Clunk when stopping and pulling away

N / A · **Posted:** Mon Oct 09, 2006 2:06 pm

I have a 2002 Liberty Sport with 100,000 kms on it. for the last year when I am coming to a stop right at the point when the truck stops I get a little clunk, kinda like it is dropping back into 1st gear but really roughly. It doesn't happen all the time and if I really gradually come to a stop it usually doesn't do it. It will also sometimes clunk when I pull away, but not always. I have had multiple dealers look at it and it usually doesn't do it then they test drive it. They have run all the updates on the tranny a few times with no success. The tranny fluid has been changed twice in the last year to see if it helped.....any ideas?

raceinfan · **Posted:** Mon Oct 09, 2006 2:45 pm

might be u-joints on the drive shaft getting ready to let go,just a thought

Jeger · **Posted:** Mon Oct 09, 2006 2:52 pm

Try holding the brake and go from P-R-D and back a few times and see if it clunks then, motor running of course. If it is a u joint it should make noise then. You can always just crawl underneath while parked on a flat surface and twist the drive shaft back and forth by hand to check them as well.

Edit: If it does clunk while shifting from R-P it could still be something else. So make sure you know where the noise is coming from before changing parts, it could be an engine mount tranny mount, could even be the exhaust bumping something. I dont want to cause you to buy parts you dont need

FastTRX · **Posted:** Mon Oct 09, 2006 7:50 pm

My 02' Sport does this a bit too....but only on acceleration, and it's just the gap between letting off the brake and hitting the gas. I wondered what it was too...and it only does it every once in a while...I find that if I drive it alot it doesn't do it anymore?

Mine has 78500 miles on it and it was a lease vehicle so the dealers have seen it and taken care of all problems before I owned it.

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Mon Oct 09, 2006 8:21 pm

My 04 has always done it..

N / A · **Posted:** Mon Oct 09, 2006 9:16 pm

it's not the u joints as I already checked them and had the dealer re check the last time I was in, I also asked them to check the motor/tranny mounts and they said they were all fine. It just really pisses me off. I mean I will fix whatever it is, I just want the darn clunk to go away.

sleeve84028 · **Posted:** Mon Oct 09, 2006 9:16 pm

My 2002 Liberty (52,000+ miles) which is roughly the same as yours and I have a similar situation. Was just at the dealer today and everything (including the ball joints) checks out perfect. I put the rear end in the air and can recreate the noise by rotating 1 of the rear wheels (rear end end play?)

It's a noise that I have just gotten used to.

FastTRX · **Posted:** Mon Oct 09, 2006 11:45 pm

sleeve84028 wrote:

My 2002 Liberty (52,000+ miles) which is roughly the same as yours and I have a similar situation. Was just at the dealer today and everything (including the ball joints) checks out perfect. I put the rear end in the air and can recreate the noise by rotating 1 of the rear wheels (rear end end play?)

It's a noise that I have just gotten used to.

I don't think it's the same sound for me (maybe?)...mine seems like it's coming from the rear differential. It won't do it any other time but when letting off the brakes and hitting the gas pedal...and it's like for a split second. It's more of a shake then a sound. How good are the rear diffs. and axles on the libbys??

JuanS_TX · **Posted:** Tue Oct 10, 2006 2:36 am

Mine does the same thing. Mainly from the left drivers side. It is intermittent . Can really hear the clunk when doing turns or hitting pot holes. I have a 2003 liberty and have about 76000 miles on it. I did the ball joint recall recently and do not feel it is the ball joints. Checked the daystar lift and it was tight. We were thinking that it may be the CV joints that are making the noise. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

saxdogg · **Joined:** Fri Jun 02, 2006 7:26 pm **Posts:** 199

I think you're feeling the slack in the drivetrain, nothing to worry about. The fix I read somewhere was to grease the axle splines at the xfer case with some special grease. There's a dodge TSB for this very thing. Ppl that have done it said it eventually comes back anyways...

N / A · **Posted:** Tue Oct 10, 2006 10:03 am

I think I will toss in some U joints and see what that does, then they will be done anyways and I wont have to worry about them

gkidesign · **Posted:** Thu Oct 12, 2006 4:59 pm

I had a clunk when going over bumps, starting and stopping. It turned out to be the rear trailing arms. I just had to re-torque the large bolt that connects them to the chassis and the clunk was gone.

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Thu Oct 12, 2006 5:19 pm

FastTRX wrote:

sleeve84028 wrote:

My 2002 Liberty (52,000+ miles) which is roughly the same as yours and I have a similar situation. Was just at the dealer today and everything (including the ball joints) checks out perfect. I put the rear end in the air and can recreate the noise by rotating 1 of the rear wheels (rear end end play?)

It's a noise that I have just gotten used to.

I don't think it's the same sound for me (maybe?)...mine seems like it's coming from the rear differential. It won't do it any other time but when letting off the brakes and hitting the gas pedal...and it's like for a split second. It's more of a shake then a sound. How good are the rear diffs. and axles on the libbys??

