Engine growl at idle.

[THHP]

I have a growling noise coming from the engine at idle in gear.When i rev up a little or shift to neutral it goes away.My guess is belt tensioner.Has anyone else had this experience.

Thanks
Tom

[BimmerDude]

Growling noise??? Can you be more specific? How many miles, year, V8 I6, etc.... This way you can get the answer and fix the problem, if there is a problem....

[THHP]

Sorry. Car is 2003 X5 3.0 with 100,000 Km

[Saxi]

Coming from the front of the engine?

Could be the vanos?

Tensioner?

Rocker arm?

[boonacka]

I've got a 2005 3.0 with about 75k miles on it. Got the same growling type noise at idle. If I rev it up a bit, sound tends to go away. Haven't had much time to inspect but I'm thinking it could possibly be the fan clutch? from my experience, pulley/ tensioner noise tends to continue with revs. But I could be wrong.

[Wayne's World]

Growling or grinding?

Could be pulleys/bearings on either the alternator or the water pump.

[cocoabrova]

Is is poss. to post up an audio clip of the noise? There isn't reaaly much under the hood that would produce a "growling" sound... Squeals, rattles, tapping, knocking etc? What area is the noise coming from in the engine bay?

[Nik]

I think It's Fan/clutch or Water pump.

[boonacka]

Well, i've been monitoring for the past week and the noise has disappeared. I did notice that the kidney grill was loose and i tightened it up a bit. it may have been that which was vibrating and causing a "growling" noise.

[Nik]

Good job.