I was taking it for a spirited drive the other day through some twisty turnies and about 10 minutes into it, I hear a nasty sound while getting on the brakes. It sounds like I have a hole in my y-pipe and the exhaust is backfiring out of it, or that something in the engine bay is dangling and bumping into something that's spinning. It almost sounds like random firecrackers going off but not quite as loud.

It still does this under hard braking. Today, I was driving around trying to investigate this sound a little and I got hard on the brakes while still in gear. I had my foot resting on the clutch pedal (not pressing it down) and as the car was making its noise, I could feel the clutch pedal pulsate. The sound also seemed to be coming from the transmission area under the shifter.

Checked under the car, exhaust is good, all wires are good, wheels and the area around them are good. Nothing seemed loose or broken.

 

Did you check for a broken transmission mount?

 

Just checked the transmission mount and it's not broken.

Thanks for the suggestion Injuneer, any other ideas?

It sounds like it's coming from an area more towards the front of the car than the transmission. I've never worked on a clutch so I'm not familiar with it at all, but is it possible it could be coming from any of those components?

I'll try and post a video so you guys can hear it.

 

No luck with the video so far, the car is deciding to behave itself every time I try to get it to make the noise. In the meantime, any more ideas?

 

I had the rear u-joint of the drive shaft hitting my exhaust after it was just put on and then was breaking in some ceramic pads on the front. i would look under the car and not see anything, then thought of how the angle of the car changes under braking. loosened a couple clamps did some pushing, pulling, and twisting, tightend the clamps back up, and everything's good to go now. May not be your problem, but maybe not thinking about how the attitude of the car changes when braking hard could be, we all have brain farts now and then.