Strut brace mount clunk!

[wiganz4]

Been having trouble with a front end clunk. Excuse to go over it and fit the ususal suspects ie. sway bar bushings, drop links, lollipop bushings, even inner and outer tie rods as they were aging. Car drives like new....apart fron the annoying clunk going over the tiniest of bumps at low speed right at the centre of the dash.

After checking the brace bar mount I've found flaking paint over the 2 spot welds on the bracket near the strut mount nut. Mines a pre-facelift with the 4 16mm nuts so I have 2 firewall and 2 on separate brackets on the strut towers.

Anybody else had this issue.

This is only scraped with my nail but I reckon this is moving enough to create the noise.

 

[bigwinn]

Are they tight?

 

[wiganz4]

Are they tight?

Yeah, ive done all that. Removed completely and no noise at all. Renewed the flange bolts and put washers on to add a bit of bite to the thread. There's definately something physical, albeit minute, moving. I'll remove just the bar with the dodgy looking spot welds tomorrow and see what happens. Then if I swap to just having this bar on and it returns then I'll go for rewelding the bracket. Not a big job but I'll at least eliminate everything else first.

 

[bigwinn]

Totally.

Good hunting

 

[BumpyZ4]

then I'll go for rewelding the bracket

BMW makes a heavy duty bracket (originally for the M). Mine were cracked so I replaced them with the HD version.

41007193040 - Mount for strut brace​

 

[wiganz4]

BMW makes a heavy duty bracket (originally for the M). Mine were cracked so I replaced them with the HD version.

41007193040 - Mount for strut brace​

Cheers. The bracket hasn't torn off or even moved. The 2 spot welds on top of the bracket are flaking so I'm assuming they've loosened a fraction, causing the clunk over sharp bumps