Clunking from rear while under acceleration
 

My car just started making a nice clunk today. The sound comes from the rear right of the car. The sound only occurs under acceleration and speeds up as i accelerate. Clunk ... clunk... clunk. I read another post and someone with a similar problem found it to be their hand-brake... which doesnt sound quite right, as it only occurs under acceleration, while in gear.

CV....... Raise the car and all will become clear.

First... is it a discernable, deep metal-sounding "Clunk" or more of a warble?

Could be:

Brake rotors rubbing on pads/calipers
Wheel Bearings shot/starting to go
CV Joint busted/needing replacement.

See if you can reproduce the sound outside of the car. Get the rear end in the air and on jack stands... turn the wheels while in neutral to see if it really is the right-rear axle, or the trans or where exactly it is coming from.

Addendum:

Also, another trick to tell where a noise is coming from is to take a long plastic-handled screwdriver (24") or breaker bar and rest one tip on a solid point, put your ear on the plastic part. If you can hear the vibration or clanking very very VERY clearly in whichever location you can find it easier like that.

Check them wheel bearings, too.

First I would raise the rear and check the wheel for any slop. Rear axle nut will back out if it was removed at one point then re installed. They are lock nuts.
Then look at the CV joints. These will clunk but usually during cornering when it is most noticable but not gospel.
Dal

cv's is my guess...save yourself the trouble if it turns out to be that and buy complete axel assemblys....

repacking those bad boys aint fun...

i rebuilt mine, reversed the wear pattern of the bearings after a thorough scrubbing, regreasing with hi temp grease. i would only do this if all my bearings and cages were in very good condition without scoring. now no noise, car has been driven about 10 k miles.

rebuilt ones do not cost that much if you do not feel confident doing this.

dr t:eek:

Mine had the same symptoms--clicking/clunking during acceleration.

There are shops that will rebuild them for you--check out the yellow pages. I took both axles to the shop and they rebuilt them for $147. No core charge, no shipping and was completed in 2 days.

Second best part of the experience: the call after they had disassembled the first cv with the question, "Tell me again what kind of Volkswagen this came from?"

The best part is the tightness that returned to the entire car after installation. The difference is remarkable!

yeah my car does the same thing, it's the cv joints, does it all the time turning or not....i've been told that you can get the cv joints from a vw bus and put them on your axles and they're actually stronger than stock 944 cv's ??