Vibration at idle in Drive solved.

[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.