Popping/creaking noise from rear - help!

D

DONDP

Member
Hello All

I am battling with a little problem at the moment and I hope someone may have experienced this before or have some ideas....

Basically I have a strange popping/creaking noise coming from what appears to to be the drivers side rear. It very is very rarely heard under normal driving however when on a more spirited drive it is normally heard when cornering and on the throttle or after a corner getting back onto the throttle. It also occurs when you move into reverse after moving forwards and then again coming out of reverse moving forwards.

I captured this video by strapping my go pro under the car to help capture the noise. You may need to fast forward a bit as I had to drop the car off the jack after starting the camera. The worst noise, a loud pop, can be heard at exactly the 1.00 minute mark as I engaged reverse. I then later around 1.20 rock between 1st and reverse to show the noise ( please ignore me stalling it.... :oops: )



So far I have performed the following to try to resolve this:

I have checked that all anti roll bar mounts are torqued to the relevant levels
Checked all the sub frame bolts are torqued to the correct setting
I have replaced the rear trailing arm bushes ( front ones only)
I have changed the differential oil to ensure it uses the 'booster' diff oil.
Checked all exhaust mounts
Visually inspected diff mounts and bushes and all look ok

I am getting to the point I think it might be the diff, and praying it isn't, so if anyone has an ideas I of what else I could check I would be extremely gratefull.

Thanks.

Don
 
Hey,

Not so much as a creaking but more of an engaging clunk when changing direction (From reverse to forward and vice versa) can be caused by a warn "prop donut" half way down the prop shaft, or where the prop shaft enters the Diff there is some sort of splined interface that develops a slight movement causing a clunk. (Is fixed by adding a special lubricant/locktite to the splines)

Both of these are apparently very common with the e46 that the z4 is based on.

more discussion of it here

http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20865&p=299491&hilit=donut#p299491

Not sure if this is applicable to your situation, but hope it helps anyway
 
Thanks, ill definitely add that to the list of things to check. Cant believe that with all the searching I've been doing I didn't find that thread before.
 
Thought I would update this post for reference to others, we have been al the way through the rear end and found nothing that is loose or appears damaged in anyway. The advice is that it is either the prop or the diff.

So the next step I am trying is a replacement diff as I managed to source a freshly rebuilt one...

Its not all bad news however, as I am taking the opportunity to to change the crown and pinion to a 4.10 ratio so hoping it will make her even better!

I will probably pop up another post about that once the work is complete.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom