Defender TD5 2003 - Unidentified Noise

Hey Guys
On my way to work last night and captured this weird noise (see attachment) . All the way there there were clunks and hisses and weird rattling noises (not the normal Defender squeeks and rattles).

I jumped on the clutch when it happened - no effect. Also braked to no effect. Interestingly when it occurs it has no effect on vehicle power or performance. It makes the noise and then goes away. Its almost like loading a spring. You wind it up to a point where it pops and then unwinds itself all the way down to a limp spring.

But as I mentioned all through the trip there are thunks and noises like that. Like the noises you would get when you run over a stick on the road and it jumps up and hits the underside of the vehicle.

Thoughts? I would like to get away on trips this summer but I am not comfortable with driving high speed with this going on at the moment.

Have you looked under the body to see if anything is broken & is hanging down & rubbing on the body or road.

Hi Tony
Yes I have. I should have mentioned that it was at the mechanics this week. The head mechanic even drove it home that evening to see if he could get the noise to happen. Murphys Law of course happened and it behaved perfectly. (or else it was only making little noises he didnt notice). So its nothing obvious. Nothing is leaking or sprawing out as the noise might suggest. Its not the fan belt. Its not happening all the time. For instance work is a 40 minute trip. At 8 minutes the noise I attached to the post happened and went away. No other big noises for rest of the trip, just a few bangs like I described above. On the way home no big events just little noises that if I had the radio on at the time I would miss. I have attached another small file with one of the smaller events. If you listen its that short Zip noise you hear. I am hoping someone here might be able to guess what it is before something breaks completely. If its happening to me its probably happened to someone else in the past and I am hoping to catch it before something really breaks.
Cheers

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