[nlakind]

so, for the last 3 weeks or so I had been hearing a minor knocking noise from the underside of my car, sounded like it was coming from the drive shaft but I didn't think that was very plausible, especially since I just installed my bmw perf. ssk w/ the shifter lever, so i figured it was something having to do w/ that.

2 weeks ago i went for some 'mexico' runs w/ a few guys & the day before the runs the knocking noise had gotten a bit worse but i wasn't too worried cuz i had heard a lot about these runs & was willing to risk my car for the thrill of a good race, haha, stupid, i know but oh well, i did it anyway. long story short, my car felt like shit out there & i was getting beat pretty bad by cars i should've definitely at least kept up with if not beaten & on the very last run my car felt like it was going to explode, the noise was incredibly loud & the car just felt terrible, the c63 i was running against said he could see my head lights jumping up & down like i was going over speed bumps & he knew something was wrong..

so, i took it in to bmw to have it looked at & come to find out, my original un-plausible thought was correct, it wasn't the ssk at all. the bolts that hold the "guibo joint" of the drive shaft together came out. when the noise was minimal, the bolt was just loose & after doing a few pulls at 150mph+ the bolt wiggled out & was just sitting on the plastic heat shield.

this is an unlikely situation but just wanted to give the community warning incase anybody ever hears a knocking noise coming from the drive shaft area of their car..& if anybody has their clutch replaced you might want to double check with them & make sure the guibo joint is properly secured & torqued to spec..