A new sound appeared today. I have an 07 C4s with ~65K miles on it. Clutch was replaced around 50k. As I was driving today, I heard a clunk sound as I depressed the clutch pedal. It's only when engaging the clutch somewhat towards the top. Another couple of shifts, no noise. Then it appeared intermittently. I managed to get back home with it making the same noise occasionally. You can feel the clunk in the pedal but the clutch feels fine. No noise when releasing the pedal. The husband checked it when I got home. He heard it with the car at a standstill in the garage while engaging the clutch. Only happening intermittently as he drove it but felt/heard the same symptoms. Thoughts?

 

Couple of thoughts.


Could be normal drivetrain free play. There has to be some clearances between the gears and in the bearings of the CV joints and under some conditions if all this play is arranged just so when the clutch is engaged the take up of this play can be heard as a not to loud or sinister sounding clunk.


Another possible explanation is the dual mass flywheel is failing. The cushioned take up is failing and the clunk you hear is the flywheel pieces banging against each other as the clutch is let out.


There could be other explanations too -- the clutch disc is loose on the splines, the clutch is starting to fail -- that if I was at the vehicle I might be able to identify.


Also, even if I was at the vehicle I might be able to say for sure what is going on, so my advice is you need to have the thing listened to by an experienced tech.


Be sure you or your husband, whoever takes the car in, knows how to recreate the noise on demand.

 

Thanks for the info. I have an appointment to take it in this week. Luckily we can recreate the noise even when the car is at a standstill. It happens intermittently but pretty often only when pushing in the clutch pedal.

 

As long as you can reliably reproduce the noise that's the important thing. Have an experienced tech give a listen and then hear what he has to say.

Oh, be prepared that if he says "they all do that" to then have at the ready a request to have him demo this to you using other cars.