Hi All,

I'm having a weird noise in the front left corner of my '04 R53 that is a couple of weeks old. When the engine makes the transition from accelerating the car to engine braking and vice versa, I get a clunking sound that is a little lower in pitch than two billiard ***** hitting.

A few notes:
The car has about 107k miles on it.
I just had a clutch done, along with lower A-arm bushings.
The upper engine vibration damper was replaced at the same time
The lower and transmission engine mounts were upgraded to urethane after the noise started as I hoped it was the mounts that were loose after 100,000 miles.
The noise does not occur under braking
The noise seems a little louder during transition to acceleration than during engine braking
The same noise can be produced if you rock the car forward and backward shifting from 1st to reverse.

I'm concerned it could be a few things:
1) bad dual mass flywheel (clanking back and forth)
2) broken spring in the clutch disk
3) bad inner CV joint on the driver's side (no noise from outer joint in tight turns)
4) something going wonky in the differential

If I jack up one side of the car and move the front left wheel back and forth gently, there is some free play and I can hear the geartrain play. If I really crank on the tire back and forth, I can hear the noise which sounds like a short ringing sound. I can't tell if it's in the gearbox or the drive axle.

Has anyone had this problem? What's the fix?

Thanks for the help.
-Jay

 

Anybody?

 

Exact same symptoms, mileage, and new clutch replacement. My noise is most noticeable when the engine first turns over after starting the car. CLUNK!

 

Hmm. I don't get the clunk at start-up. Makes me think you might have a bad motor mound somewhere. Have you looked at the engine while someone else starts the car?

Does yours also make the noise during accel/decel transition?

I had a horrible thought that the flywheel wasn't tightened properly and is moving around. No other symptoms to support this, though.

 

The motor mount was my first thought. I will have to take a look for leaks when I change my oil this weekend.

It does also make the noise during accel/decel transition.

 

Was just under the car. I had a helper crank the tire back and forth to make the noise. There wasn't any noticable play between the left drive shaft and the inner CV joint. In fact, the noise seemed to be coming from outboard of that.

I grabbed the outer CV joint and when the noise happened, I could feel a ticking in the CV joint that corresponded nicely to the noise.

Hopefully that's the problem.

 

I just finished with this repair. Got a decent deal from the Mini dealer in San Jose on the left driveshaft assembly and put it in this morning.

No more noise.

So the problem was the outer CV joint on that side. Glad that was it since the part was $500.

 

Does it almost sound like a dent is popping in and out?

 

Sure, it could sound like that. I noticed that it sounded different depending on where I am listening to it. When I'm driving, it sounds like what you describe. If I'm out of the car cranking on the front wheel, it sounds more tinny, like a "ting" sound.

The best thing I did was jack the corner up and put it on jackstands and crawl under the car while a helper rotated the tire forward and back. When they did it hard enough to create the noise, I put my hand on various locations along the drive axel to see if I could feel anything. In my case, I felt a "click" in the left outer CV joint when I heard the noise. Replacing the drive shaft fixed the problem.

 

yes, I do hear the clunk noise when lift on throttle, but the sound comes from the rear of the car, is it possible be the same problem but just in the rear shaft?

 

No rear shaft on a fwd mini....you would have to have a rwd or an awd mini to have a rear axel shaft....