He just tightened and loctited, but I understand they should be replaced.....
Its been 4 weeks now and no more noises. Should it come back, I will have him replace...it was hard enough getting him to trust me to take the advice I had got on here re what the problem was..

ps, it was clunking whilst turning so bad, that even i was convinced it was a cv joint...

then sometimes it would just make one loud clunk on left hand corners, sometimes only on right hand corners...

god seems like everyones got this noise. I have too and initially my front bushes were shot so replaced every arm and bush on the front and rear as im a bit of an anorak when it comes to maintenance then I noticed I still have this knocking. I have lived with it for a few months now as my car was in my works workshop literally every lunch break for like a week at one point and my colleague's take the piss saying its in the air more times than it actually drives so going to leave it for a while before I get it back in the workshop. does anyone have the part number for the stiffener plate bolts?

I had a full front end of bars and bushes and arms put in and the clunk only appeared after this...

One time while trying to diagnose I drove for an hour and a half in circles and figures of 8 with my mechanic and sods law there wasnt a squeak from it, but when i dropped him off and drove home, as i reversed into my driveway, it came back....evnen tighten the bolts and see the difference.......

Where is the stiffening plate located? Pictures would help tremendously. I have been living with the clunking noise for a few months now. It's very annoying. I have already replaced the front control arms, and bushings thanks for the help

I had replaced my upper control arms about 35k ago. I used Febi parts. Just replaced again because the ball joint was bad. Use lemofored this time. The uppers were one of my first BMW DIY and I was still learning.

The stiffening plate is the big square metal plate under the transmission. Tighten all the bolts, if you changed sway bar bushing that is most likely where the clunk is coming from. Hard to tighten, but it needs to be real tight. Look for the torque setting somewhere. Also you may need new bolts. I believe the bolts on it are single use only, once tightened they are stretched.

I have a bit of like clunk now, probably just need new bolts.

If I recall the spec, those are 2 stage fasteners, 45 ft lbs then 90 degrees.

Hi Everyone.

I have this issue now, as expected, I have changed everything, Track arm, control arm, CV joints arb links and bushes... the works. So I will have a go at tightening these bolts and see what happens. Also, I might be missing a washer on my ARB link I was in a rush to install those so I will go and add a new one of those.

This is a loud 'Clunk'. On my X5 it happens mostly when you brake at low speeds and are turning. Start/stop in traffic will clunk, not every time tho. I can feel it through the brake pedal and the steering wheel.

I will give you an update if this fixes the clunk noise.

So the bolts to tighten on the metal protection/strengthening plate are just spinning. Turning them does not tighten or loosen them. Am I being stupid? Do I need to get a wrench on the other side of the plate to release the bolt? I just thought they unscrew from the sub frame?

There's a nut on the backside. Box end wrench will fit in there...