I've been working on other things on this car lately so this one has slipped behind. I pulled the wheel off again (3rd or 4th time now) and I cannot see any issues at all with the brakes or emergency brake system. However, the sound is far less random now, happening almost all the time and getting louder.

To me, it sounds very much like a CV Joint issue, pop..pop..pop..pop..pop..

I've ordered a replacement assembly so we'll give that a go. Not much else in that area to check. Brakes are fine, wheel bearing seems smooth, not sure what else there is that could make the noise other than the CV joints.

Has anyone seen documentation for replacing a rear CV joint (axle and everything). I see a Youtube video of someone changing one on a X3. I also see one one the X5 but it looks like it was far more difficult than what the X3 guy did.

On the X3 video, the guy just unbolted it at the differential, took the wheel bearing nut off, and then lowered the rear wheel suspension and the shaft pulled out of the differential and then out of the hub. Seemed very simple. On the X5 video I watched, they pulled a fair amount of the parts off the hub assembly, suspension wise. Seemed like that was considerably more difficult. They might be 2 totally different setups, I don't know, never seen the X3 and haven't been under my X5 since I watched the videos.

Stay tuned