In my case it was the right-rear - but for months I thought it was the right-front. It finally got bad enough to be sure which it was. Drove me nuts though... :rolleyes:

Actually I've many times seen that the bearing whining gets worse on the side which has less load (inside when turning).

One trick is to rotate the wheel and have finger on the coil spring to feel snapping or light vibration. (Of course can't be used if you have air springs.)

I've seen that happen too.

The wheel bearings on the E53 are very large, double-race puppies and can be hard to diagnose. In the case of my failed right-rear, it was just a little pitting in the outer bearing race only - easy to feel the roughness once it was out of the car - but impossible to detect with the mass of the rotating parts attached.

I suspect it's the right rear, but sometimes it sounds like the front right.

Are they easy to pull, or do the need BMW specific tools for the race?

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The rear bearing bolts on to the knuckle - not a bad job but research it first. There are some standard tools that work - no need to an "special" BMW tools.

There's an AWR-fix for it - which includes a few "novel" methods. :thumbup:

https://xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-forums/...e-replace.html

Thanks.

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Oil change and swapped out a sticky thermostat. Replaced it a couple months ago when the heater shorted out. New one is sticky opening and closing had temps as high as 212 to as low as 179. This new one is operating as expected.

Well, today I lost my cool with my E53 4.6is. I have been a good parent, provided shelter, food, and toys yet it decided to have a hissy fit with me today. I had my timing guide tensioner changed the other day along with a ton of other work. Well, today the damn chain rattle is back again on a cold start. I'm not seeing any codes for timing advance on BankA or timing retarded on BankA so I'm hoping that my V-guide is ok and hasn't lost its plastic layer. That said, as soon as the oil pressure is up the rattle is gone and stays gone until the next cold start. I hadn't planned on potentially tearing the engine down. Has anyone else had this with their 4.6 and worked it out short of a timing chain service? I'm running synth 5w30 in it but I'm wondering if at 100K miles I should change that up. I would love to hear from some of you all as I really don't want to tear out my engine at the moment.

I think the start up rattle has something to do with the oil filter housing spring getting sticky and allowing the oil to all drain into the pan so on cold start you get the rattle and when its been started throughout the day no rattle...

Purple...can you point me to anything? I love my X but at the moment, I'm quite unhappy with her. BTW...glad to hear your BlueBox is up and amazing. :)