Dimago123

Purchased a brand new giant TCR and had bb noise start around 500 miles of riding. Had the bb serviced. The noise came back after a few months. Had it serviced again (clean and lube) noise came back after a month of riding. Especially when putting power down and out of the saddle or uphill. Asked the shop I got the bike at to speak to Giant about a warranty claim and the shop wasn’t interested, said they want to keep troubleshooting. Should I replace the bb? Other options? Winter is coming so I won’t ride much for a few months (I’m a Chicagoan) and in a few months the 1yr frame warranty will expire. Any advice is appreciated!

soyabean

The LBS you bought your Giant from can certainly do more than anyone here on the internet, as we can't see the bike.

And my opinion is not to piss off the LBS by telling them how to fix it with best guess and make believe suggestions from here.

Moe Zhoost

How would you describe the noise? In my experience, many sounds are incorrectly attributed to the BB. It sounds like the shop fixed it twice; what exactly did they do? Did they describe what they did?

Anyhow with this limited info my guess is that it's the chain making noise. 300-500 miles is what I get out of a chain lube before it starts making a bit of noise. I bet your shop lubed your chain in addition to whatever else they did.

pdlamb

Moe makes a good point. Are you sure the shop didn't lube your chain before they rolled the bike back out to you?

Dimago123

they may have but I lube it at home all the time and it doesn’t make a difference.

the lbs said they cleaned and lubed the bb

Andrew R Stewart 

Do you know the BB brand and model? More than a few of the current pressed in bearing BB designs suffer from very slight contact point movement and thus click/creak/tick/knock type of noises. Removing, cleaning and reassembling with some lube/anti seize between the parts can often cure the noises, for a while. But as I understand it the real problem is the design and the inability to hold tolerances of bearing fit given the price point the stuff is made to meet. This is why some will replace their OEM BBs with a design that has the two halves thread together (Thus completing the circle back to what has worked for a hundred years).

The other part of the question is whether a noise is a warranty item. If no other issues are involved, if the bike/parts function and if it's been determined that there are no safety concerns than it can be argued that just noise is not a warranty item. But that's a discussion between you and the shop. Hence, as soyabean said, the reason to not disrespect or piss off your LBS. Andy

Andrew R Stewart 

I hope the shop, or you, have checked all the other points of contact between your body and the rear tire. meaning chainring bolts, crank arm retaining bolts, pedals in crank arms, pedal bearings and related fasteners, wheel QR skewers, seat post hardware, stem and bars hardware. Pretty much any two pieces that touch each other can be a source of noise. With a hollow frame a noise can seem to emanate from one spot but actually be from another spot. Also, hollow frames and tensioned wheels can alter the style/tenor of the noise, making it harder to discern which part the noise is from. Andy

Rolla

I would wager that 99.9% of the time, component noises are beyond a frame manufacturer's control or responsibility.

If "servicing" only means cleaning and lubing, that might not address the issue.

Re-read Andrew R Stewart 's replies. As he noted, some kinds of bottom brackets may be more prone to noises, and the source of some noises can be deceptive.

soyabean

Without the OP disproving with a good video and clear audio, my opinion is that it's all in the OP's head, or the OP has no idea what they are talking about (most likely), and the LBS is correct in handling the issue.

When I purchase a bike from a LBS, I trust the LBS to take care of it, instead of skewed random guesses from the internet.

Iride01 

And just because the noise went away after the first service doesn't mean it was the BB that was making the noise. Something else could be making the noise and it just incidentally went away for a while.

Many things make noises that sound like they come from the BB. And since a bike is a mechanical thing with many moving pieces, absolute silence is not realistic IMO.

veganbikes

Take it to your local shop have them diagnose the issue. If you are looking for home remedies, make sure everything is properly greased, anti-seized, carbon pasted and torqued and I do mean everything don't assume it is the bottom bracket without checking everything else first and yes again everything. A bottom bracket especially a press fit unit can sometimes make noise but frequently it is elsewhere on the bike. Thru-axles or QR skewers are notorious for causing noise issues if not done properly as things get loose and make noise. However it could be other bolts or a seatpost or pedals or something like that. Check everything or have you local shop check it out.

Rolla

Lombard

^^^This.^^^

cjenrick

Have them reface the bottom bracketi had noise for years because the mechanics told me "no, refacing won't help, all the frames are faced at the factory..."

FInally got somebody to do it. There like "jeez, we had to shave .020 just to get it flat"

Now the bb is as smooth as butter, no slop (and noise) developing after 4000 miles and counting.
l

Andrew R Stewart 

While I fully agree with BB shells needing to be faced and that factories don't always do a good job at that but I believe the OP has a press fitted BB/shell design that doesn't reference off the face. Unless you mean to face the inside the shell bearing seats. That would be a rare need indeed. Andy

prj71

I had a Giant road bike once. Same problem as OP. Press fit bottom brackets are problematic and have been on every bike I owned that have them. The Giant dealer would fix it up and the noise would go away for a while then after a few hundred miles the noise would come back. Got rid of that bike went to a bike with threaded BB...no more problems.

smd4

Something I read in a recent "Road Bike Action" magazine basically said that today, you have to pretty much expect your bike to make some noise. Sometimes there's just nothing that can be done. Not something you want to hear, but something that we may have to just live with going forward.

KerryIrons

The generally successful practice to solve these kinds of noises is to clean and lube all contact surfaces. That means threads, bolts, clamps, etc. Assuming there are no cracked parts and nothing touching as the crank rotates, this fixes things 99% of the time. Some people add thread lockers and plumbers Teflon tape as a belt and suspenders approach. There are a lot of sources of noise, but the fact that the shop "fixed" the noise and then it came back suggests that maybe they didn't add enough or the right quality of lube.

Andrew R Stewart 

No amount of lube will make up for poor tolerances between press fitted parts for ever. In time the poof fit will result in movement between parts (that otherwise should be stationary) and the lube will get washed/pushed out. Possibly the most well known example of dimension drift on press fitted BBs is Trek's offering their BB bearings in an oversize version, to take up the carbon shell's "growth" over the miles. We replaced/serviced dozens of their bike's BBs using all sorts of "products" for the press fit including, finally, retaining compounds. It was only the last step that stayed quiet and kept the crankset from rocking about in the now too big shells. After the oversized bearings were brought out the rebuilds became vastly more reliable.

There has been a fair amount of discussion about carbon construction, press fit bearing use and the volume of production VS tolerance controls over the last decade or three. Andy