S5 rattles while printing

[rraye 0]

My S5 (firmware 8.2.0) has begun to click and rattle while printing, which is probably the cause of premature print failures. What do you think the root cause of this would be? I can't tell if it's the feeder, nozzle, stepper, or what. Here's a video with audio of the problem. 

[Gero 47]

I had a similar problem. It's been a while, but the noise sounds very familiar. 

One of the bearings in the print head was defective. The rattling came from the balls in the bearing. It was probably because they were no longer running smoothly and were constantly bumping against each other. 

The noise could be reproduced when the printer was switched off and the printhead was moved by hand along one of the axes. After replacing it, everything went back to normal. 

I would check this quickly because shortly after the noise started, the bearing jammed completely and the printer would no longer print. 

[Enigma_M4 101]

Hi,

I don't want to disagree @Gero, but possibly -and hopefully- the clicking noise could result from active levelling (which would be far better than a damaged bearing). Your video is inconclusive at that point.

This could easily be checked: just touch the Z-screw while printing. If the clicking sound correspondents to slight movement of the leadscrew, that's it. And if the clicking sound disappears after about 4 or 5 printed layers, that's the last proof.

Clicking noise related to active levelling is totally normal, as the printer compensates the out-of-level printbed by adapting the first few layers. It can be reduced by manually leveling the print bed as good as possible, but I never got totally rid of it.

Regards