Driveline hum/noise - diagnosing? RESOLVED

[Ricky Bobby]

Glad to hear it was resolved! For me I only had to do the front bearings for now which were a bear of a job. Rear bearings definitely are easier as long as you have the right E14 socket for those retaining bolts!

[g300d]

Thanks RB!

Yeah, I read your front bearing job write up and it's making me dread mine! Visual inspection shows my front control arm bushings are starting to deteriorate, so will be getting ready to replace the arm assy with ball joints, torsion strut arm ball joints, and front wheel bearings (the only front end parts still not replaced).

[CleanIsFast]

Bumping an old thread, I am starting to hear a humming noise that sounds like it's coming from the front. But in my case its 0-40mph speed dependent. Cruising on the highway, I do not hear it at all. Accelerating to 40 its an increased hum, and decelerating from 40 its a decreased hum.

I'll try and measure the tire trend depth first and report back.

My initial thoughts were:
Tires
Something rubbing
Slight wheel bend
Alignment issue.

[YazX5]

I have an issue like that with my 4.4. If you're under 20 and listen carefully you can hear this hum. Depress the gas pedal hum goes away. Press it hum continues. After 20 no sound. This is the second x5 that has this issue, still don't have a clue.


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[CleanIsFast]

Fronts have about 4/32 left surprising because they are stamped 2015 while the rears look to have way more meat and they are stamped 2010.

[Anhelenuk]

Similar noise here. If you slow down gradually I can actually hear something like grinding. Will be changing all four wheel bearings in two weeks. I'll report back on results because so far I know one front and one rear have play in them.

[CleanIsFast]

No grinding noise here. It's just faint humming noise that wasn't there a few weeks ago. Last time i heard a similar noise was on my E39 M5 and it turned out to the those rubber grommets that hold the oil filter housing and power steering housing to the chassis of the car. They were deteriorated and the housings were rubbing up against the vehicle causing this harmonic noise. I'll check those out because it could very well be the same thing!

[wpoll]

Same problem here - thrumming is definitely louder over the last few months. I thought I had it narrowed down to a front wheel bearing (there's a tiny amount of play when I jack up the wheel and do the 9-3 test) but when driving, it sounds more like something at the rear, not the front.

Just plain

Will probably wait until something falls off...

[CleanIsFast]

Update: my noise was a wheel bearing. Just weird I've had two types of wheel bearing noises. M5 was a clicking noise, X5 was horrid humming/vibration noise.

[StephenVA]

Congrats on the resolution solution and thanks for the update!