"Thud" when reversing

[jbenedetto]

Hi all, it's been a long time since I've posted, which means my SAAB hasn't had any problems for a while. Lately it's been cold, and when it's below 30 F, when I reverse, I feel a strong "THUD" after reversing about 6 feet (1,9 m) or so. It feels just like I've hit something. I have even gotten out of the car and checked the rear of my car to be sure I am not running over the garbage can or something..

It's been happening somewhat regularly, but only when it's cold, around 25 deg. F.. Any ideas?

thanks,

jb

[busaboy]

My first thought was that the handbrake might be sticking.

[earthworm]

If its a broken or badly cracked engine mount, you may hear a clank, a metal to metal sound..

[jordan]

I had the same problem that happened a few times, the first time I really thought I hit something. Upon inspection I saw nothing anywhere out of the ordinary, and all was good when driving forward. When I went and did a full brake job on the car I found that the passengerside emergency brake was all mangled. All of the springs were missing, I only found one retaining clip in a pile of friction material that was broken up. There were some very deep gouges in the friction material from the shoe that was intact, and some gouges in the ID of the rotor that were not from normal wear. I determined the thud and kind of jerk the car made to pieces of the emergency brake assemble getting wadded up in the rear rotor while in reverse. I replaced everything and it never happened again.

[GarrettCharger]

I have had similar thud noises when reversing. One was caused by a loose 6-pt subframe brace bolt, but if you don't have a subframe brace then you can be sure that is not your problem. The other one was a bit louder and was obvioulsy coming from the front end, it was being caused by worn-out strut bearings. In both of my cases the noises only occured while backing up with the wheel turned (backing out of the driveway / parking spaces).