  We consider partially gapped one dimensional (1D) conductors connected to
normal leads, as realized in fractional helical wires. At certain electron
densities, some distinct charge mode develops a gap due to electron
interactions, leading to a fractional conductance. For this state we study the
current noise caused by tunneling events inside the wire. We find that the
noise's Fano-factor is different from the tunneling charge. This fact arises
from charge scattering at the wire-leads interfaces. The resulting noise is,
however, universal - it depends only on the identification of the gapped mode,
and is insensitive to additional interactions in the wire. We further show that
the tunneling charge can be deduced from the finite frequency noise, and yet is
interaction dependent due to screening effects.
