My old man's 2004 530D strange clunk sound. help?

[E30Gheko]

He has been telling me for a while about this noise coming from his car. It's a 2004 530D which has done about 93,000 miles.

I haven't experienced it myself but I shall descibe it as he tells it to me.

Basically it seems to be worse when the car is cold. He says there's a 'mechanical clunk sound' when changing gears. through first second and third it appears to be worse. Once the car is warmed up it doesn't seem so bad.

I have asked him whether it is coming from the gearbox or from the diff, but he says it's very difficult to tell.

He seems to think that maybe the gearbox oil needs topping up or something like that? I'm not too sure myself.

Does anyone have any idea what might be causing it?

[stonesie]

It could be a mount that's going, if the box or diff were low on oil it would whine.

[E30Gheko]

Thanks Bud. I'll let him know

[78dude]

Does the clunck happends when he traps in the clutch or is it when he change the gears from the stick? The best is to get the car on a ramp and just start to look for bad a mount like stonesie is telling in the tread!

[E30Gheko]

I think it's when he lets the clutch out after changing gear.

[78dude]

Okay, if it happends when he change gears with the stick I would think it could be a bad rubber mount but if the clunks appers when you use the clutch? It sounds like it could be a clutch issue, but this is a 2004 model BMW so I would take it into a BMW garage tbh

[E30Gheko]

A friend of mine has a garage about 100 yards from my house so I spoke to the old boy and he's gonna drop it round there next week some time. They can get it on the ramps and check all the mounts out.

[Eddie25]

If it clunks as he lets the the clutch out it could be a flywheel issue. IIRC the older BM diesels used a dual mass flywheel which could wear in time, not sure if this is still the case.

[jone325isport]

sounds like a propshaft donut issue to me very common on the bm diesel's not much else on the 5's that tend to fail in this way. if u come on and off the throttle at low speeds in say first or second does it happen then ??

[E30Gheko]

Yeah I believe that's when it does happen!

[jone325isport]

there isnt really much else thats a common fault on a 5, that would be my first port of call even more so if its a manual ?? other than that maybe the diff as they can be a little noisy on take up of drive (less noticable when you have the softer take up of an auto)

[E30Gheko]

If u have correctly identified it, is it expensive to fix?

[jone325isport]

if i remeber correctly no about 1 1/2 hrs to fit, I would imagine they are less than 100 quid. best of luck and keep us posted

[E30Gheko]

Will do!