Hi
hows it going?

Recently (last saturday) I drove my car on a really rough gravel road to get to a friends house.
This was almost railroad track like. I never exceeded 15-20mph.
Sunday I noticed a noise I had not before. It is a time and a dull thunk. my friend John Laughlin described it as a shuka shuka.
He recommended it might be loose rear brake pads, as he had this sound when the brake pads on his car were like that.
I inspected the brakes and they were fine. I spun the driveshaft and it as ample room for play, did not look like anything
as amiss there. We are coming to the conclusion that it is the trailing arm bushings.

I notice the noise mainly when decelerating, braking. Yet sometimes, if i brake hard it will make the noise for a little while
and then wont. The front trailing arm bushings were they attached to the body looked *ok* meaning the could use replacement within
about 20k miles or so from what I could tell, although I did not drop the trailing arm to inspect totally.

what are the major symptoms of bad trailing arm bushings? Wouldnt these bushings make noise when going over bumps?
Could upper strut mounts make this noise? I previously had a problem with a wicked clunk and it did not feel like the tires/wheels
were rotating well if turned lock to lock (ie parking lot) but that disappeared with the new tires... strange I know

It makes sense they would make noise now because of that gravel road.

Mine do not.

How bad is the replacement? I am considering having the local suspension guy in town replace them.
I am looking @ close to a $300 job?

Would it be bad to drive to iPd and back on these? (120 miles round trip)

It will make the noise if the clutch is engaged or not, I have put the engine
to idle when decelerating and the noise still exists.

thanks
take care

Luke
82 242Ti 167k miles
just when I think I am caught up and can start the mods, something else decides to stop functioning correctly :(