clicking sound
 

Hi, I noticed when I start a cold engine, after a couple of mins I hear a constant clicking sound coming from somewhere on the left side. This goes on until the engine warms up after which it disappears! The weather outside is rather cold (I dont remember hearing this sound during last summer) and my engine is a diesel! Anyone know if this is normal?

You should have a Webasto diesel powered heater mounted high in the engine bay (right hand side on mine) and if you look under the left front passenger side of the car, a small exhaust system should be there. It is only used when the outside air temp is low (below approx 5degC I think) and is designed to bring the vehicle's climate control up to temperature much more quickly.

The ticking should be coming from that exhaust as the unit under the bonnet fires each time. If you switch the engine off witin a minute of start up you will hear a gentle whine from under the bonnet as this heater unit goes on running for a short while.

Hope this helps, but rest assured it is not a problem with the car, all newer diesels now do it.

i know axactly what you mean.. it lasts about 2/3 minutes when the x is cold.
i too assumed it was the websto heating up.. but then the noise seems to come from under the car.. eg the ezhaust system.
Mine too is a 3.0D what can this strange noise be?

i havent worried about it too much, as its only or a few minutes first thing in morning when cold.

i like to think its the websto .. on my right hand drive x5 the websto is on the passenger side. eg the left seat. hope thats clear. ha

hmmm, mine is a left hand drive so would the exhaust also be on the driver side in my case?
In any case its reassuring that you guys have also heard the sound and relate it to the webasto!

Thanks!

Yepp, the webasto aux heater will give off a clicking noise when outside temp drops below 2 degrees centigrade. On earlier models there is a service campaign as the noise was quite loud. Believe some of our scottish x5ers have had this problem...

revival of thread:
I have this, but I'm in miami fl... same thing?

Not unless you have a diesel-fired heater on your gasoline vehicle.