Hi
Does this perhaps sound familiar to anyone:

Unlock steering.
Jack up driver side.
Hold front wheel at 9 and 3 and wiggle.
Substantial play, and clunking sound from somewhere in "middle" of car.
I can see the steering tie-rod move when I do this (which makes me believe it's not the bearings or ball-joints).

B

 

Not an expert, but maybe you should look up issues with front control arm bushing wear. I'm overdue to have my replaced.

 

I have not jacked up my car but I hear a substantial 'clunk' noise in the front right while driving and hitting slight bumps. Sounds like something is loose but I don't feel any play in the steering or handling.

 

Front control arm bushings...

 

Or ball joints

 

BruceWarne, I have the same trouble and have been trying to track it down for a while now. Exact same symptoms. I have replaced, all the ball joints, control arm bushings, sway bar links, sway bar bushings, strut mounts, inner and outer tie rods, front right wheel bearing and lower steering shaft.

I am getting a clunk from around the steering box, near the pinion. I inspected the teeth on the rack for signs of wear when I replaced the inner tie rods and found no groves or anything I could feel with even a finger nail. The only thing I could imagine being bad on the steering rack would be the pinion shim but would expect it would cause marks on the rack teeth.

My strut bolts I believe are a tad bit loose but that will not explain the clunk in the steering system when unloaded. I have been waiting to get the struts tightened up before digging deeper into the rack but I have a bad feeling.

 

I have been having this exact same problem since I got my Clubman S two years ago. No one can figure out what the problem is, and it makes it feel like I'm driving a Yugo. It happens intermittently when going over bumps, and sometimes during initial acceleration of any kind.

The dealer blamed it on the Koni FSDs that I had installed, but the clunk was there before I installed those (unfortunately I didn't mention it until after the installation -- whoops). I had the front control arm bearings replaced with polys, which didn't change the problem.

 

I'd put my money on the control arm bushings. I had the clunking sound coming from the front but only when the car was cold. The Mini shop I take the car to, told me that the control arm bushings were getting soft so I bought a set of Powerflex polyurethane bushings and had the shop put them on. The clunking sound is gone and the steering feel has greatly improved. It now feels like when the car was new.

I suspect the ball joints are next but they seem to be more durable than the control arm bushings.

BTW, I put on a set of Koni FSDs and cannot say enough good about them. The car is now a dream to drive on the bad freeway road surfaces here in Southern California.

 

I agree with you about the Koni FSDs...HUGE difference here in So Cal, indeed! One of my friends has the original shocks in his S, and it's a total drag to drive compared to mine.

The poly bushings didn't help with my car, so I'll go to the shop and have him check the ball joints...the MINI dealers (both South Coast and Nick Alexander) are useless for this problem, so I'll just pony up the cash to get in fixed.

 

This concerns me. My car has been doing this since about 3 months after I bought it, and it's not even 2 years old yet. Oy, MINI...

 

mine did that and it was the front sway bar bushings.. they were dried out and sticking when the bar was sliding through them...first i sprayed them with wd40 and it went away...came back about a month later so i sprayed them with some real grease and no more clunk.

 

Sounds like you need some powerflex control arm bushings

 

I had a similar clunk on the right side and tracked it down to a loose lower ball joint nut. I'm not sure how it got loose, but I torqued it back to spec and the problem went away. The ball joint was in good shape, so I didn't have any other work to do.

Guess I got lucky.

 

any updates? I have the same problem and have put all new motor mounts, front bushings and still get a noise. Mostly over bumps and if I turn the steering left right quickly. I did notice if I am making a turn at 20mph and hit small bump I dont get the noise.