FIXED: Whine noise, Speed Dependent -Variable
 

Hi,

My beloved 2005 X5 4.4 is nearing the 100k mile mark and everything on it is running great. There is one issue that I can’t for the life of me figure out what exactly is happening. There is a very audible whinning noise when the car is moving and seems to emanate from the front passenger side, probably the wheel but I'm not certian. The only thing that does have any affect on it is the actual speed of the car. It is RPM related. It is much audible at low speeds and at higher speeds increases then disappears or I think goes to high frequency such that it's not much audible.

Is this possibly the diff or wheel bearing? How to verify it's non of these culprits?

Much thanks for any pointers.

Noise captured: https://www.box.com/s/r2qsl1v3u0qwqcjmes16

Possible wheel bearing or transfer case chain. If you turn the car to the left or right at low speeds does the sound change or go away?

so, the whine noise is mechanical in nature... comes from the right front... the "beat" increases with the speed... is it kind of clicking noise? or, say, grinding noise? is it like one instance per rotation, or, several instances per rotation?

try to drive with the right window down next to a wall, to get the reflected sound back to you, this way you might be able to describe the whine better.

First things are first - pull the right front tire and check for loose wires off the speed sensor, see of the brakes are fit snuggly, see if there is any debris...

if you can lift the whole front (car lift?), try to see if the wheel is loose, if the drive shaft is acting up... the bearing is one of the possible culprits...

Thanks for the quick responses. It sounds more like "nnnggggggggg" with increasing pitch as vehicle speed increases.

I'll have a busy weekend investigating further. Thanks for the pointers thus far.

Sounds like a wheel bearing, but the way the sound travels through the chassis you might have a tough time figuring out exactly which one it is. You might be able to lift the front end and spin one of the wheels to see if it makes any extra noise when rotating, but I'm not exactly sure that you can turn one wheel on these AWD beasts when two are still in contact with the ground.

Mine makes the same noise, but at 150,000 miles I figure if one (or more) has gone bad, the others might not be far behind, so I'm planning on doing all four, when it warms up a bit. :D

Just to cross it off the list, make sure your power steering fluid is topped off.

Power steering noise would more likely be dependent on engine speed though, not road speed.

is the sound made at all speed, or does it start around 35-40 mph? My mech confirmed I have a bad right front wheel bearing, the humming noise starts around 40 and is pretty constant until highway speeds when road noise conflicts, if you take a left or right turn above 40, the noise would go away, which in my case the noise goes away when turning right so right front is bad because that bearing isn't loaded through the turn.


If its not similar to that, I would say its mechanical whine, because my bearing noise is more of a humming sound.

Check fluid levels, diffs, transfer case, tranny fluid etc, any of them being low could exhibit a whine. Check oil levels too.

The whining noise is at all speeds and is very audible at 10-30 mph. I drove the car with a/c off and turned off the engine while it was moving and noise whining was still there, thus ruling out alternator, pulleys and belts, etc. The noise is there on left and right turns.

I put the car up on 4 jacks stands and tried to run it on D with dsc off but freaked out when I heard strange noises. I'll try to run it when it's up on a lift. Has any one tried to run the car on a lift?

Ok, it turns out the whining noise is coming from the transfer case- indie put car up on lift and ran it. They recommended replacement with new for $4,000 (parts+labor). However, I'm considering installing a used one instead. Or myself doing draining and refilling and see if that makes a difference before coughing out 4 grand or so.

Any thoughts or experience with above options?

Thanks!

X5 4.4 sports 2005, 92k miles.