Horrible grinding sound from passenger side rear
 

This damned vehicle (2001 x5 4.4i w/ 98,500 miles) can't seem to go a week without a major mechanical failure of some sort. I just replaced the DSC control unit, the radiator and associated hoses, head gaskets, speed sensors, thermostat, and steering rack to the tune of about $6,500, only $3,500 of which was covered by my extended warranty. Add in an additional $600 for rental car fees (only $200 of which was reimbursed) while the local independant "BMW Expert" took a month to do 21 hours worth of repairs.

Now, I'm getting a very bad grinding/scraping noise which sounds like its coming from my passenger side rear wheel. My brakes are working fine and when I was in the stealership 3000 miles ago (to repair the self-leveling system), they told me the brakes looked fine. The noise comes and goes, but mostly kicks in after 10 minutes of driving. It sounds like something is loose and binding up. This has been going on for three days and I've only driven probably 25 or 30 miles (at 5 mile intervals) with it.

Yesterday, it bound up to the point that the car wouldn't go forward or backward. I just gently rocked it in and out of Reverse to Neutral and Drive and then everything was fine with no grinding noise for a mile or two. Initially, when I tried to back up, it felt like the rear of the vehicle was raising up like it was meeting some kind of resistance.

This morning on the way to work, after a few miles of no problems, it felt like i was driving with the parking brake on and then it went away and the grinding sound got really bad. The brakes continue to work fine and no warning light shows up on my control panel. Nothing looks out of ordinary on the rear brakes, but I haven't jacked the car up

About 6 or 7 months ago, my mother borrowed the vehicle and drove 10 miles with the parking brake on. The car drove fine after that, but no parking brake. Could this be the parking brake seizing up? Any insight to this problem would be appreciated. I'm going to take the car in, I just don't know if this is something I should take to the dealer or if it is something I can take to a local shop. I'm getting sick of cleaning out my bank account to keep this piece of $hit running.

UPDATE -

The grinding was the parking brake shoe coming apart. It was almost time for new brakes on the rears so I had rotors and pads replaced also. $540 out the door for rear brakes and new parking brake.

Yes, could def be the parking brake drums

Parking brake drums...or one of your brakes is sticking (not fully released and kinda touching the rotor as if you were braking) But that would give you a dash light warning indicator I believe..

Something may have come loose in the parking brake drum... I'd pull the rotor off and inspect. (or have the shop that just did all the work take a look at it)

The big question.....why in the hell are you driving that PO$ if its making those noises? I know somen women who continue to drive when it makes terrible noises because they lack the male gene of common sense and mechanical abilities when it comes to cars, so what's your excuse? If my car made any kind of noise, ESPECIALLY w/ what your experiencing, STOP driving it before you make it worse. Also, seeing that you're at almost 100k miles, you're at the critical point where many of these things need to be replaced, so unless you don't spend much time on these boards, you'd know this and it wouldn't be such a surprise. Quit abusing your X and getting mad when it really seems more like you simply neglect it, drive around w/ major malfunctions and expect it to fix itself.

Jump to conclusions much?

This problem started about 3 days ago. It was intermittant until yesterday. The car is sitting in the shop as we speak. Also, I'm certainly not surprised that things need to be repaired. I'm just understandably pissed off that BMW would make such an unreliable vehicle. I certainly don't expect it to fix itself.

I put 300,000 miles on my 1990 Chevy Silverado with 1/10th the amount of repairs that this vehicle experienced. I then turned it over to one of my construction crews that got another 30,000 until we sold it. I put 150,000 on my 1999 Mercedes E-430 with no major repairs other then the expected break job. I sold my Porsche 968 Cabriolet with 185,000 on it. It was in pristine condition and was only in the shop once or twice for anything other than regular maintenance.

Quit running your mouth, tough guy.

Is your CV leaking on that wheel? I had a CV axle seize up intermittently one day and immediately replaced it. It was shot and I didn't even realize the boot had been torn (driver's side front however).

And my Chevy has 267k w/ only a lower control arm that needed to be replaced, but my point is...once it started making noise, I stopped driving it. I'm not being a tough guy, I'm asking why in the hell someone would continue to drive the car 1 mile, let alone 25-30 miles @ 5 miles intervals. The fact that you had to rock the car from D and R to get things unbound screams to stop driving. Common sense bro, so take your anger out elsewhere.

1st..
Two words...Calm Down

2nd.
The guy is looking for suggestions and trying to figure out the issue. No harm in doing that here. You assume too much..No one in their right mind thinks a car will fix itself (i don't care who you are).

The guy is looking for help as so many of us have had to do in the past..Leave the insults off this thread and board...And try to help in a postive manner.

I'll have an answer tomorrow and I'll update the thread. Thanks for the information. Based on what I've researched, I think its either the parking brake drums or a suspension issue. There is no leak whatsoever.