The 535 has deveoped some noise.

[Martin in Bellevue]

About a week ago, a (tire?) noise got loud. Jeff borrowed the car & called it tire noise; I mentioned nothing about noise to him beforehand. It is directly proportional to car speed, being loudest at about 40 mph. After 40, it seems to quiet down. The noise seems to be coming from the front half of the car.

What I've done:
I took the turbine fan covers off the m5 wheels looking for debris.
I replaced the 3 month old Yoko es100's with Db 2's last Monday. The Db's are a little quieter, but the hum is still there. Discount Tire was very cool about this, giving full credit on the es100's towards the new tires. I had a guy go along around the block & he agreed the noise was tires.
I took plastic covers from behind headlights away & the duct to alternator apart last night looking for any cause.
I also cleaned up the caliper carrier bolts & saw no relief.
The front accessory fan spins freely. With the front end on jackstands, the wheels seemed to spin freely.
The backing plates aren't touching the brake rotors.
I replaced the front wheel bearings last year. The noise sounds alot more like loud tires than anything else I can think of.
I checked the heat shields under the car. This includes the shields over the control arms, catalytic, & the big heat shield over the center of driveshaft.
The guibo & center driveshaft mount looked good.

What I can do without better diagnostic skills:
Swap in the new 3.64lsd.
Swap in the driveshaft from that parts car. The rear cv joint in the original driveshaft could fail causing such a noise? I thought they clicked to death.
Swap in the front strut assemblies & the different wheel bearings from the parts car.
Could a bearing have gone in the 5 speed manual gearbox causing this?

[Jeff N.]

uh oh...no love from the tires huh?

Let's plop in that new diffy and inpect the driveline while we're in there. We should start to rebuild that driveline anyways as our hacked CV on my car is shot.

Hey...didn't you just change that tranny fluid to something else? What was the swap?

Jeff

[Martin in Bellevue]

uh oh...no love from the tires huh?

Let's plop in that new diffy and inpect the driveline while we're in there. We should start to rebuild that driveline anyways as our hacked CV on my car is shot.

Hey...didn't you just change that tranny fluid to something else? What was the swap?

Jeff

[mholbrook]

Let us know about your thoughts on the 3.64 LSD swap. I just bought one myself and plan to put it in within a few weeks.

Mike Holbrook
89 535im

[Jeff N.]

ya sure u betcha.

[Martin in Bellevue]

Well, a front bearing failed in a peculiar manner.
It finally got bad enough to grumble & squeal at hand rotations while jacked up.

A little disclosure; I replaced both front wheel bearings maybe a year and a half ago. I remember the first one fell out of the box & landed on the concrete floor. I carelessly held the side of the box while opening the thing & watched the bearing fall through the bottom of the box. I figured I'd put everything back together & roll. I was more careful with the other side.

The 535 is so nice & quiet again.

[Jeff N.]

Soo...how 'bout dem new tahrs?

I'm headed out to the garage to swap brake fluid and rubber. That and finally straighten out that #%$@ steering wheel.

Well, a front bearing failed in a peculiar manner.
It finally got bad enough to grumble & squeal at hand rotations while jacked up.

A little disclosure; I replaced both front wheel bearings maybe a year and a half ago. I remember the first one fell out of the box & landed on the concrete floor. I carelessly held the side of the box while opening the thing & watched the bearing fall through the bottom of the box. I figured I'd put everything back together & roll. I was more careful with the other side.

The 535 is so nice & quiet again.