My girlfriend's 2000 Jetta makes a clunking noise only when it's decelerating below 30 mph. It doesn't matter if the clutch is in or out or if the brakes are applied, and it's coming from the front of the car. The frequency of the clunking is definitely dependent on the speed of the car, as in, it clunks rapidly at 25 mph and slowly at 5 mph. As soon as I start accelerating or even hold the car at a constant speed, the noise stops.
The only thing I can think of is the CV joints, but I crawled under the car today and the boots look fine. Not that this totally rules out the CVs, but I expected to see a torn boot and grease everywhere. I can't recreate the noise with the car on jackstands by just spinning the wheels by hand.
Maybe it's the wheel bearings? Does anyone have any ideas? My typical method for solving problems like these is to just keep replacing parts one by one until it's fixed, but she's about to sell the car and I'd rather not dump a lot of money into it. Thanks.
