Looks normal to me.

I agree. These are photos from this AM. The rear axle carrier bushings look pretty normal with the suspension fully loaded. Note there is no evidence that the axle carrier has contacted the body.

Get a pry bar and see if you can move them around. Should be very little flex.

Do you have air springs or standard coils? Could be a broken coil. I've seen it happen before on E70s.

Just another angle; what if the clunk/noise is not coming from the suspension? what about inside? could be the battery being loose or somewhere around there that got dislodged by the bump?

Thanks again for your suggestions.


It's a standard coil sping. I did a pretty through visual on all the suspension bits including the springs and didn't see anything amiss. The rear of the X5 is level. I would expect it to list if a coil spring was broken.


Funf Dreisig

Thanks for the idea.


I've removed everything that I can, including the spare tire, from the back of the front seats rearward. I also removed the plastic battery cover and checked to see that it and everything under the cover, was tightly held in place. I've ridden in the back with the rear seat backs folded down while my wife drove over the small test bumps. The clunks appeared to come from below me when I was over the rear seat to cargo bay seam. That would put it in the vicinity of the rear of the gas tank and the front of the rear suspension.



Funf Dreisig

Thx. Interesting....not sure what else could be around there... the Realoem diagrams maybe useful but they do not show the whole picture......

Exactly. Even after studying the RealOEM diagrams I was surprised to find that the access to the fuel pump etc. was through the two large round "styrofoam hatches" under the back seat.


Funf Dreisig

Mount a go pro under there or in your cargo area to play back the sounds over and over to isolate the sound or even a visual video may help with that...IDK. Clunk sound like metal to metal or a rattle of some sort?