Good news!! Fixed engine rattle on start-up!!

[Estroil 4.8is]

Ok. I've been having a problem on start-up. It happens more often when the engine is cold. When I start-up the engine it rattles for 2-3 seconds then quites down. Sometimes it's very noticable and people look that are near my X. Kinda embarrASSing! After it quites down the engine runs fine and has plenty of power.

So, I was talking to my brother, whos a GM mechanic and he suggest that I change my oil and filter. I told him that at the time when I did my last oil change that I didn't use a BMW (MANN) filter. I used a Fram filter. I wasn't aware of this site and didn't know that BMW filter was strongly suggested. To make a long story short I changed the oil to Mobil 1 5-w30 and installed a Mann filter. And I couldn't believe that the noise went away completely!! I really was worried that something internal was going. Who would have thought that a simple filter change would fix something so major.

Just thought I would share incase anyone else has a similar issue, Rob

[Stewthebassman]

Sometimes the simplest things can make a difference!

[vinuneuro]

Something ineternal was going on...that was pretty major, and you might engine damage. If the rattle was fixed by using another oil filter, you were obviously having oil pressure (starving) issues at start-up. I'd have oil analysis done and/or pull the oil pan to check for metal shavings.

[Dygital]

I had/have the same thing, took it to the dealer, left it there overnight, they said it's normal

[94502]

FRAM makes oil filter for the X5???

[Laurence]

The lesson here is that not all oil filters are the same.
I would always fit a dealer suppied oil filter, even though I feel like I'm being ripped off

It sounds like the filter you had on may not have had an anti drain back valve. This stops all the oil draining from the filter when the engine has stopped.
The result of the oil draining back is that the oil pump has to fill the filter before the oil is passed round the engine, this may well have caused the rattling.

Have a look here: http://www.fram.com/carcare/faq.php

The actual rattle may be caused by the hydraulic lifters being starved of oil on startup, therefore the clearances on the tappets would be too large.

[Estroil 4.8is]

Thats exactly what my brother explained to me. Makes sense to me, especially since the filter is mounted above the engine. Thanks for the link!!

[WolfX5]

The same thing happened to me, but I only started getting the problem when I went *to* MANN filters from Bavarian Auto (which were slightly longer than the factory filter by about 1/8" btw). Going back to OEM filters from the dealer solved my problem for good. I'm with Laurence, I think the factory filters are worth the extra few bucks in this case.

[khelms_98]

Since it has gotten colder,this has been happening to my 3.0 more often. It's never done this before. Anyway, I was just wondering if something could have been damaged by this.

[chubyball]

I had the same problem but after replaced the new plugs with NGK the problem went away. A Big thumb up for Japanese sparkplugs.