Although far from being a fleet leader my M3W does have 42,000 miles on it, although only 30,000 of them on this chassis. After lots of searching for a knocking noise from the transmission area I found one of the two battery tray to chassis mounting tabs had cracked through at the two tack welds, allowing it move a little although still held in place with the remaining tab. Sorry no photos taken but it is easy enough to find once you know it's there, just push on the sides of the battery to check it is all 100% secure. You need to take the battery out to have a good check of the mounting brackets. It looks like one of the welds had been broken for some time and the other had only just fractured allowing the tray to move more, which is how I found it.
All is welded and secure again. The bonus of this is that I now have a thoroughly checked out Centa and clutch, the bonnet panel has new rubber seals, the slightly soft gearbox mount has been replaced and everything that could possibly rattle has been secured. It's not rattle free but is pretty good for a M3W now.
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