800 miles on car now...Engine/Car Whistle, dealer confused
 

hey everyone, we just got delivery of our new x5 and after a week or 2 of driving, we realized the car was making some strange noises. The car sounds like there is an aftermarket intake on the car (engine whistle, or some sort of sucking whistle).....well we took it to the dealership and they had it there all day today, 2 techs confirmed the noise, and they kept it today....they said they had never heard a noise like that before, but that it didn't sound serious....has anybody else had an issue like this? it is a e70, 3.0si, fully loaded....

does anybody have any ideas/tips/suggestions/questions I should speak to the dealership about?

thanks, and I know i'll post pics of the mineral green, as soon as the problem is fixed!

Sounds like a vacuum leak. This shouldn't be hard to detect for a competent tech.. There are many methods for finding out where the leak is. You should go to another dealer.

Eager to see Mineral Green!

I'd agree with vinuneuro, sounds like a vacuum leak.

This may be a stupid question, but do you have your radio set to the AUX input setting? If I have mine on AUX without the Ipod actually playing, I get a whine/whistle that increases/decreases in pitch in a linear relationship to the RPM's.

Update:
The Techs said they found some issue in the power steering. They said it was a fairly serious problem and they are going to need to keep the car for another few days. I think they said they are going to take apart the whole steering column.....hmmm...Any ideas?

:stickpoke

Update:
The master tech finally started working on the car yesterday and found the issue to be in the hydrolics associated with the powersteering. He then told us that they needed to order a new part to fix the problem. He also said it would be here in a day or two. I then called again today and they said that the part is backordered and has to be shipped from germany! So my new x70 will have spent as much time in the repair shop as it has in our driveway. I REALLY REALLY hope this is an isolated flaw in the car, because I love BMW so much and have never really had any problems like this with them.

Do you think we can get the dealer to give us anything, since this has been a huge headache from a new car?

A loaner. If it's in the shop for something like a month, it wouldn't be unreasonable to ask your dealer/BMWNA to make a payment for you.

well the car is paid for in full, any other accessories?

Even if you car is paid in full, call BMWNA and for downtime money.

I think I'd be hard to squeeze huge accessories like wheels or aero kits, but usually the service advisor can ask for a payment similar to what you would be making if you had financed the car.

But if you want smaller accessories like rubber floor mats or a cargo organizer, I'm quite sure they'd throw it in at this point.