooth as ever. 
 

I find it very surprising some dirt / particulates at the driveshaft bareing could have caused this sound, however if metal could possibly been stuck somewhere rubbing and caused the bell sound. 

 

However I seemed to have nailed the culprit for now….until tomorrow! Thank all you gents for your help 
 

 

20 hours ago, unofix said:

In the photo that bolt seems to be an M8 but perhaps its just the way it looks.

The maximum torque of an M8 is 48Nm.

Of course if your bolt is larger then potentially the torque could be higher. I don't have the torque figures but someone will be along tomorrow with the correct details.

Just for Reference: 

BRAND: Ford
ENGINEERING PART NUMBER: 7M513B477AB
MANUFACTURER PART NUMBER: 1569107
PRODUCT INFORMATION: M10 x 70MM
TYPE: Retainer

 

w/ 13mm head 

57 minutes ago, EastLondonLiving said:

PRODUCT INFORMATION: M10 x 70MM

Thanks for letting me know the bolt size. I included below a list of bolts up to M12 together with the maximum possible torque. It's always worth a quick check if you ever doubt a torque value.

17 minutes ago, unofix said:

Thanks for letting me know the bolt size. I included below a list of bolts up to M12 together with the maximum possible torque. It's always worth a quick check if you ever doubt a torque value.

That’s great stuff, cheers @unofix, they would apply to these “stretch” bolts too right? 
 

45Nm + 90 degree tighten (a “nip up”, in the building game) to me feels incredibly low, but hey ho the specs are what they are, best not to try and dismantle the thought of engineering behind it. 

On 6/24/2025 at 5:42 PM, EastLondonLiving said:

I find it very surprising some dirt / particulates at the driveshaft bareing could have caused this sound, however if metal could possibly been stuck somewhere rubbing and caused the bell sound. 

I am glad that you traced it to the bearing.

On 6/27/2025 at 2:52 PM, PaterAnt said:

I am glad that you traced it to the bearing.

Yes thanks, the gear changes are silky smooth and crisp now, with no bell sound which is ideal. 
 

Put some Cataclean in the fuel tank earlier, was getting a P0420 and poor Mpg. About 5 minutes into the drive I could feel a lot more power in 2-4 gears, hopefully as the carbon deposits were burned off (unsure if Cataclean was the reason but…) Reset the mpg gauge before the drive and after a 30 min motorway run seem to be getting 43mpg, which is more like the kind of numbers I wanted to see. 

Again a big thanks to @TomsFocus @unofix for helping me resolve this, cheers gents 

Now after a week or so of typical city driving, mpg has dropped from 43 and averaged out to 28mpg.

Would this be normal of an 09 1.6L petrol, given the age? Or will I be potentially looking to change the cat for any reasonable improvement in this? 

Personally I'd say 30mpg for a 1.6 petrol Focus around town is quite typical.

There are so many factors that effect the mpg, like the Driver, the type of traffic, and the terrain.