turned out its bad transmission mount!

[LuminaME]

had major service to suspension couple months ago, that dealt with all the all noises and clunks ... except for one, deep clunk sound at road bumps mostly when driving slow coming from front/middle of the car. Had car inspected at few places and none could diagnose the fault. It wasn't very frequent and not so annoying so I managed to live with it.

Last week as it started to get more cold in the morning, another sound came up, just at start up in colder days, a sound as if a loose part is fitted around driveshaft and rotating undercar hitting the body.
occures only once and lasts for like a minute or few, goes for good after car warms up.

This made me re-think of the older left clunk... that too seemed to lessen when car is warmer.

Thinking of it:
- eleminated possibilities of starter motor related, it starts up without any sign of struggle
- eleminated possible causes in engine/tranny as there was not any sign in performance
- had peddal floored few times while looking at engine, and it looked good in place without movement, so engine mounts should be good too.

>> left my doubts at tranny mount.

had car inspected at dealer for that sound, and although car was left to next morning to fire cold, they couldnt duplicate the case (was a real warmer morning), and said there is no issue in engine/transmission/suspension!

I asked change of transmission mount (at my request), and they argued for no need, but I i sisted (my $$). I left the car and came at end of day picked the car. To my surprise I wasn't charged for labor, and discounted almost %40 off mount price. Only realised why the genearouse treat when I got home and looked at the old mount they packed in my trunk, the rubber had totally broken of metal surface!! ...
and both sounds mentioned above are gone for good (a clunk, and the grinding below car at cold starts)

hope this helps

 

[dgp]

Great result Lumina, and possibly helpful to other members trying to diagnose the same types of noises.

 

[Immortality]

Good result.

This is the perfect example of why a simple visual check and even hand manipulation won't diagnose many issues with suspension/bushes and rubber mounts etc when they are under a loaded condition.

 

[dazzdodge]

Yeah, cheers for the heads up

 

[billalex63]

had major service to suspension couple months ago, that dealt with all the all noises and clunks ... except for one, deep clunk sound at road bumps mostly when driving slow coming from front/middle of the car. Had car inspected at few places and none could diagnose the fault. It wasn't very frequent and not so annoying so I managed to live with it.

Last week as it started to get more cold in the morning, another sound came up, just at start up in colder days, a sound as if a loose part is fitted around driveshaft and rotating undercar hitting the body.
occures only once and lasts for like a minute or few, goes for good after car warms up.

This made me re-think of the older left clunk... that too seemed to lessen when car is warmer.

Thinking of it:
- eleminated possibilities of starter motor related, it starts up without any sign of struggle
- eleminated possible causes in engine/tranny as there was not any sign in performance
- had peddal floored few times while looking at engine, and it looked good in place without movement, so engine mounts should be good too.

>> left my doubts at tranny mount.

had car inspected at dealer for that sound, and although car was left to next morning to fire cold, they couldnt duplicate the case (was a real warmer morning), and said there is no issue in engine/transmission/suspension!

I asked change of transmission mount (at my request), and they argued for no need, but I i sisted (my $$). I left the car and came at end of day picked the car. To my surprise I wasn't charged for labor, and discounted almost %40 off mount price. Only realised why the genearouse treat when I got home and looked at the old mount they packed in my trunk, the rubber had totally broken of metal surface!! ...
and both sounds mentioned above are gone for good (a clunk, and the grinding below car at cold starts)

hope this helps

I just want to say that thanks to your post I didn't end up selling my car because it was doing my head in, and the tranny mount was the problem for me too all along. I also think that the exhaust being hung so close to the engine ie from the tranny crossmember plays a role in being noisy when cold and quiets down when engine warms up! The thing that also convinced me is that by taking the exhaust hangers off, the noise never really goes away and that's because the expansion of the pipes don't have any effect on the mount! I think there must be a pivot on the engine mounts with exhaust pipes expanding and taking some load off the tranny mount( just my theory).
Thanks again!