Vibration at idle in Drive solved.

[zener]

Mine has developed lot's of other issues too. Started with running lean codes and sometimes bank2 misfire codes. Also icv jamming codes. When it was -27c in here Finland It was very hard to get it started. I had to keep it alive with throttle for a while to get it to idle. After it idled few minutes it dropped few cylinder's off and again it was bank2 misfire (4-5-6 cylinder). I have tracked down all intake leaks and fixed them. ICV and MAF are new. Changed another set of ultrasonic cleaned injectors. And no change. Long before these vanos was rebuild, new lifters and valve stem seals.


Since I bought MAF made by hella, I'm waiting a good used original to arrive tomorrow, so I can test if it's the culprit. Also some previous owner has changed throttle body to aftermarket Topran, which is chinese. Bought a used original and waiting it to arrive also.


Mine's at almost 165k miles but I have owned 20+ bmw's and never have had problem with coils, but I guess that's next step.

[ahlem]

How is your CCV system?
I had similar issues with mine a couple years ago and it was a combination of cracked plastic hoses and needing a new CCV system.

[zener]

Forgot that, I renewed ccv couple of months ago. Today I got original maf and now it seems to work fine. We will see, when I drive it more. But seems very promising, since lean codes came up pretty much as soon as I started the car and let it run for a while.

[zonefive]

I thought I had mine solved with new coils but it didn't work. Mechanic said it was the transmission so I had a new one put in and no difference. The CV shafts were also replaced, with the motor mounts, new flex discs, new driveshaft support, and new transmission mount and it made no difference.

The vibration is always there but gets worse every 10 seconds or so, which is really weird. It is worse when the wheel is turned and at idle, there is occasionally a clicking sound going on, like a clutch somewhere is engaging, and that makes it worse. Anyone know what system is being engaged when that happens?

The only thing left that I can think of is the harmonic balancer, which is now 23 years old. Mechanic says that it visually looks fine. Or possibly the the main fan -- someone said in another thread that if the viscous clutch is misaligned that can do it. I have no idea what that means....

There has to be a solution to this issue. If unlimited money and time can be thrown at it, there must be a fix somehow. Is there anything else that is literally unfixable on these vehicles even if unlimited money can be spent?

[80stech]

Maybe try a different mechanic. If it has some kind of pattern and associated noise like you are saying, it should be findable. Have you tried taking some belts off to eliminate some things??

[Bdc101]

Originally Posted by zonefive

I thought I had mine solved with new coils but it didn't work. Mechanic said it was the transmission so I had a new one put in and no difference. The CV shafts were also replaced, with the motor mounts, new flex discs, new driveshaft support, and new transmission mount and it made no difference.

The vibration is always there but gets worse every 10 seconds or so, which is really weird. It is worse when the wheel is turned and at idle, there is occasionally a clicking sound going on, like a clutch somewhere is engaging, and that makes it worse. Anyone know what system is being engaged when that happens?

The only thing left that I can think of is the harmonic balancer, which is now 23 years old. Mechanic says that it visually looks fine. Or possibly the the main fan -- someone said in another thread that if the viscous clutch is misaligned that can do it. I have no idea what that means....

There has to be a solution to this issue. If unlimited money and time can be thrown at it, there must be a fix somehow. Is there anything else that is literally unfixable on these vehicles even if unlimited money can be spent?

It's a 5-minute job to take the fan and clutch off if you have wrenches -- which can be had on Amazon for $20 or so IIRC. I leave mine off all winter actually, no need for it. That would diagnose whether the fan clutch might have anything to do with it, but I doubt it.

[Themoog]

Well well.. that clutch thing going on and off is the AC compressor. On my V8 I had a vibration and harshness circa 2500rpm and could never figure out what it was. It got way worse at 4krpm. Turns out that the ac compressor was knackered.
I had a new one installed and much better. I reckon the power steering pump may be a bit worn too..
Before that I had swapped out new motor mounts which made everything worse so I put the old ones back on.
At the moment it’s sat on the drive as it went into trans failsafe the other week (see other posts) and I’ve bought another car to use while I get the X5 fixed.
I intend to put in new driveshafts anyway and various other things - one of which is removing the wheel arch liners and sound deadening underneath.
I spoke to a guy here in the uk who had done it on a V8 Volvo XC90 and it made a massive difference to the drive experience.
I might try new motor mounts again but original BMW instead of eBay. Maybe the trans mount too.

[80stech]

Haha, I was going to ask where you got the motor mounts that made it worse from!

[Themoog]

Yes it was dreadful. Almost like the mounts were solid aluminium.. Its a right pain to change them on the V8 too. Twice.

[aureliusmax]

Originally Posted by zonefive

The only thing left that I can think of is the harmonic balancer, which is now 23 years old. Mechanic says that it visually looks fine. Or possibly the the main fan -- someone said in another thread that if the viscous clutch is misaligned that can do it. I have no idea what that means....

Had a slight whole car vibration between 1-2K rpm and it was the harmonic damper, swapped it with one from my used engine spare, N62 on my E66. It looks fine visually. Looking at a damper visually isn't a confirmation because you have to technically spin it up on a balancer machine to determine if it's good or not.

zonefive was a rich man, keeps replacing everything when nothing yet solves the problem... soon will become a poor man