Verruckt,

Let's hope that the noise source is your rear hatch.
The compliance bushing bolts, that I was referring to, are the bolts that attach the LARGE rubber bushing housing that is at the front end of the rear trailing arm to the chassis. These bushing housings attach infront of the rear wheel assembly at each side of the car, at the outside edge of the chassis, under the rear seat area. They are way high up; you'll need a socket extension to reach them and a flash light to see them. A couple of people posted that they found loose bolts right from the factory.
Don't forget to tell us what the cause of the "clunk" is.

Regards,
John Petrich in Seattle

 

Have you tried to drive the car with the back seats folded down ?

 

1. - Pull everything out of the side compartments. Stuff foam in there to make sure that it is not a loose wire bundle.

2. - Put two wraps of electrical tape around the rear hatch latch.

3. If it is the upper suspension bolts that set the toe that are so loose as to cause rattling you would have probably noticed significantly different handling characteristics. Not a bad idea to check tightness though.

4. - Check battery mount and tightness of surrounding stuff.

5. - Put a friend in the back so that he/she can pinpoint exactly where the sound is coming from.

6. - Check exhaust integrity and clearance.

7. - Torque wheel bolts.

More stuff after this. (:

 

Well, I had high hopes for a boot latch rattle, but unfortunately, that was not the problem. Drove around with the hatch open, same noise. I'm going to drop the struts next and check the top nut. I'll look at the trailing arm bushings then, too.

 

Ok I had this exact same problem for several weeks. The first time I thought I fixed it I loosned the swaybar to chassis bolts and preloaded the bar then tightned them again.

That worked for about a week then it came back.

So now I put the car back on my lift loosned everything and I mean everything that I took off in the first place then fully preloaded the rear suspension. I lowered the car all the way down on some wooden blocks, then retorqued all of the bolts with the full weight of the car on the suspension.

That wa a week ago and so far no more clunk.

 

Well, I dropped the struts and checked the swing arm bushing mouning bolts, and everything was to spec. So today, I gave up and made a "Doctor's appointment" for "Tha Baby." Whatever it is, at least I won't have to worry about it any more. With warm weather coming (some day), I want to be able to enjoy my MINI at 100% again with no nagging noises!

One little note: I cannot induce noise by cornering. I also noticed that carying heavy loads reduces or eliminates the noise, and it's not just muffling it. Because of this, I had high hopes for loose strut top nut, but alas, it was not the case.

Wish me luck!

 

I'm having a similar problem in the rear of my car, having just installed h-sport springs a few weeks ago. The clunking didn't start right away after the install, but a couple weeks later. I think it's the driver's side, but it is hard to tell for sure.

I've checked all the bolts I touched during the install, with the exception of the top nuts--that's probably what I'll check next. I've also checked the battery, jack, looked inside the side panels, removed the cover to the luggage area, driven around with the hatch open, flipped the seats down, and so far no success. The springs are installed in the correct orientation.

These rattling noises really can drive you nuts!!

PBFoot

 

shocks- stock
worse when cold
yes
no-passenger side
It is so comforting to find posts like this that nail down EXACTLY a problem so thoroughly.I'm going to pulley party in April so Randy can trouble shoot this, since he's the one who installed the sway bar in the first place.If he gets stumped I'll know I'm in trouble.

 

Mine clunks

 

... and the 'CLUNK" is GONE!

Now I can actually enjoy the car without a nagging feeling that something is going to fall off!


The bad news is that apparently, I am certifiably crazy.

It was the rear hatch. Yes, even though I drove around with it opened and convinced myself that I was still hearing the noise. The technician said he coudln't hear the noise, but he adjusted the boot latch anyway (?), and no more problem! Woo-hoo!!

I guess this all goes to show that if you are paranoid enough, you can hear sounds coming from anywhere. The Swaybar was my first suspension mod, so I was SURE I had managed to forget something, or misalign something, or... well, you get the picture.

Thansk for everyone's suggestions, especially Petrich! He wins!!!

 

Mine does this as well when I installed my H-Sport comp rear sway bar and H-Sport springs. I did not tighten everything under load though, so I am going to do that tonight and see if that corrects it.

