Knocking at rear passenger tire
 

Ok.

1997 BMW Z3 2.8L
Rear Wheel Drive

Here's a quick description of the problem I'm having. Whenever I accelerate too quickly when I'm driving below approximately 35mph I get a rapid knocking noise coming from my right rear tire (general area, at least). It only happens when I'm accelerating--never when I'm not actually accelerating--but I don't get the knocking if I accelerate slow enough. Doing some quick google research tells me it could be a CV Joint issue. Any other ideas/opinions?

If it does sound like a CV Joint, what kind of damage am I looking at? $1k?

stone wedged in your tyre maybe?

Well the car will bring the front end up and the rear will go down on hard acceleration so that means it probably is some sort of suspension/joint issue. No idea how to fix it though. :(

I'm not a mechanic so take this with a grain of salt. :)

You could crawl under the car and see if you notice any damage to the rubber booting covering the CV joint. If there's any damage then you could try getting the joint re-greased and replace the booting for 50 dollars in parts. If the joint is damaged it's going to cost more, maybe 2-300 dollars. It definitely shouldn't be 1000..

Nah it's not a stone. One thing I negelected to mention: I have 18 inch tires in a wheel well not designed to hold tires that big. I think the factory default is like 17 on the rear, or something. So when I put my finger on top of my rear tire, I can barely wedge it between the tire and that giant spring-looking thing (sport suspension? I dunno). If that helps. Actually, hopefully that's the whole problem. The solution then becomes "accelerate like old people."

---------- Post added at 10:32 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:19 AM ----------

Nevermind. Spring things are on front tires only.

Interference from incorrect wheels can cause such noise...you can surely fit larger/18" wheels under a Z3 but you have to know exactly what range of offsets and wheel widths will work to avoid interference. Bimmer forums would have that info.

Before you mentioned wheels, I was thinking CV joint or wheel bearings.

From talking to a few friends that know cars MUCH better than I do, the CV Joint or wheel bearings being the cause of the issue is "unlikely" due to the fact that the knocking disappears above approximately 30 mph.

Bimmer forums, huh? Sweet. GTS!

edit: holy crap a BMW forum? Huh!

I had a car whose wheel bearings went bad. Only time it made a noise was taking a right turn uphill.