OK I haven't posted anything on here about this problem, but it was making me crazy the week or so. And since I'm driving it 500 miles to Vegas tomorrow, I figured I better figure it out before it drove me batty. 00 XJ BTW
Had a banging/clanking noise coming from the rear everytime I hit a bump.
I tightened my spare tire carier (it had been loose in the past and made a similar noise)... didn't fix the problem
Found that the rear grab handle for shutting the hatch was loose... tightened it... didn't fix the problem
Got a friend to drive while I sat in back to better pinpoint the location of the noise.... sounded as if it was actually coming from under the floorboard. Got under there and looked, didn't see anything wrong at first, until my friend bounced on the bumper..... rear DS shock was moving a few inches and hitting the floor board. One of the two bolts holding it had broken off.
Welded a nut on, backed the old bolt out, and put a new one in... NO MORE NOISE!
Just had to share.... sometimes it feels good to fix something thats been making you crazy.