[allan jardine]

Hi all, I posted a question some time ago regarding my X5 making a rubbing scraping sound when under load (accelerating) which two BMW dealers have had a look at now on three separate occasions and have now stated that they think the noise is coming from the transmission which to be fair the first dealer said, in so far that because I had replaced the two rear tyres with unapproved tyres (Yokohamas which incidentally have a higher rating than that of the approved tyres ) this could cause transmission noise. Now after replacing the oil separator on the engine all to no avail, the second dealers resolve is to replace a litre of transmission oil with an additive. Has any one heard of this before, I would be glad of any opinion that any one has. The car is a 2004 3 litre diesel with 38500 miles on the clock, I am now concerned that I am going be be left stranded with a wife, two dogs and may be a caravan on tow, out in the middle of nowhere with a blown transmission. I have kept in touch with the extra warranty company and informed them of the situation and of course they say there is not much they can do until there is a breakdown. As I said I would be glad of any suggestions or opinions that any one may have Kind regards Allan C Jardine

 

[allan jardine]

Hi all, I posted a question some time ago regarding my X5 making a rubbing scraping sound when under load (accelerating) which two BMW dealers have had a look at now on three separate occasions and have now stated that they think the noise is coming from the transmission which to be fair the first dealer said, in so far that because I had replaced the two rear tyres with unapproved tyres (Yokohamas which incidentally have a higher rating than that of the approved tyres ) this could cause transmission noise. Now after replacing the oil separator on the engine all to no avail, the second dealers resolve is to replace a litre of transmission oil with an additive. Has any one heard of this before, I would be glad of any opinion that any one has. The car is a 2004 3 litre diesel with 38500 miles on the clock, I am now concerned that I am going be be left stranded with a wife, two dogs and may be a caravan on tow, out in the middle of nowhere with a blown transmission. I have kept in touch with the extra warranty company and informed them of the situation and of course they say there is not much they can do until there is a breakdown. As I said I would be glad of any suggestions or opinions that any one may have Kind regards Allan C Jardine

 

[UncleJ]

Al, when you say "unapproved tires" do you mean they were not the standard BMW size, or it was just the make (Yokos) they didn't like? Isle of Man, interesting place. How big is it and is it really possible to be stuck in the middle of nowhere, if that's where you are to begin with LOL. Sorry couldn't resist. I am sure the IofM is a lovely place. I believe there was some motor sports activity, road racing, hill climbs etc. on IofM back in the day. May still be going on in fact. What you mention sounds like a rubbing from some part of the drivetrain against something else:yikes:, perhaps caused by a failed/weak motor or transmission mount. Have they checked this possibility out?:dunno: Good luck.

 

[allan jardine]

uncle

Hi Uncle, I meant if I was in the Uk touring that I might be left in the middle of nowhere, the IOM is only about 33 miles long by average, I think 15 miles wide, you are not allowed caravans on the island (to tour with any way) We have our own government and are as such not ruled by the UK where I came from 3 years ago. I retired to the IOM and have no regrets leaving Scotland and am glad to get away from the lunatics running the asylum there, the chief being, one Gordon Brown, which makes me, I am afraid to admit at times that I am Scottish. the main thing on the Island is the finance industry and tourism, along with the world famous T.T. moter cycle racing (100 years last year) It is a lovely island and unfortunately is looked upon by most of the world (wrongly) as a tax haven, the only time the X5 gets a good run is when in the UK. Although there is no max speed on the island the roads are not what you would call very fast. Back to the X5 the wheels are the correct size and it was the Yokos they did not like, wonder how much BMW get for sticking to and recommending M D tyres, I think they have checked everything under the car, but you never know,I may take a look myself but I am sure they said that they had checked the prop shaft ect Kind regards, Allan P.S. Hope your weather is better than ours at the moment quite cool here.

 

[UncleJ]

Al, the IoM sounds like a great place to retire. I remember the famous motor cycle races there now that you mention them. Very famous, even over here the colonies. Sorry about your problem with the rubbing. I have a hard time seeing how a dose of ATF is going to cure a rubbing sound, but who knows. When an engine is under load there is a torque shift and if the motor mounts, or transmission mounts are weak it could bring the driveline into contact with another part of the car, hence the rubbing. Of course it could also be the fact that you just used unapproved tires (????) of the standard size. Yea, right! Sounds like you need another opinion! We are enjoying some beautiful 75 degree sunny weather in our beautiful California with no state budget and no prospect of getting one. Yours is not the only place with loons in charge.

