Engine growl at idle.
 

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

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....

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

Coming from the front of the engine?

Could be the vanos?

Tensioner?

Rocker arm?

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.

Growling or grinding?

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

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?

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

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.

Good job.