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Clunk from transmission noticed when stopping

13K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  SLU_S60R 
#1 ·
I drive a GT, it's in my sig. Lately, I have noticed a pretty faint clunk noise when coming to a complete stop at stop signs/traffic lights. It's not bad to the point I can feel it but I can hear it if the music is off. So I thought I would investigate.

Jacked up front end and pulled fuse for AWD so the car wouldn't take off. I found I can recreate the noise easily two ways. First way is to hold the brakes tight and shift between drive and reverse and back again. The change in drive direction brings about the noise. The noise is loudest where the axle inserts into the transmission and you can also notice the axle does look like the culprit of the clunk (loudest near there). For some reason, I did not think of listening closely to the passenger axle. These videos are of the driver axle and transmission torque mount as I shift like this D-R-D-R-wash-rinse-repeat





Next way to recreate sound was to let the wheels run in drive then brake abruptly. This is more the fashion in which I hear the noise while driving. It's louder this way because you add the momentum of the wheels. To me, the transmission mount seems acceptable but I have never seen a really bad one before.





Went out for a test drive for some troubleshooting. Noticed there is no clunk if I shift into neutral before coming to a stop so this will only happen in gear. That seemed significant to me. I can sometimes get a faint clunk during shifts but only sometimes. I tried downshifting from 3rd to 2nd and I think I got it to do it once. Checked axle bolts when I got home and they were both tight but I backed them off and retightened to 50nm anyway but ave not tested the car since so that may have contributed but it seems more like play where the axle meets the transmission.

Thoughts? and thanks in advance!
 
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#3 ·
LOL, bravo for still having your parts sticker on the drive shaft.

secondly, great job taking EXCELLENT HORIZONTAL video!

Your torque mount has more slop than I'd tolerate, upgrade to poly.

the clicking is definitely axle ping. Axle ping, now in high def!
 
#5 · (Edited)
LOL, bravo for still having your parts sticker on the drive shaft.

secondly, great job taking EXCELLENT HORIZONTAL video!

Your torque mount has more slop than I'd tolerate, upgrade to poly.

the clicking is definitely axle ping. Axle ping, now in high def!
Hey thanks. Not sure if the excellent video skills are a legitimate compliment or poking fun, but I am going to take it as a compliment. Thanks!

I also LOL'd when I saw the parts sticker. The parts sticker is still on the driveshaft because since I bought the car in 2011, I have always had a skid plate underneath the car. It is remarkable how clean everything stayed but I recently removed it for better heat dissipation. Since winter is coming, I will put it back on.

I feel like even if I change the mounts and make it super stiff, it would still clunk. I also don't know if I would go poly because of people reporting noticeably more vibration when idling.
 
#4 ·
This happens to me as well.

When the car warms up though it doesn't clunk when slowing down.

I do not have xc90 axle bolts.
 
#6 ·
I did tighten my axle bolts but they did not feel loose at all. I still need to test drive it.

Should the axle be allowed to shift the way it does when shifting D-R-D? I was thinking enough play in a bad inner CV joint could cause the clunk because it has to do with change in direction. Also would make sense why it does not happen when braking in neutral; no resistance on the inner side of the axle to cause a clunk.

I did the driver wheel bearing about 1 year ago and didn't know to be super careful that the axle doesn't move outwards from the transmission. I just let it hang there while I changed the bearing. Wondering if it is a contributor.
 
#7 ·
My axle bolts were always super tight, but xc90 bolts still quieted my ping. It's cheaper than a new axle, and something you might as well do anyway.

Hope they solve the issue.
 
#8 ·
My volvo does that too, thinking about picking up some xc90 bolts to fix the issue. Same thing, under braking at low speeds and changing gears (D+R)
 
#9 ·
My VR does the hard downshift to 1st when coming to a stop when the weather is colder and the trans is cold as well. Once the trans warms up or the weather it doesn't do it. I did a trans flush when I first got the car about a year and a half ago and the issue just started again now that its colder in the mornings...weird. It doesn't do it due to shifting from D to R and all of that, just when coming to a stop.
 
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#11 ·
I hope it is something simple like axle ping. The silly thing is, I used to have XC90 bolts installed but ended up selling them to a SS member because at the time I was getting a clicking noise from the front driver wheel but later attributed that to something else.

I'll get a video of the engine mounts as well when I find time. Does it appear as if torque mount is bad?
 
#12 ·
Definitely check the trans torque mount. The smaller bushing is a common part to fail. I have a fresh (less than 1k miles) smaller bushing along with the poly larger bushing if interested. Sold my car and no longer need them.
 
#13 ·
Will the polys pop right into the old mount or does the IPD mount have beefed up bores for the bushings?

If they fit, I am definitely interested.
 
#14 ·
The IPD bushing is already pressed into the OEM mount.
 
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