When there's a clunk, it's a safe assumption that it's the twin clutches engaging.

 

coming from engine bay. only happens once in the morning when car sitting cold. happened with my xterra also. sounds as if something is winding up for a sec then pop. and it happens right as i start rolling forward.

 

This is a Rally derived car.

If you ever listen to a real rally car you'd think something was broken. All whining of the dog box trans, the diffs, the turbo antilag.
Also, EVO's make a little more noise...especially the older ones.

4 cylinder turbo car...

 

I'll tell ya, this is my first AWD and I was soooo paranoid when I first started driving it, always thought something was breaking. 10000 miles later, I just don't care, if something breaks, that's why I have a 100,000 mile warrenty Drive it like you stole it. it'll let you know when something is actually wrong. LOL

 

so today i was at burger king drive thru, was in normal manual mode. as i was going thru the parking lot in 1rst or 2nd cant remember, my bag tipped over so i was picking it up and all of a sudden the car comes to a halt and the absolute loudest bang, clunk, whatever happened. sounded as if the whole under side of the car fell off. drives fine though.....wth? this cant be normal

 

Large *clunks* are typically solenoids. I would imagine there are quite a few of them on this car, so I'm betting thats what we are hearing. Probably just the tranny or something in the awd system.

 

5.5kmiles here i get the same noise often when i start to roll from a dead stop... no problems thus far!