Hi all

I've got a 2005 (sept 2004 delivery) Mini ragtop

The moment i accelerate, i get a single click coming from somewhere on the passenger's side (i think)
When i let off the gas, if i don't hit the clutch (so the car goes into engine braking), the deceleration is enough to make the same click happen again.

One click per accel/decel.

Almost if something is loose/can move/is leaning one way or another and tilting back and forth. Extremely gradual accel/decel doesn't cause the noise.

I've done the usual, removed everything from the car, tied up all seatbelts, still happening. I'm wondering if there's a joint or part that could be loose somewhere that someone here knows about?

I'm going to go for a ride with some people in the car to see if they can help isolate the location later, but if someone here has had this already...

thanks!

 

You have to get it up in the air and look. It can be something loose, but that term is relative, it might not feel loose with just a hand wiggling it. CV joints tend to make more noise and it is usually during a turn they click.

If you can't safely get under the car, best bet is to have a mechanic look at it and tell you what he sees.

 

I had it up on jacks and could see the shafts turning, but really can't find anything loose, by sound or feel. I'm guessing that means it's inside the tranny?

Is anything here common territory? Anywhere specific to investigate? I could put it up and narrow things down if i knew where to look. The sound travels so well that i can't really ascertain where it's coming from without specific things to test.

thanks!

 

Glance at the passanger side engine mount...it is basicly a baloon filled with oil, and a bolt...it can tear, letting the oil leak out...the motor can then rock...hense a possible sound depending on how bad the mount is. Usually there is so.e oil dripping around the mount if it has failed.

 

Also just look at the exaust....a good bump on a speedbump could have bent a hanger..leavinf a pipe to bump something....

 

I don't think so... All i have to do is rotate the wheels slightly while up in the airto get the click. Definitely not moving the engine in that case...

Continued from my other thread...

When I accelerate or let off the gas/engine-brake, i get a single click each time. almost as if there's backlash in the transmission output, btw the tranny and the wheels.

Jacked the car up, and sure enough, I can reproduce the sound just by rotating the wheels back and forth by hand. say, 5 degrees back and forth is optimal to reproduce the thunk, and either wheel does it (pass side or drivers).

When i spin the drivers side wheel, the shaft coming out of the transmission to the pass wheel spins a few degrees, then stops when the click happens.
The click *seems* to be louder when i play with the pass. wheel, but i can't be sure.

It's very hard to pinpoint exactly where the noise is coming from. I'm *guessing* slop in either the CV joint or somewhere along the shaft, or in the tranny itself.

Any ideas?

thanks!

 

I have this click on mine when I accellerate or decellerate (leaving the clutch engaged) and was told by my mechanic it was a damaged halfshaft and to just keep driving it til it gets worse.

 

That sounds like my problem..

was your mechanic a mini mechanic?

What did he say would happen when it "Gets worse"?
How involved is the fix? Approx cost?

thanks

edit: Been looking up problems with mini halfshafts. None of them seem to mention symptoms like the ones i'm having (mine is a single click on accel/decel regardless of steering direction, not a constant click while turning the wheels, which is what is mentioned a lot)

 

Mine just started doing that about 2 or 3 weeks ago. More like a "thock" noise letting out clutch in first and again pushing in the clutch for upshift into second.

The mount was leaking oil, so I replaced it. Noise went away as well as annoying vibration at 2,100 RPM.

When I was changing mount, I had right front tire off ground. I did the back and forth rotation and could feel and hear backlash somewhere in the drive train. I think that is pretty normal.

I suspect that some of the oil leaked out a long time ago.

 

BMW Mechanic, I had him listen outside of my car while I accellerated and slowed. the sound he said is coming from the knuckle. It will progress into what other ones sound like.

 

Listen outside, like, stick his head out the window?

So he thinks it's just a CV joint, not the tranny? Is your CV boot damaged? What's the replacement cost?

thanks

 

What part went bad for you?

What kind of price do those things run installed?

 

Wow, I like those! I wish I had seen these when mine went bad. I got a rebuilt driver's side half-shaft from the dealer and paid more for it. Not crazy about the no-warranty part, though

 

For the record, the problem turned out to be a bad pass. side motor mount. Replaced it for like $85 and the clunk is gone now.

Just goes to show how hard it is to trace a sound out in these tiny cars!

 

Well, my 2005 MCS started making this same noise, but it's coming from the drivers side
Will Jack it up this weekend, hope it is something loose and not a CV joint or bad axle, but the noise is anoying!!!

 

Reviving this thread, because I have the same problem. Wondering about other possible causes.

I did the kick test as in this video and so I know I need to replace mine. Will definitely get the powerflex LCA bushings. Do you think it's possible this could be the cause of the click?

I first suspected the right upper motormount, because they're known to fail. Mine looks like oem, but not sure if it's failed or not. The rubber pad on the top, under the bolt looks fresh. Under it the frame rail looks dirty but not wet. The Origional owner could have replaced it once already. BTW, I'm at 73k miles on an 05 MCS

Today, I had a buddy of mine start to put load on it by engaging the clutch partway, while I stood outside the car watching. I expected to see the engine flex a lot, and hear the click from the motor mount. Nothing... Yet when we close the hood and go for a drive I get the single click, exactly as described by the Original Poster of this thread.

I read about some with this problem removing and retorqueing the axel nut. I can try that, this weekend I guess, but it seems odd. I need to rotate tires anyway, so easy enough to make sure the axel shaft / cv is seated tightly into the hub behind the disk.

Any other thoughts, or things I should check? Could it be LCA's?

I plan to do all motormounts, ball joints and LCA's, but need to do one project at a time to spread costs. Not sure which job to tackle first.

Alex