Originally Posted by alcjphil

Your pedals should both be adjusted to the same tension. If you normally release the right cleat when you come to a stop without disengaging the left side, the right cleat will wear faster without a doubt. However, this also means that that pedal suffers more wear. Normally this is not a huge problem, the bail on the pedal should be made of more wear resistant materials than the cleat and should outlast the cleat many times over. The sound made when the cleat is engaged with the pedal shouldn't matter. What matters is if you have no problems with the cleat disengaging unexpectedly of if you have problems getting out. How it sounds isn't really important