Hey TIT! It's probably the car rejecting your Pirates logo not being properly displayed on a window vs. a fender well. :-) Good luck getting it fixed whatever the problem is.

 

Assael? I wouldn't trust those a$$hats to change my oil let alone diagnoss an intermitent noise by actually driving my car. If I can't find the problem I will have the "click" noted, and checked during my next service at South Bay.

 

Interesting. My '05 MCS with 16,000 miles has just started doing something similar. A sharp, but relatively light "clunk" accelerating or decelerating in gear. If I put the clutch in and coast or use the brakes, no clunk. But if I let the clutch out, causing engine braking, then I hear the clunk as soon as I let the clutch out. So I think it must be driveline related, no?

I drove a Volvo 544 once whose rubber bushings on the front sway bar were shot. Got a similar sort of sound. I started wondering if my MINI's motor mounts are bad, and I've seen messages in the threads linked to this one that mention half-shaft problems, etc. Ick!

Please let us know what you find out!

 

Sorry, not following you. What is the connection between the sound made by decayed swaybar bushings on a 40-year old Volvo and defective motor mounts on your new MINI?

 

Sorry - I see now how that remark could have been confusing. Made sense to me at the time.

First of all, the Volvo wasn't 40 years old at the time I drove it. It was only a few years old.

With the bushings shot, the sway bar would shift each time you accelerated or decelerated. The sway bar would make a *clunk* against its mount.

So I was thinking if a motor mount on my MINI was broken, the mount could be making a similar noise. Or something connected to the engine could be contacting some other part of the car that it doesn't normally contact when the engine is properly constrained, e.g., the exhaust hitting part of the chassis, something like that.

I only started noticing this sound about three days ago, so I haven't had a chance to try and locate it or anything. But the *clunk* on accelerating and decelerating made me think of the Volvo, though the symptoms were different. Having had a few broken motor mounts on other cars (a Buick station wagon and a Dodge Caravan) and given the conditions under which I heard - and didn't hear - the *clunk*, I thought of motor mounts as one possibility to consider. When I saw the post in the other thread about strange "discharges" around someone's motor mounts, I thought, "aha!" Must go out and look around that area. (But we were under severe thunderstorm alert tonight, so I stayed inside.)

I'll freely admit I don't know much about MINIs. Or modern cars, for that matter. The last car I felt passionate about had dual SUs and drum brakes all around!

 

So I took Tillie to the dealer today. The SA asked me, "You said it's a 'clunk,' right?"

"Well, it's not all that loud. I'd say it's somewhere between a 'click' and a 'clunk'."

He suggested I take one of the techs for a test drive. I was worried that it would be one of those "intermittent" problems (carspeak for "it won't happen at the dealer") but it did it as soon as we pulled away. "Was that it?" the tech asked.

He had me put the handbrake on, give it a little gas and slip the clutch. No clunk then. Had me try it again. No clunk the second time, either. (I wish I'd had the presence of mind to ask what that test was for.)

Then we drove around the back of the lot, out to the street and into the front entrance, accelerating and decelerating, hearing the clunk each time.

"It sounds like your engine mount. It's right about there," he said, pointing towards his feet. "Have you seen any oil spots on the floor?" I told him no.

He popped the hood release as he got out, and we went around to the front of the car and lifted the hood. Sure enough, there was a sort of gooey discharge in the area just below the passenger side engine mount. He said they had seen a few of these lately.

So, in my case, anyway, that's what the noise turned out to be - a bad engine mount. Not only did the tech identify it right away, but it sounded like they have seen some other cars recently with the same problem.

(A minor caveat: I haven't gotten the car back yet, but it seems pretty likely they got this one right.)

 

Well, as Kathy goes in on monday to have this looked at I will mention your post. Hopefully the tech's have as easy a time identifying the problem as yours did. Thanks for the update.

 

Did you look at the pics Tit linked to in his post in the first page of this thread? Mine looked a lot like that, only not so "burnt on" looking. Just goo down there. (I hope my dealer cleans up the mess!)

Good luck and best wishes for a speedy and satisfactory outcome!

 

I sometimes hear something like that. I have always assumed it was the fuel pump. (My wife's Big Healey had the fuel pump right behind the passenger seat and made a similar, though faster, noise.) I just checked my Bentley manual, and there is a fuel pump back there. It's on the left (ie, driver's side), but that could still be the sound we're hearing. Or it might be the exhaust system expanding as it warms up?

 

The clicking in out of gear on acceleration and decelleration is drive shaft retention bolt.Tech will retorque to new higher spec,shaft dosnt have to be replaced.Problem 2 clicking at idle that comes and goes is a purge valve,it is normal.Problem 3 is on newer Minis with fluid filled mounts,fluid leaks out mount gets noisy,will clunk and click depending on how much fluid is gone.

 

The fuel pump idea makes sense. It is not the exhaust system expanding because the ticking is exactly like a watch - very regular.