Car: S4 Vert n/a stock

Ok so recently i noticed a slight squeak when i would be in first and second gear. I didn't think much of it. So as time went on the noise got worse. A week ago I pulled the transmission to look at the throw out bearing. It didn't look too good so I put on another one that was in much better shape. A lot of the squeaking went away but not all of it.

So now I'm getting frustrated and afraid to drive the car because now in 1-5th gear I will get a short clank noise. It usually happens really fast too and it sounds like a loose bolt to me. The squeaking noise is now only in reverse and I'm confused why it only does it in that gear.

Hopefully within this week I can pull the transmission again to swap out the clutch and pressure plate with another clutch and pressure plate I have, but are there any other things I should check while the transmission is off? Last time I was hoping to fix the problem completely but it sort of fixed half of the problem.

Can pressure plate bolts come loose if they aren't torqued correctly? I also thought it was the drive shaft as well. The car is almost at 180k miles and I know U joints wear out as time goes on, but can anyone tell me what the average life span of these U joints are? I need to be sure of what to look for and check so I can fix it within the next week. Thanks

 

update: ok so i took it to a shop and a friend and his co workers looked at the car while it was in reverse. turns out the drive shaft is hitting the tail end of the transmission.

im really confused why it would do this.