Rear diff and axles on the libby are very strong. Nothing to worry about there unless your running 35" tires.. :wink:

Outback · **Posted:** Thu Oct 12, 2006 5:38 pm

JuanS_TX wrote:

Mine does the same thing. Mainly from the left drivers side. It is intermittent . Can really hear the clunk when doing turns or hitting pot holes. I have a 2003 liberty and have about 76000 miles on it. I did the ball joint recall recently and do not feel it is the ball joints. Checked the daystar lift and it was tight. We were thinking that it may be the CV joints that are making the noise. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

I had a similar problem was caused by stabilizer bar on drivers side was loose and missing a washer... ( disconnected and re connected in the dark)
Mine has only low miles, I thought some of the noise was from the bad ball joints but they had been replaced without changing anything. Give it a look see with an 18mm wrench..

FastTRX · **Posted:** Thu Oct 12, 2006 5:59 pm

Jeepjeepster wrote:

FastTRX wrote:

sleeve84028 wrote:

My 2002 Liberty (52,000+ miles) which is roughly the same as yours and I have a similar situation. Was just at the dealer today and everything (including the ball joints) checks out perfect. I put the rear end in the air and can recreate the noise by rotating 1 of the rear wheels (rear end end play?)

It's a noise that I have just gotten used to.

I don't think it's the same sound for me (maybe?)...mine seems like it's coming from the rear differential. It won't do it any other time but when letting off the brakes and hitting the gas pedal...and it's like for a split second. It's more of a shake then a sound. How good are the rear diffs. and axles on the libbys??

Rear diff and axles on the libby are very strong. Nothing to worry about there unless your running 35" tires.. :wink:

That's good...and I wont be running 35s anytime soon and I want to see the ones that decide to!!! (excluding the Liberator)

Outback...I think the noise that most of us are experiencing (myself atleast) are in the drivetrain/driveshaft/U-Joints. It's more of clunking when putting it into gear or accelerating or slowing down.

waddy whiteguts · **Posted:** Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:52 pm

The slip yoke will thump at stop and takeoff if it gets dry. You need to take out the driveshaft and lube the splines with grease and it will be OK until it dries out again.

FastTRX · **Posted:** Thu Oct 12, 2006 11:43 pm

waddy whiteguts wrote:

The slip yoke will thump at stop and takeoff if it gets dry. You need to take out the driveshaft and lube the splines with grease and it will be OK until it dries out again.

I read this previously and the ones that said they did it said it cured the problem for a while until they dried out again and the sound came back...which is a bummer. You'll have to just keep up on the maintenance of it...especially if you're KJ sees alot of water/mud/offroading! All part of the fun I guess...

FreedomKJ · **Posted:** Fri Oct 13, 2006 9:51 pm

The "thunk" you are reffering to was discussed ad nauseum on the old ezBoard forum, before LOST moved to phpBB.

Almost if not all KJs have the same issues, the bump on acceleration is driveline slack, the bump on decel is the tranny downshifting. Mine did it when I bought it with 4 miles on the clock back in '03. 3 years and 55,000 miles later it still does it.

When I first noticed the decel bump I thought it felt a bit like someone tapping you from behind with their bumper. I kinda have fun with the driveline slack bump. If you're idling through a parking lot at about 5-10mph and tap the gas the thunk has a bit of volume and nearby pedestrians tend to look up worried.

SD-KJ · **Posted:** Sat Oct 14, 2006 9:53 am

FreedomKJ wrote:

The "thunk" you are reffering to was discussed ad nauseum on the old ezBoard forum, before L.O.S.T. moved to phpBB.

Almost if not all KJs have the same issues, the bump on acceleration is driveline slack, the bump on decel is the tranny downshifting. Mine did it when I bought it with 4 miles on the clock back in '03. 3 years and 55,000 miles later it still does it.

When I first noticed the decel bump I thought it felt a bit like someone tapping you from behind with their bumper. I kinda have fun with the driveline slack bump. If you're idling through a parking lot at about 5-10mph and tap the gas the thunk has a bit of volume and nearby pedestrians tend to look up worried.

I am asuming you also get a thunk when you engage it into reverse then also?

-Nick

FastTRX · **Posted:** Sun Oct 15, 2006 6:08 pm

SD-KJ wrote:

FreedomKJ wrote:

The "thunk" you are reffering to was discussed ad nauseum on the old ezBoard forum, before L.O.S.T. moved to phpBB.

Almost if not all KJs have the same issues, the bump on acceleration is driveline slack, the bump on decel is the tranny downshifting. Mine did it when I bought it with 4 miles on the clock back in '03. 3 years and 55,000 miles later it still does it.

When I first noticed the decel bump I thought it felt a bit like someone tapping you from behind with their bumper. I kinda have fun with the driveline slack bump. If you're idling through a parking lot at about 5-10mph and tap the gas the thunk has a bit of volume and nearby pedestrians tend to look up worried.

I am asuming you also get a thunk when you engage it into reverse then also?

-Nick

I get the thunk when ingaging into reverse...I've gotten used to it now and treat it as a "Jeep Thing."

It seems like there is no change or problem in the drive train, just a normal thunk during those times. I've gotten it to go away after long trips or drives in the libby.

Clunk when stopping and pulling away

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