I'd posted about a clunking noise from the rear of the car and many helpful ideas had been posited in reply; thanks to all. It turns out that Slimmini had it right, it was the sway bar bushings. The car went to the dealer yesterday and the problem was solved. It appears the sway bar bushings are a known problem on part of the '07 production run. There's even a service bulletin pertaining to the them, #33-01-07. My service invoice says, "...there is a gap between the bushing and the sway bar. Replaced both rear sway bar bushings w/the correct part."

I am now motoring in (relative) blissful silence. We'll see if I can feel a difference in handling; the sway bar can't have been completely effective if it was loose in the bushings.

 

Awesome

 

ditto -- had the same issue and it was fixed promptly by the dealer. night and day difference, for the better!

 

Congrats! I am having my dealership look into it and I will hopefully take my car in soon to have them see if this is my problem.

Thanks for the follow up!

Doug

 

I like happy endings!

 

Excellent!!!! Bliss is good!

 

Was this a loud clunk? I have something similar I think, but it's more of a slight annoyance than anything serious.

 

Our 2009 has been making a clunking noise too. I checked the the rear suspension but found no play in any of the bushings OR I thought. It was driving me nuts, very annoying to have a year old car making noises.

Anywho I decided to take another look yesterday and voila I found the culprit. While I was trying to move the sway bar links to check for play I noticed the sway bar was sliding back and forth and the noise was coming from the top left and right sway bar bushings. There was no play in trying to move the bar up and down but as it easily slid back and forth it made the dreaded noise. I took a can of white lithium spray and gave both sides a blast and moved the bar back and forth. Took it for a drive and what do ya know...clunk sound gone .

I'm going to soak the rubbers with some transmission fluid that should soften them up a bit. No need to replace them right away.

 

When I installed a heavier front sway bar in my MG, I noticed that it didn't include the side-stops that kept the original from sliding back and forth, and the larger diameter of the new bar prevented use of the old stops.

SO - a couple of pipe clamps have served the purpose for several years now. Note the clamp just inside the bar mounting bush - there's one on the other side, too:



I'm not familiar with the rear bar mounting on the Cooper S, as my R56 doesn't have one, but you never know, something like the pic above may just work. I'm sure there are more elegant ways of doing this, though!

Cheers,

Spridget