Strange noise.
 

My 05 3.0i x5 has developed a strange grating sort of noise from the front of the engine.Its not there on start up but develops when the engine settles down to normal tick over. I thought it was the vanos at first but decided to change the pulleys and the belts . Made no diference still there.
I then took the serpentine belt off , left the air con belt on , and started it up. No noise . So its either the alternator , the water pump or the steering pump . None of them make any noise when I spin them by hand . Although the steering pump makes a bit of a rattle when I spin it left/right quickly with my fingers. Its a dry grating sort of noise similar to the vanos rattle .
The x only has 30k miles and has been dealer serviced up till now. Any Ideas as to what you think it may be are more than welcome.:dunno:

Check for signs of leaking from them. Any leakage is a tell-tale sign..

Hi Ducati, any news on the noise?

Because of the cost I changed the pulleys , the water pump , the alternator bearings and it is still there . I now have a new steering pump but have yet to fit it , will get it done over xmas , The new pump is much tighter that the existing one and I am now sure it is this. I will report back when it is fitted.

Fitted the new steering pump at the weekend . Perfect now no noise at all . By the way my x5 only has 32,000 miles and the pump was making that much noise it sounded like a rattly old diesel. Quite easy to do but was cold with a couple of inches of snow down.