 

And it turns out to be the rear hatch latch and stuff. Fixed under warranty.

 

Yeah. I need to get them to demo that adjustment for me, so I can fix it myself after the warantee is up. Damned thing. After the warantee is up, though, I'll probably buy the newer latch (with the emergency release). I wish they'd just replace mine, but oh well.

 

I always read the forums, but I never post. When I read this thread I had respond, and help my fellow mini motorists. I don't know which diameter of sway bar you installed, but I recently installed a 22mm Alta swaybar on my 05'mcsc. I also had the same issue with the clunking, and it sounded like a broken shock. I checked all of my nut and they were OK. I noticed my sway bar was very close to my unibody, so it made sense to me that was what it could be. I took a couple washers and put them between my subframe and unibody. I put it all back together and drove the car with absolutely no noise. I don't know if the washers are the best kind of shimm, but for now it will work. I hope this will help.

 

Well I just did another inspection on mine. After installing everything, hearing the clunk from the right rear (and only the right rear), rebolting everything under load, I still heard the noise. Yesterday I just laid under my car for about a half an hour looking around for anything to help me out. Well... it seems my e-brake cable is hitting against my Milltek exhuast muffler. There are very apparant rub marks on the cable, and the muffler on the Milltek is getting polished by the cable

Since the e-brake cable is attached to the suspension (which obviously goes up and down on roads), every time the suspension compresses the cable hits the muffler (which reaffirms my suspision it was not metal on metal or a dangerous sound at all). The reason why it didn't hit before is my suspension was not as low as it is now with the H-Sports.

Anywho, I need to figure out how to move the e-brake cable out of the way. And no, zip tieing it to the lower control arm does not work. Any ideas?

 

Perhaps you can try to wrap the e brake cable with heat insulation of some sort. There are plenty of sources. There are also plenty of different types of heat resistant tubing that you can cut lengthwise, slide over the e brake cable. Use an aluminum type tape to hold in place. Or, a self adhesive insulation attatched to the muffler.

This might eliminate the noise, and, protect the e brake cable from heat.

Check out Saveguard, a textile company, and then Truechoice, for all sorts of racing stuff.

Good luck.

Michael

 

I have developed a clunk since installing my Alta 22mm and suspected the same thing. I will give this a try and see how it works. Thanks.

 

OK, I finally got Bettie up on the lift yesterday (Thanks NTHUSIAST!) and we tore into the rear. After checking all of the usual suspects, we pulled the exhaust and the heat sheilds and found the source of the clunk. Towards the middle of the car the bar was making contact with the undercoating. We loosened the outside subframe bolts:



[Picture and how-to courtesy Outmotoring Thanks! ]

and then loosened and removed the inner subframe bolts.



[Picture and how-to courtesy Webb Motorsports Thanks Randy! ]

We then carefully trimmed as much of the undercoating we could saftely without exposing the surface underneath. Finally we installed a single washer between the subframe (Black piece pictured) and the "frame" (gray surface pictured) on each of the inside subframe bolts. Tightened everything up, re-installed the heat shields and exhaust, and went for a test drive. The clunk is gone!!!

You can do a visual check for this problem by removing both of the rear tires and with a flashlight following the path of the bar along the underside of the car. Since the subframe does not move when the suspension is loaded and unloaded if the bar touches it will be touching when inspected.

Hope that helps. BTW, LOVE the bar!

 

Ok... Clunk update. TWO YEARS AGO, I posted that adjusting the rear hatch solved the problem of the mysterious rear clunk. NOT SO! It cam back, I just started ignoring it and wrote it off as a quirk. SInce then, two more dealerships have checked it for me, the last of which (before warantee went away) replaced the ENTIRE rear suspension with the exception of the Madness sway bar. No change. Still Thunk.

THen a month or so ago, my wife and I started noticing increased tire noise from that same right rear. THEN we noticed that it got notably worse when in a hard right-hander. Uh-oh. So I jacked up the car and grabbed the right rear wheel in both hands, and lo and behold, the wheel and hub move where there should be no movement. D@mned wheel bearing. Three years, four dealers and a whole new rear suspension later, and it has been an increasingly bad rear wheel bearing the whole time.

Check 'em guys.