Okay, about a month ago, an odd metal on metal rattle developed in the rear of my '03 S. It only happens while driving, and while it does tend to happen more on rough roads (or sudden turns), bumps don't always cause it to happen. Occasionally I'll be driving straight on a flat road and hear it. No amount of bouncing in/on the car while it's in my garage has been able to reproduce it unfortunately.

At first I thought it was just the boot latch, but I've been through all of the fixes and workarounds I could find, and none made a difference. The sound still happens while driving with the boot open too.

Next was something obvious underneath, like a muffler or heatshield being loose. Jacked up the car, got underneath, but I couldn't find anything loose.

Yesterday I had my wife drive while I hung out in the back, and I thought I had it pinpointed to something hitting the driver's side wheel well. Today I took the wheel and wheel well liner off, but nothing under there appears to be loose, and I don't see any evidence that any suspension pieces are hitting the subframe.

It's a sound that I'm finding pretty hard to describe, so I've got a clip of it in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08Yu4Gd43Wc

(yes, all that clunking at the beginning of the clip is what I'm talking about)

I'm seeing no difference in ride since this started, no warning lights, etc, so I'm not sure what to make of it. I hate to run this to the dealership for something I can fix myself, but at this point I'm not sure how else to locate the problem. Anyone else hit anything like this?

 

I haven't experienced this with my 03 MCS yet but I'm thinking it could either be worn out springs/shocks or maybe your sway bar is loose and hitting the subframe underneath, just my .02 cents.

 

As far as the sway bar, I think I'd be fine with that being the issue. I've got a 19mm sitting in the garage and this would be a good excuse to get out there and throw it on

That aside, is there any good way to tell if it's the sway bar, springs or shocks without pulling them completely off? I knocked on them with a rubber mallet while I had the car on jacks and got no movement/sound, but wasn't convinced that was a valid way to tell if anything was wrong with those pieces.

 

Yeah sounds like either an exhaust hangar or swaybar. The rear bar install is pretty straight forward.

I also put in a set of OEM rear sway bar end links too, also an easy install.....had some 80+K miles on the original set so they had seen better days.

 

+2 on the swaybar hitting the control arm, look if there are any marks.

 

Cool, I'll check it out this weekend. Thanks all!!

 

Broken sway bar endlink?

 

I have something similar to this, but it's not as bad. If you figure it out, be sure to let us know.

 

Will do. I did a spot check of the endlinks last night, and they don't appear to be broken. Both are still in place and tight. Will do a more thorough inspection this weekend when I can get back under it again

 

Hard to tell on video, but it sounds like it may be on inside of car? I have heard noises when rear seat not entirely clipped in place, and also with seatbelt flipped weirdly.

 

Yup, I crawled all over the interior in the back while my wife drove (which was an interesting experience) thinking it was behind a panel or maybe under the rear seat, because when sitting in the car it really sounds like it's internal (actually sounds like it's in the boot-gate itself most of the time). It does seem to be something external tho. It's louder outside the car than it is inside, especially when driving in the parking garage at work with the sound bouncing off those concrete walls

 

prob suspension or sway bar.. i had the same sounds as you... try opening the hatch and push down one the trunk up and down and try and get someone to locate the problem..

 

I never could reproduce it unless it was moving. No amount of bouncing or pushing on the car while it was sitting still would do it...

Anyway, problem gone! I *think* it was a loose nut on the driver's side endlink. It felt a little looser than the other side when I removed them, but I didn't tighten it and test it out before I replaced the sway bar, so I can't be 100% sure.

Thanks for all of the input!!

 

Loose nut on top end link drivers side where it attached to sway bar cured my problem metallic rattle. Insignificant amount of nut loosness (took pry bar to move on unsprung weight) for a very loud noise resonating within the frame.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!! This would have been very very easy to miss even with a thorough inspection of the rear suspension.

 

i'm having the same problem. can you tell me where the bolt that you tightened is?

 

My friend had this exact same problem with his BMW. It turned out to be a loose emergency brake cable, that (if I recall correctly) was causing the parking brake shoes to rattle against the backing plate. Obviously the MINI does not use that kind of brake, so I'm not suggesting that. I'm mentioning this merely to remind us that sometimes it can be the most obscure thing.

 

In my case it was this one:

http://www.minicooperspeed.com/wp-co...swaybar002.JPG

The nut connecting the endlink to the sway bar (drivers side in my case). I could only reproduce the sound while driving, and the nut didn't feel loose when I initially checked it (wasn't on jacks at that point, tho), but I noticed the nut turned a heck of a lot easier than the passenger side when I went to disconnect it from the sway bar, and the sound was gone after getting the new one installed and the nuts all tight