Clunking when on and off accelerator

My 2012 golf TDI 6 speed manual; 67,000 miles currently.



For a while now, when you are pressing on and off the throttle the car is clunking, It also makes it where its really hard to make the car feel like it shifts smooth from 1-3.


I have read some stuff about maybe its the dog bone motor mount at the bottom of the engine. I have also read it could be the fly wheel. Any suggestions on what parts to change would be great.

My first suspicion are CV joints. This is a prime example of what I look for when thinking about this.
A good test is to get one wheel of the ground and turn the wheel both ways. If it clunks and has play between, you know what's wrong.

As for the dog bone you can get under it and move the engine both ways, it'll make an obvious noise and you'll see movement.
Also the other two engine mounts are suspect. Same with them on testing, however, you may need to stick a jack under the engine and get the weight off to move it enough to hear.

Replace only what you can prove is faulty.

Ball joints can do this also, however, they usually present when turning first.

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk

Check all the wheel studs . Happend to me too many times. Of any of them are not tight check the mating surface of the wheels and hubs.

Hi - that clunking noise when changing loads could very well be the flywheel. I had that same thing happen to my 2006 TDI-PD. The flywheel is a two-part design, separated by rubber buffer elements. It is done to dampen out the four torque peaks per crank-revolution. These elements came apart and the only fix was to replace the clutch. I did inspect the clutch plate and throw-out bearing and both had still a lot of life left in them.