The "clunking sound" in my 98 occurs all the time, but I can usually only hear it when I'm a starting/slow cruise speeds otherwise there is too much road noise. The easiest time to hear it is when I pull to a drive up food place and have to creep in line with my window open, sounds horrible....creaking,clunking. I can kind of feel it in the floor too almost like it's binding up. My car does make any noise shifting into gears, just when I go to drive away.