Originally Posted by
Kern
zip,\
Thank you for your reply. After reading your comments I went out and crawled under the car again and did some further sleuthing. As you suggested, the U-joint is tight. The noise and play seems to originate between the transmission output shaft and the driveshaft at the spline. I am very surprised that the Germans would allow that kind of play at that spline. I cannot recall noting that play in several U.S. cars that I have owned.
I know on trucks if the spines dry out grease wise they wear and when they wear you get play. But on some vehicles the play will be there from lack of grease.
There are tsb's from different manufacturers where grease wasnt applied correctly during assembly. Fix is to remove the driveshaft, apply grease, and reinstall. This eliminates the clunking noise.
Also the grease can dry out over time causing the same effect. This is an age thing and has nothing to do with mileage.
You can take it as "its supposed to do that" and ignore it or you could try removing the axle and apply grease to the splines.