Weird clunking from rear? - RESOLVED & WTF, OMFG!

Hi all, Question time... Took the car out last night and noticed a clunk from the rear every now and again. Almost like a suspension clunk but doesn't do it all the time over bumps like you'd think. Maybe ARB and droplinks? Also maybe thinking the pads are lose in the calipers and I'm hearing them move around. It did it in reverse when parking, driving slowly on smooth tarmac, driving on bumpy road???? Going to get it up on stands tomorrow to have a look but wondering if the knowledgable masses had any ideas :dont know: Thanks :thumb:

Could be loads of things, maybe the pads, they clonk in reverse and then when you go forwards but this would not keep happening once you are travelling until you reverse again. As you said the best thing to do is jack her up and go over it with a pry-bar searching for a dodgy ball joint.

For what it's worth, I had an intermittent clunk coming from the rear which turned out to be the rear ARB droplinks - at one point someone had replaced them and cross-threaded the bolt going in. Instead of taking the damaged bolt out and repairing, they just wound it in as much as they could which wasn't very far. Great british workmanship eh?! Before anyone asks, it wasn't me that did it, ok!! :lol:

Thanks for the advice, finally got to the bottom of it. Did the usuall 911 website searches and had all manner of things to check, from CV joints to droplinks... Came across one thread on another site that I thought was stupid but I'd check anyway... It suggested checking wheel nuts as they have been known to come loose after as little as 1000miles... So this morning I checked and OMFG!, my passenger rear wheel had 2 nuts missing!!!!!!! Then I checked all the others, every nut, including the locking nuts was loose! The 2 missing nuts included the locking nut, WTF?! Now I'm no spanner novice and regularly check things like that, the last time I torqued all wheels was 2 weeks previously on the Ring trip. I KNOW they were all done up correctly... Luckily I have spare sets so no biggy but please, please, please guys check your nuts... I still don't know how this happened but will be religiously checking things after long drives... :nooo:

recently had your wheels refurbed? thats the biggest problem.

Hundreds of thousands of miles later and never lost a nut or had a wheel loose. I was once in a car with such a problem but we remembered we forgot to torque the nuts after removing the wheels so it made sense. Has anyone had the wheels off since OR the torque you're using or torque wrench aren't correct/accurate? I prefer the whole lean on it with my body weight torque wrench personally

Really? Paint thing? Jeff, nope, I've had the wheels on and off loads since the refurb. Torque up to correct amount everytime using large torque wrench from Halfords, same one I've had for years and never had an issue... And the fact that all nuts were loose suggests something other than that... Maybe, hot day at the Ring, 13 or so laps, drive home in heat same day, then let car sit in cold-ish London for a week...??? Possible with new paint???

None of it sounds right unless you had an issue with the wheel not sitting flush on the hub and eventually it trued up against the hub causing the tension to release from the nuts.... Or your torque wrench has gone far enough out of calibration. For the cost however of getting it calibrated, it's probably cheaper to buy a new one if that's the case unless it's a Snapon etc. Don't know, but something isn't right mate. They should not have come undone. You sure you didn't have the Renault team do up your wheel nuts for you?

Just a left-field suggestion - maybe someone tried to steal your wheels? LOJO

stuart - have you done a track day since your wheel refurb? i had my pinks on for a good 5-600 miles before a track day, never had a prob, two sessions and they were loosening... the extra heat in the brakes melts the paint - its worse with powder coating - and your wheels are then loose... on the geo, during wheel runout we have seen 1-3mm axial runout in wheels that have been repainted - they should mask off the flange AND the nut seat.

Jeff - The torque wrench seems to be working fine, you kind of know how much force you are using and it's quite alot... Plus for all to come loose? Maybe I might forget to torque 1 or 2 nuts most but 5, on each wheel? Lojo - I did think that too but it was parked on quite a busy street next to a Starbucks and fancy restaurant. People and police going passed all the time, you'd have to be the bravest thief in the land. Also why undo all nuts including the locking nuts then only take 2 out inc locking nut? You'd think they would do each wheel in turn, starting from the least obvious from the road, the exact opposite corner... Matt - I got them powdercoated then went on the Ring trip. Took the wheels off once to replace discs and pads then retorqued. Since coming back I've barely driven it. I'm leaning towards this as the culprit though and will be keeping an eye on them... I take is once it's happened it shouldn't happen again as the paint would now be 'seated' after the heat cycle...? Cheers all :thumb:

i wouldnt take the chance, just whip em off, and chip it off back to bare metal, should be easier now its cooked and curdled...

Will do, cheers Matt... Still freaked that this could happen, wonder how long I'd been driving like that???

Hmm. . . Have you been putting it about? LoL On a serious note it would be most certainly down to the paint in combination with giving it some extra stress on the track. Ensure the bolt seats are down to the metal.

Given only one wheel though showed the problem my hypothesis is this. That wheel had a paint problem on the hub face causing it not to mate flush. That's why all nuts came loose only on that wheel. Once the paint gave way or softened the wheel moved closer the to hub and the tension was released from the nuts. That would explain why only one wheel possibly?