What makes grinding noises on hard right turns?
 

2009 X5 3.0i

Just replaced thrust arms a few weeks ago, getting some grinding sounds (irregular soft grinding) on right turns. I considered the brakes, but there is plenty meat left on those pads. Going to pull the wheel to check it out anyway.

Other things I'm considering:

Wheel bearing?
Front Diff?
????

To add, still have some clunking and steering looseness after the thrust arm replacement. I'm thinking tie rods and/or sway bar links. Probably going to do the links first, since they are so cheap, then move on to tie rods and get an alignment.

Sway bar links will cause Morse-code like tapping but won't feel it at all.
My wife's thrust bushings are shot and the steering is fine except braking you get a solid clunk every time as the wheels shift back.

My last mystery grinding was rust flakes between dust shield and brake rotors.

If it's every time and just one way points to a rough spot inside the cv joint

If it's not always and if it's possibly "creaky" not scratchy then ball joint. Did you say you replaced the lower arms?

Agree the sway links and sway bar bushes will cause clunks, usually on bumps or undulations but will NOT cause steering/handling FEEL issues.

Look at the metal shields around the brakes, see if any got bent. Also look for rocks maybe stuck in something, rubbing on occasion.

I just hate, hate, hate chasing down noise in suspensions....

Yep, thats what I thought. Sway bars were bad on both E39's and the links fixed the clunking.

I agree with you on the chasing down suspension noise. What a serious PITA. Going to pull the wheel and look for a rock or junk behind the rotor. I've had that happen before. Oddly, the dealer didn't catch any other issues during the recall when I had them do an inspection. They, as well as an indie, only caught the need for thrust arms. Replaced them with Lemfeorder.

Found it. And it totally baffles me. There is a small section of the dust shield that is apparently spot welded together. Well, my spot welds failed. I'm almost positive that this is causing the grinding on right turns. Going to order one and hope that fixes the problem.

Also, the sway bar link ball joint on the sway bar side is bumping around and loose. Obviously failed ball joint, so a set of those too. Yay me!