Hello everyone.

So I have a '98 Sunfire with 2.4 Twin Cam. 173K miles. Automatic.

The car has developed a clunk. You are sitting at a light in D with your foot on the brake... when you go, it accelerates a little bit then clunks pretty hard and then accelerates and drives fine. Slowing down, it will occasionally do a much lighter clunk when the car has slowed down to about 10 mph, right before you stop completely. Clunk seems to come from front passenger side.

It clunks regardless of steering angle or throttle application and only clunks in D.

So, I'm fairly sure its not the engine mounts... when it clunks, it rocks the drivetrain, but only after the initial drivetrain twist that occurs when you start off. Plus I visually inspected the mounts.

I am also fairly certain its not a trans fluid issue, as it clunks AFTER the car has started moving. My experiences with low tranny fluid usually result in the trans losing power when under power going around turns, when the fluid sloshes away from the pickup.

I don't think its the brakes sticking as I tried slowing down using the parking brake and downshifting to slow to a crawl... when I step on the gas, it still clunks.

Its not the struts, as they have been recently replaced. It does not feel like a broken swap bar link.

I was thinking ball joints, but I've never seen ball joints cause this kind of noise.

So I worry that its an internal transmission problem. Next change I get I figured I would replace the filter and top off the fluid... though its hard to do without a dipstick.

What could I be overlooking? What could be causing this?

BKNJ