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What's causing clunking sound in right rear side?

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    What's causing clunking sound in right rear side?

    I own an 89 325i sedan and I keep getting this clunking sound coming from the right side of the car when going over road imperfections and bumps. My car is lowered by an inch with H&R OE Springs matched with OE/Touring Bilsteins (the black ones). Using a process of elimination from simple/cheap to complex/expensive, I've done all the following in order to eliminate the annoying noise: (1) I've tightened the battery housing and other possible loose items in the trunk, (2) replaced the rear bushings, joints and shock guide supports, and (3) repaced both rear wheel hubs as well. Out of desperation, I've even installed those yellow Febi shock dampers. No luck.
    The noise remains and has even gotten a bit louder. What makes it even more irritating is that the noise is intermittent and therefore harder to isolate. My gut feel is that it's coming from the shock mount area. In more than one occassion, the mechanics have found the guide supports loose. I've replaced the guide supports more than once, but it somehow still gets loose.
    Could it be the lowering spring forcing the shock struts to loosen the mounts and support? Some guy in a different forum said he added a rubber washer in the uper mount and the noise went away. Given my level of pessisimism - it may not be that simple. Most recently I bought a brand new set of original BMW E30 springs. I'm hoping that bringing back the ride height to the original one will do the trick.
    Anyone come across the same problem with rear noise? Please help before I spend even more money.

    #2
    Which rear bushings have your replaced? Subframe bushings and shock mounts are common sources of the clunking in the rear. Bilsteins in my experience are a noisy shock. They seem to have a bang noise when hitting a bigger bump. The lowering springs should not cause any mounts to come loose, most of the people on this site have their cars lowered and I've never heard of any issues.
    -Brandon
    '86 325es S50
    '12 VW GTI Autobahn DSG
    '03 540i M-Sport (sold)
    '08 Jeep SRT-8 (sold)

    For sale:
    S50 TMS chip for Schricks

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      #3
      When Jordan came over to the shop yesterday, we put the car on the rack and found several things...one of which was the sway-bar end link is broken in half! I am thinking that just may be some of the clunk I hear in my car's left rear quarter.
      BTW, Jordan, if you see this,THANKS!!! Exhaust sounds much better without rattles.

      Closing SOON!
      "LAST CHANCE FOR G.A.S." DEAL IS ON NOW

      Luke AT germanaudiospecialties DOT com or text 425-761-6450, or for quickest answers, call me at the shop 360-669-0398

      Thanks for 10 years of fun!

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        #4
        I have the same clunking coming from my front right wheel and the shop told me the i needed a control arm.
        sigpic

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          #5
          Originally posted by Beej '86 325es
          Which rear bushings have your replaced? Subframe bushings and shock mounts are common sources of the clunking in the rear. Bilsteins in my experience are a noisy shock. They seem to have a bang noise when hitting a bigger bump. The lowering springs should not cause any mounts to come loose, most of the people on this site have their cars lowered and I've never heard of any issues.
          Replaced the subframe bushing, stabilizer bushing and trailing arm bushing. Shock mounts have been replaced as well. Bilsteins may have a noisier sound than stock but this is a different noise. As a matter of fact, I've already traded in the yellow sport shocks for the OE black shocks to see if that was part of the problem. You hear the noise even over the smallest bumps and on uneven but paved roads. Its not a loud crash or thud, just sucessive thumps or clunks. Any other possible reasons?

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