 

[allan jardine]

uncle

Hi Uncle I have had the car to an auto transmission specialist on the island, who after testing the car eventually got it to make the noise and after looking at the state of the discs (rotors) he reckoned that that was where the the noise was coming from, I then replaced the discs and pads on all four wheels myself, which were as I knew in a pretty bad state and has not made any difference to the noise. I then took the car back to him and after a test run again he said that it would be better taking the car to BMW,( I had been in touch with the warranty company before this and they suggested I take the car to the auto tran man) I had already taken it to BMW in the UK when I was on holiday there re the unapproved tyres. It was suggested off the record by BMW in the UK, that also because I had replaced the rear tyres on the car and not the front ones as well (there was about 7mm on the new rear ones and 3 mm on the front one, the legal limit here is 1.6mms) that this could in effect cause diff run up and could make the noise, they said in there report that because the rear tyres were unapproved that could cause transfer box noise. Where on the tin does it say that you have to replace four tyres not just two?, which I have since done anyway, all yokos I do understand to a certain extent to what they are meaning, but if there is a weakness there in so far that there is no, or little margin between the variation in tyre sizes with regards to wear (7mm rear to to 3mm front) it then becomes quite complicated with regards to cornering different speeds of wheels ect, and I have to admit it is a bit above my head. BMW on the island told me that they have replaced several transmissions on X5s some at only 20,000 miles Regards, Allan

 

[UncleJ]

Al, check out dcharnet's post on the "SO many problems as people say...." thread on this board. There appears to be a problem with the ZF5HP24 transmission built before Aug '07 when it was redesigned. It may be the transmission after all that is suffering metal fatigue. Perhaps dropping the transmission pan and checking it and the filter for metal shavings would give you an idea of what is going on. You may be ready for a new transmission after all.:dunno:. It would have been easier if were the engine/transmission mounts! Good luck and I hope they get it right this time. Glad you got those great "unauthorized" yokos I have always had great luck with them.:thumbup:

 

[allan jardine]

uncle

Hi Uncle, I see what you mean about transmission problems pre 2007. The car is booked in on Friday 16th October in order for them to put this additive in to the auto box (probably snake oil) I asked them again when they contacted me to day, if they had checked all the mountings ect and had they been in touch with BMW to ascertain what the likely problem could be. They confirmed that all the external suspected areas where a potential problem could be had been checked, such as mountings ect and it was BMW that recommend this additive, they added that they had 75% success with it. As a mater of interest is it easy to drop the pan on the box and give access to the filter. I think it may come to that if this noise continues, will get the auto tran man to carry this out or at least ask him if he thinks it could be worth while, he has been fixing gear boxes including auto boxes for 30 years he says, so he should have a fair idea what to expect. He did say at one point that it could be a broken shaft holding the planetary gears in the box or transfer box, I can not remember which , but was not confident enough to strip out the box on that presumption, that is when he recommended that I take it to BMW to see what they came up with Regards, Allan

 

[UncleJ]

Al, nothing on a BMW seems easy! Have you seen what's required just for changing the battery? Anyway, you are certainly exhausting all the possibilities. Hope this works for you, please let us know what you finally discover the problem was. Many thanks for the interesting correspondence too!

 

[ard]

A few comments.


First be VERY CONCERNED when they start documenting "unapproved tires" (or tyres)...this is setting the legal ground work to screw you. I would fight this hard now, in written documentation that is short and concise.

The place for YOU to llok is the owners manual. You must carefully analyze this for an mention of YOUR responsibility for tire sizes and specs. Feel free to post here for info. I am guessing the tires are speficied by size and rating, period. You should ONLY be responsible for folling the owners manual- no dealer nor BMW can accuse you of using "unapproved" tires if they did not give you instructions and/or specs to do so. Fight this, make them acknowledge that your tires meet the specifications in the owners manual..IN WRITING. First

Second, again the manual- find out if it restricts replacing front separate from rear. Ask- no demand- the specification for size mismatch. These specs can vary greatly. The tightest spec Ive seen is on my 996TT and that is approx 0.3inch or 7-8mm of total "mismatch" you are clearly within that limit.

They have no idea what they are doing, and are just guessing and tossing stuff back to blame you. Do not allow this to go unaddressed- you must do this in writing.

If not, when soemthing ultimately fails, all you'll have is their documents and no way to counter it....

A