Short version, something is making a rattling/clunking that is definitely coming from the right rear. How to further diagnose to determine next steps please.

- Driving on highway to meet some friends and I would hear an intermittent sound (and could barely feel it) coming from rear.
- At first I couldn't even be sure it wasn't a combination of road expansion joints and bumps on the ****ty Chicago area roads.
- last couple of miles it was definitely something BAD. It was not affecting drivability [yet, more on that later] but on local roads with some stop and go I'd hear a bang and rattle (imagine spray paint but LR3 big iron sound) that'd then settle and go away ... but it happened more and more frequently in the last mile.
- however, I was near my destination so I figured I'd park and look for what might be loose.
- Parallel parking, so I put in reverse and give it steering angle and it DID NOT want to move ... something was 'bound up' causing resistance and making the rear suspension raise up. It very much had the 'feeling' like I was on the curb, however I wasn't.
- The resistance felt 'rubbery', not hard like a bound metal gear, however that could have been the tire in play.
- So I put it in park, looked around and saw nothing obvious though I couldn't do a full inspection.
- I pulled forward to find a different space not on the main road. I kept intermittently making the clunking.
- I found a new spot though again needed to parallel park but with less angle and I could go in head first and then needed to back and forth a little to get off the road.
- similar resistance to go into reverse, but less. It seemed to bind but then with a little pressure something gave way and I moved some in reverse. I did this again a couple more times with similar results (I figured whatever it was, it was either good and broke or I couldn't do much more and might need a tow
- hung with friends and we discussed. They theorized it might be a rubber donut between some driveshafts and diffs that lost some bolts and got bound up or something like that. They don't know Rovers, but are well versed in German cars and have heard of similar issues like that.
- I go to leave and slowly drive forward. Minor clunk/rattle but THEN it a constant rotational sound was present, like brake pads metal-on-metal that were dragging on the rotor. They heard that same sound as I slowly drove past them, then they got in their car and followed me as we determined what to do.
- Our conclusion was likely one of the caliper pin bolts came out and I was hearing a the caliper dragging on the rotor's edge, and with bumps it would occasionally swivel up and rattle and bang around on the inside of the wheel and rotor until it settled back down. That's how it felt as well.
- So I decided to carefully drive home. It was a short distance and an alternate route put me on a smoother highway where construction had just been completed. Traffic was low and I had a good amount of shoulder. If I ended up needing a tow, no different than presuming so. A calculated risk.
- All behaved as I expected. At about 50 mph on smooth road it actually just sounded like metal on metal brake pad to rotor
- The last 3 miles on local roads to my house had more rattling and banging, as I expected, which got really bad in the last 2 blocks however I made it home to the driveway, parked expecting to take care of this caliper issue later.

So now, I get the wheel off and NOTHING. I cannot identify anything loose, missing, wrong looking or anything at all. All rubber boots look good. The center-nut looked banged up a bit but was in place and I didn't know what it looked like before I bought it 2 years ago. The half shaft had some minor play (just a tad) when the wheel was jacked up by the control arm to level. So I jacked up the driver side. No signs of anything wrong and the same amount of play in the half shaft, so I figure that's expected at level. I let the passenger rear droop and the half shaft had no play.

So either it's one of the connections between the half shafts & diff (e.g. that donut concept), or something internal to cv joint or diff . I plan to just put it in drive and/or reverse and observe it at idle as a start. Though I figured I'd post here while I was getting some water in order to get the brain trust working on it for me.

Thanks,

- Steve

So now I've got all 4 corners in the air and I figure

 

…and it could be multiple.

Rear “clunks” are often the swaybar bushings. I have a worn out (prop shaft) carrier bearing on Rover #3 that makes a sound a lot like you describe. Front swaybar end links, front lower control arm bushings (those are easy to diagnose with the “brake check” method).

Not sure if that is helpful…..