Gearbox/drive shaft clunk Options

[Euphoria]

Hey, I've had a fair few clunks that have come and gone since I've owned this car but I've had this clunk for a long while and it is getting extremely frustrating, everytime you lift off in a low gear, put your foot down or just make the car misfire the whole front end has a very loud clunk noise, almost like something under there isn't tight, like a loose engine mount, only everything is and I've literally checked every suspension/cross member and engine mount bolt.

both bearings have been done recently and are problem free, struts and springs were done a couple years back and all bushings seem to be fine.

I can see it possibly being the driveshafts as they have never been changed, only the boots have been changed but they are showing no signs of play or noise when the wheel is moved whilst jacked up, this is also making it not seem like gearbox.

I have noticed when the car is jacked up I can move the driver side spring and it makes a clunk type noise, where as the other side doesnt and either does any other car I've looked at.

How loud can a bad strut mount clunk? also is there any other ways to determine what is wrong?

Thanks.

[Hanyo]

From my experience a CV axle does not make any noise during acceleration and decelleration. The tell tail signs of a cv axle going out is the infamous clicking while your turning.

Judging by your car symptoms its sound more like you have a problem with a ball joint or suspension related failure.

To fix this I would recommending you lift up the front of your car and check for play in the suspension. Such as where your ball joints, tie rod ends, and control arms.

good luck.

[Euphoria]

Cv's generally do click but they can clunk.

no play in any of the suspension whatsoever apart from the spring on the driver side as I'm fairly sure the strut mounts are gone.

[krom8]

Bad input shaft bearing? Do you hearing any faint whirring noises with the clutch engaged(pedal off the floor in nuetral and pedal off the floor in gear)?

This post has been edited by krom8: Aug 11, 2010 - 10:48 PM

[Euphoria]

I've thought this is possibility although I'm not very knowledgeable with what an input bearing does etc, in neutral it makes a faint whirring noise and then you put the clutch down it slightly goes away or it might be the opposite way around, I mean very faint and I thought this was normal.

[krom8]

A bad input shaft bearing will usually sound almost like a supercharger whine under acceleration. You won't get the noise with the clutch pressed to the floor. An input shaft bearing preloads torque to the transmission(that is my understanding anyways, which could be wrong). If it goes bad then it's time for a rebuild because you will have to pull the transmission apart to get to it or you could get another transmission which would be cheaper. The bearing itself doesn't cost much at all but replacing it is a JOB. If you suspect a bad input shaft bearing the best thing to do would be to take the car to a transmission shop, good mechanic or dealership and have somebody who know what they're doing drive the car. If you take the car somewhere don't tell them what you think it is, just tell them the symptoms.

[Euphoria]

doesn't sound like that, it has no whines and I think its just the throwout bearing causing different noises when the clutch is pressed and depressed.

[krom8]

If I were you I would go back and recheck all bushings and mounts again. It might be something simple that you missed. Is there anyway you could record some audio of the clunking sounds?

[Euphoria]

I did take a video but will have to upload later, I've been checking them for the last 6 months! lol. Its basically a clunk somewhere in the front end whenever you make the car misfire and move at the front, mainly when deaccelerating in a low gear.

[krom8]

The more I think about it the more I'm leaning towards it being a bad inner cv joint. You said they were the original axles, how many miles do you have on the car?

[Euphoria]

The more I think about it the more I'm leaning towards it being a bad inner cv joint. You said they were the original axles, how many miles do you have on the car?

240 000 km's bahaha

I've been thinking its that for a good while but they don't have any play, only a tiny bit of play which I thought was normal.

