Driveline vibration
 

New member with a 2001 540 6-speed - 83K miles

I was driving to work yesterday and I heard a 'clicking' type sound from the trans area - it would come and go, but be worse under load. The best way to describe the sound is like a baseball card in your bike spokes. On the way home in the evening, the sound let up, but now I have a shake/shudder when pulling away from a stop, and this vibration returns in every gear, but levels off mostly by 4th gear. The clutch engages smoothly with no chatter, but once moving, it seems like the whole driveline is loose. I will get a chance to look underneath over the weekend, but my first instinct is a mount of some kind - perhaps the trans. Anything else I should look for? The clutch was replaced about 10K miles ago and the car ran great for the first 1,000 miles I've owned it - Thanks!
Further internet searches point to the 'guibo' - does this sound like a good place to start?

Guibo checks out OK - appears new.

Had someone ride with me - windows down - it appears the sound is more toward the rear of the car. Will check the rear-end for obvious issues today.

I suppose it could be any number of things. Transmission mounts? Rear trailing arm bushings? Perhaps related, 73,000 miles seems very premature for a clutch to need replacement, anything that precipitated that?

Took a close look underneath on a service lift - there is play at the end of the driveshaft where it enters the rear - wiggle the shaft and you can duplicate the same sound. Tech says the driveshaft is not servicible, so a new one is on order. Odd that is started up 1,000 miles after I bought the car. Combination of new clutch at 73K and driveshaft woes may indicate a tough previous life - we'll see.

There was a recent updating of a posting by I think a member called Dudesky, in which he outlined a number of things to note about the E36, which shares the same 6-cylinder powertrain as the E34. I quote: "Differential clutch pack retaining ring bolts can loosen or back out, eventually resulting in rear end failure. If you hear a ticking noise in the rear, have the final drive checked out."
I have no idea what that means, but it may be related to what you're experiencing.

You're right, this car probably had a tough previous life, one thing one needs to watch out for, unfortunately these cars can invite a lot of abuse and neglect of proper service and maintenance.

New driveshaft did the trick - smooth and quiet. Hopefully that will be the last big bill for a while!
Thanks

Good for you that that did it. Any speculation on what the problem was, had the car bottomed out, been hit...? For such comparatively low mileage you're right, this car apparently had seen more than its share. Good luck from here on out.