Clunking

CliveN

Member
Buy car. All fine (apart from airbag light now sorted). Take wheels off over winter to clean underside but otherwise don’t touch anything. Drive car off in spring. Clunk clunk clunk seemingly everywhere (I know sound travels). Seems to be bump related. Come home. Tighten up when nuts to 130nm. Seems to do the trick. Take car to Cotswold bmw to replace the rear spring and oil change. They can’t see anything wrong with suspension and say it’s pass-worthy. Come back home - noise again getting worse and clunking is irregular but frequent. If it was a dead smooth road then it might not make the noise. Tighten wheel nuts to 130 nm. No difference. Replace wheels with originals. No difference. It’s not diff related as it’s not linked to take up of drive. Could it be engine mounts at 31000 miles. And how does that manifest itself. Before I take it somewhere to fault find any sensible advice please? Otherwise car is superb. But currently undriveable due to the noises. Thank you
 
Broken spring is a likely culprit, but you’ve had that checked.

A few suggestions:
- Suspension top mount bolts may be loose or the top mounts may be shagged.
- The diagonal engine brace bolts may need tightening, esp if they have been removed for access or painting.
- Could be a loose brake disc shield
- Failing cooling fan

Good luck with your diagnosis, I hope it’s nothing expensive.
 
Thank you zebedee. It’s not the fan and the springs are new. I will check the turret cross brace tomorrow. Does anyone know the torque setting? The shock as are good order and no bolts appears to be loose
 
CliveN said:
Thank you. Isn’t there a bolt at the turret end - I am working from memory here though

There are two style of fastener for that V-Brace. The crossover is sometime during the 2006/2007 model year, IIRC. I believed what Zedebee said is that if you have the "Nut" style, then it's 41Nm. If you have the "Bolt" style, then it's 56Nm.
 
Also check anti roll bar drop links have no play. I had a similar issue and that was the fix. Luckily a cheap and easy job.
 
Thanks all. Car going into garage next week for a proper look. The strut brace requires a quarter turn on one bolt only. I do think it is a drop link. Will let you know …..
 
I previously had a clunk that took me through all sorts of part renewal including engine mounts

Turns out one of the springs wasn’t sat correctly at the front

Once seated all sorted
 
Back
Top Bottom