[chinamandrift]

i too have this problem .... accel and decel i get the clunk lightly ..some sorta thurst or preload problem in tranny

i just let it be to see how long it would last ( thinking it was my driver side CV axle)

then one day i was getting off the freeway when out of the blue i get the clunk clunk clunk

everytime the wheel was spining the clunk happens at every tire rotation

so i stopped at a gas station... jacked the car up and pulled the wheel off

all suspension components were good then i grabbed the center of the drive side axle and pulled it up and down

and it had alot of play

so at first i was thinking my axle shaft finally went out and i was wrong

its the input side that goes into the transmission thats moving up and down side to side

i limped the car home slowly and took everything apart

to get a closer look my input side of the drive cv shaft is walking around in my transmission

i tried rotating it and got tons of play ....in and out movement is ok

im going to look up a transmission diagram later to find out the leading cause

but im thinking bearings or busings or shims of some sort inside is bad

my transmission is going to have to come out for sure

im going to do a full rebuild as well 5afe manual owners 4th to 3rd down shift grinds

[jordisonjr]

the driveshafts as they have never been changed, only the boots have been changed

That leads me to believe its your CV joint.
I've been told by lots of members on here if your gunna do the boots you might as well do the whole joint.
You don't know how long the boot was ripped for previously, or if any dirt or grime got in there.
If anything did get in there, and you changer the boot, it may be stuck in there, and its basically working like sandpaper in your cv joint.

I'm leaning more towards cv joint, but Im not a mechanic haha just my two cents.

[chinamandrift]

normally you would get a clicking from the cv before the clunking

in my situation i got the clunking first .....and eventually it got worse ...

then got to the point where it clunked every rotation

and yes my inner cv boot is broken and have been broken for over 6months cuz im lazy to fix it (poor student)

but when i pulled them out and checked it ...it was still good with no abnormal play or damage

instead i found my inner cv input walking around in the transmission

my clunk happens accel and decel with a medium load on engine forward and reverse

i jacked the car up and drained the oil ...i got a metallic mist ( very fine metal material) in the oil

the noise i had sounded like it was the driver cv axle but it was inside the tranny

[Euphoria]

Yeah looks like its the transmission, jacked it up and made my dad drive and almost certain its coming from there and not the driveshafts, defs think its the same as what you have chinaman, will see when I take the driveshaft out.

[chinamandrift]

Yeah looks like its the transmission, jacked it up and made my dad drive and almost certain its coming from there and not the driveshafts, defs think its the same as what you have chinaman, will see when I take the driveshaft out.

you can check by

jacking the car up

putting jack stand on for safety reasons

take the wheel off ...then take the mud guard off

grab the center of the cv shaft and pull up and down on it and side to side ( not in and out)

it should barely move talking like less then 1mm of movement ( i can look up specs later for you)

we are checking the movement of the inner cv shaft going into the transmission

you can also put the car in gear any gear then rotate it clock wise and counter clock wise

there is free play before the gears actually move the axles( the part where it moves with the least resistance)

there should be very minimal freeplay ...talking like less than 1mm again (i can find specs later)

my car lol the inner cv moved like it was a hot dog in a hallway

and i had too much freeplay clockwise and counter clock wise

basically the clunking is everytime you put a load on the axle (accel decel)

the tranny gears move first ...then its over comes the freeplay ..and metal slams into metal

basically beating it self to death

This post has been edited by chinamandrift: Aug 19, 2010 - 10:04 PM

[Euphoria]

the axle doesnt have a ton of play, it only has a tiny bit of movement up and down and in and out.

[chinamandrift]

the axle doesnt have a ton of play, it only has a tiny bit of movement up and down and in and out.

did you check both sides ? it can be the other side making the noise ....that makes it way through the transmission

[marinos]

Hello i m new to the 6gc i have the same problem and it seems to be the gearbox having the problem. I listen the clunk noise from the left side of the car and i also recently changed the cv but still had the clunk noise. Also my mechanic went under the car in the pit witch change the oil and i was going for 1/2 meter front and reverse and he said to me it sounds like is coming from the gearbox. Any idea what could that problem be? I don't know what else to think everything seems good and also i had recently align my car at an expert with computers and he checked also everything from bushing to all the suspension and he said to me that there is nothing wrong.

sorry for my bad English.

[jordisonjr]

I know that you said your wheel bearings were done recently,
bu could they have been installed incorrectly?
I had that problem too, I had mechanics tell me my tranny was going, my cv joints were done, even to sell my car or write it off cause it woldn't be fixable.
I took it back to the mechanic who did the wheel bearings, he drove it and said he must have installed them wrong,
And re did the wheel bearings and it was fine.

It actually sounded like something was seriously wrong, like something was going to blow up.
I thought the tranny was going too.
Maybe take a look at that.