Last tuesday the car turned 2 weeks and... first problem!

After a 1 hour drive home under severe traffic conditions, two blocks before reaching home (fortunately) I stop at a left turn and when I accelerate I hear this loud clunking noise and a hissing. First thought was I had a flat tire (the car didn´t stall nor did I get any warning lights on), I rushed the two blocks home and then inspect the car. Found nothing, tires are OK, none of the car´s liquids is spilling.

So I attributed to driving over a Coca Cola bottle. Following day I left the car alone all morning, then I took it for a short test drive. I get the same thing again (made a stop and when accelerating hear again this loud clunk).

Non of the check engine lights, ABS, etc lights comes on and the car still runs after the sound. seems to be coming from the front right wheel. Any suggestions what it could be? (Car is a MC with a stick shift and 300 Kms - 186 miles)

Don´t have the nerve to drive the car to the dealer under rush hour morning traffic, so I will call Mini assistance and get it towed.

Big, big dissapointment. Reliability is a must for me because I have to drive over not very safe neighborhoods and the though of a broken car in the middle of one of them scares me to death! Mini will have to be a weekend car for at least a couple of months until I recover trust on him

 

you have insurance right? The dealer may not figure out what it is, so if it's not broken, drive it! If you're that worried about bad areas of town, arm yourself, wear kevlar, and find a new route! Take it to the dealer anyway, at best they find the issue, at worst your no different off.

Can you feel the clunking also? The clunking only occurs after a stop during acceleration? My first thoughts are it could be a defective CV, untorqued bushing mounts, or something else loose in the front suspension.

 

My MC has done the same thing a few times when braking too hard, when braking too quickly and causing the car to dive while turning, etc.. I'm not sure if it's the brakes or the suspension, but I haven't been too worried about it. Makes a sound like the rotor/brake pad is catching really hard on something and then clunks/pops and you can feel it too.

It drives fine afterwards and I wouldn't worry and not drive your car - it's not going to break the car from my experience. I've had my MC for 8 months now and no major problems.

But if you find out what it is and why, please do let us know if it's something we should check and get repaired.

 

do you have DCS? How fast around the corner? Maybe the ABS/DSC/EBD operating your brakes???? Just a thought.

 

Hi,

Thanks for the input. My car has the ASC+T (BMW traction control system) with the ABS and EBD. No DSC though. My thoughts are still around the brakes.

First failure occurred after being stuck in heavy traffic for an hour. No hard braking at any time. The "clunk" came after a full short stop for a left turn, when I engaged the clutch, shifted to first and when I started moving is when I heard the noise. Second time it was exactly the same situation, but I was turning right.

Yesterday I got the car towed to the dealer and went for a test drive with the mechanic, guess what: NO NOISE! This little guy wants to play a game with me

They will keep the car until monday and check out everything. Hope it´s nothing serious and that they actually find out something, because "murphy´s law" will play it that they could tell me the car is fine and the moment I take it out it plays the game again!

 

>>Yesterday I got the car towed to the dealer and went for a test drive with the mechanic, guess what: NO NOISE! This little guy wants to play a game with me
>>

Come on, you know better! Of course it's not gonna make a noise after taking it to your famous dealership.
Like Jeremy99 said:
<<"It drives fine afterwards and I wouldn't worry and not drive your car - it's not going to break the car from my experience. I've had my MC for 8 months now and no major problems">>

 

Hey Mexminime...you're one of the Mexican motorers who said that they had to drive over something like 50 speed humps on their daily commute, right? I hate to say it, but I'd look at that as a cause for any number of problems with the suspension, brakes, CV, etc. Further, if that's so, then the problem/sound ought to be rather easy to replicate. Let us know, and good luck!

 

I´m the one who has to drive over the speed bumps, but I´ve been very careful going over them with the Mini and surprisingly the car hasn´t rubbed in any speedbump, not even the taller ones.

The weird thing is that the day the car made the clunking noise I didn´t drive over any speed bump. The only major thing that happened was I was stuck in heavy traffic for over one hour, which I think ANY modern car should be able to stand.

Car is in the dealer until Monday (hopefully), they will check everything out and try to get the noise to come out again. At least I´m very concerned because it doesn´t sound like an engine or transmission failure.

I´ll let everybody know, since I already contacted another person with the exact same problem, this might become a common problem for new Minis.