Well who would have thought.

acidgreeny · #1 10-13-2018, 06:45 PM

For more than a year I have been battling what I thought was a bad wheel bearing on the right front of my 06 diesel. It started as a low intermittent rumble and has slowly progressed to be a permanent and annoying irritation. I have had the wheel off a couple of times ,checked the front hub no joy! My mechanic ( also my brother ) has done the same twice. As this is my DD and I do a lot of kms it gets serviced usually 3 times a year . After the first inspection he told me there was no bearing slack and it was tyres. Well , I've been driving for 40 years and this didn't make any sense to me . I did the research and there was no information on this so I resigned myself to waiting for it fail as there was no evidence of any bearing slack. Anyway 2 weeks ago I put new tyres on and the noise is gone ,not only gone but the power steering is happier and the transmission seems to be enjoying life too.
Tyres seem to be super important on these xdrive vehicles.

bcredliner · #2 10-13-2018, 07:19 PM

If they were stock size tires it's very unlikely rumble had to do with anything other than characteristics of that particular tire--tread design and/or hardness.

acidgreeny · #3 10-13-2018, 08:37 PM

The tyres were Michelin Diamaris staggered setup 285/255 as per original. I replaced them with Hankook AS in the same size . Hankook a are now OE on current X5's . And like you I find it hard to believe but the "rumble" has gone completely. But it has! Car drives like new.
270k on the clock. 8.7l per 100 km. I thought my mechanic was just avoiding having to do a wheel bearing cos it's a major pain but he was 100% right .

bcredliner · #4 10-14-2018, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by acidgreeny

The tyres were Michelin Diamaris staggered setup 285/255 as per original. I replaced them with Hankook AS in the same size . Hankook a are now OE on current X5's . And like you I find it hard to believe but the "rumble" has gone completely. But it has! Car drives like new.
270k on the clock. 8.7l per 100 km. I thought my mechanic was just avoiding having to do a wheel bearing cos it's a major pain but he was 100% right .

I purchased my X5 new. Over the years I have tried several different brand tires. It came with Michelins tires. They were very loud and rough riding. Have run a couple of sets of Hankook tires. I chose soft compounds. Quiet ride but wear was poor because of soft compound. I expect you will continue to be very happy with your purchase.

andrewwynn · #5 10-13-2018, 09:12 PM

I've been trying to track down the same kind of sound. But just replaced front thrust bushings and noticed the wheels have some pretty obvious cupping wear that matches the "bearing howl" so I'm hoping that's the sound source. I'll be swapping tires soon I'll post the results here.

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wpoll · #6 10-14-2018, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by acidgreeny

... I have had the wheel off a couple of times ,checked the front hub no joy! My mechanic ( also my brother ) has done the same twice. ... I did the research and there was no information on this so I resigned myself to waiting for it fail as there was no evidence of any bearing slack. ...

Glad the noise was so easy cured - given that you needed tyres anyway, take the win!

FWIW, the wheel bearings on these cars don't seem to show any wear via the usual symptoms of getting sloppy. My rear wheel bearing was shot, with a lot of pitting on once race (they are dual race bearings) and droning like a B17 but it had zero movement in it. Made it very hard to diagnose, I can tell you.

If you can feel any slop in an E53 wheel bearing, it would be very close to a total catastrophic failure!!