Im glad you posted this. I have a 03 540 sport with 30k miles on it and mine does it too. It seems to happen 70% of the time I drive the car. Mine comes on around 1700 rpms and doesnt change in pitch with rpms above 1700. It is definetly a motor problem as the noise can be reproduced at a standstill with the transmission in neutral and the clutch engaged or in gear with the clutch disengaged. My local BMW service dept. threw a new alternator at it as they thought that was the problem. That was not the problem. Anyone have any insight? I can only think that its something along the belt driveline. :dunno:

 

Likely worn drive pulleys

Im glad you posted this. I have a 03 540 sport with 30k miles on it and mine does it too. It seems to happen 70% of the time I drive the car. Mine comes on around 1700 rpms and doesnt change in pitch with rpms above 1700. It is definetly a motor problem as the noise can be reproduced at a standstill with the transmission in neutral and the clutch engaged or in gear with the clutch disengaged. My local BMW service dept. threw a new alternator at it as they thought that was the problem. That was not the problem. Anyone have any insight? I can only think that its something along the belt driveline. :dunno:

Drive belt pulleys last a long time but sometimes, heat and water shorten its life; the pulley bearing is like the wheel bearing, when worn out and the grease is dry, it makes noise which increases with the rotation of the bearings.

 

when you say drive belt pully you're refering to the belt tensioers, right? What is the expected life of these parts?

 

Did you guys get anywhere with this ? I am having a similar problem and posted my post below
--------------------------

All

I have noticed a whining or high pitch whistle sound intermittently from my 540 and was hoping that through the wealth of knowledge here you could help me identify the root cause.
Here is some info about the problem:

Not consistent (when it does occur it may wear off and come back)
Usually only happens when engine is warm
Only happens when throttle is open (foot on gas pedal) and only when revs go above 1300
Will continue to whine with foot off gas pedal until revs drop back below 1300
Happens even when sitting idle in the garage (after engine is hot) just reving without moving

Any ideas anyone ???

Thanks

WC
Edit/Delete Message

 

Nothing new except that the dealership says the high pressure line on the power steering pump is leaking and the fluid was low. I really don't expect that has anything to do with this whine but something worth checking.

Talking with one of the techs at Concord BMW the tensioner pulleys are problematic and often replaced around 60,000 (my car has 62000+). Pelican Parts.com has these parts at a reasonable price. I plan on purchasing them next week and installing them. Since I will be in there a new water pump and serpentine will be on the list as well. Will let you know how it goes...

 

Let me know what you find. I isolated it to the pulleys this evening and it is clearly coming from there kind of weird how the sound only seems to happen when hot and even then doesn't last forever.

What price did you find on the parts ?

 

AIR PUMP!! get you a part number when I can. It costs ~$200 and should be covered under warranty. It is located under the passenger side front headlight, it's behind the bumper right infront of the wheel.

 

Terminology.....

when you say drive belt pully you're refering to the belt tensioers, right? What is the expected life of these parts?

In order to make the belt tight:
- Roller applies pressure on the belts by the force from the tensioner.

Over time, roller bearing dries out, also the tensioner weakens.

Change both if you have budget.

I am doing mine soon and will post tips at bimmerboard.com

Stay tuned

98 528 89k

 

AIR PUMP!! get you a part number when I can. It costs ~$200 and should be covered under warranty. It is located under the passenger side front headlight, it's behind the bumper right infront of the wheel.

Is the Air Pump covered under the CPO warranty?

 

Well i've checked the air pump, $278.00 at Pelican P/N: 11-72-1-433-958-M244. My Bently manuals are arriving next week so I'll have to wait until they come in before I do anything.

Why would the air pump only make this sound when the engine has been warmed up and above is running 1300 RPM?

 

R u sure it's not the fan clutch?

 

Well i've checked the air pump, $278.00 at Pelican P/N: 11-72-1-433-958-M244. My Bently manuals are arriving next week so I'll have to wait until they come in before I do anything.

Why would the air pump only make this sound when the engine has been warmed up and above is running 1300 RPM?

No idea but the indy tech pointed out that my air pump needs to be replaced due to the loud hoover vaccum noise I got on cold starts. Not sure if this is the cause of your problems but I am now experiencing the whistle/whine now after having a Dinan CAI installed (I did a crappy job of relocating the air pump out of the CAI filter's way). I doubt it's the belts but I could be wrong, I am at 60k. The pump should be covered under CPO as long as BMW admits that the part is out of order but BMW IS notorious for telling people that the noise is normal at cold starts and will go away after reving past 2k rpms or something like that.

 

Yeah that doesn't sound like my problem, the sound is not there at cold start, it's even fine for awhile after the vehicle has warmed up, but after 30+ minutes, or on long drives the whine shows up and sticks around. Having looked at a picture of the the air pump it looks electric but this problem is definitely associated with engine speed. I suppose the pump could speed up and slow down with RPM changes, but it really sounds more mechanical. Regardless, a new water pump and pulleys would be good at this point so I plan on doing them anyway. I'll let everyone know if that helps.

 

I have had the same problem, 2001 325i. There were actually two issues.

One, when idling, I would hear more of a whine. Turned out to be the "pulley wheel", which I assumed was the tensioner pulley. I was stupid and didn't ask to see the old and new parts. I think he charged me for the new belt and a pulley, but just added dry lubricant. It went away for a while, then came back. I'm going to be talking to the lad about that...

Two, a motor head frien listened to the other whistle sound that occured at various RPMs. He immediately said it was contaminated fuel injectors. I tried injector cleaner and it helped for a little, but he said once they have gotten that far, they need to be pulled and cleaned by a proffesional or replaced. I'll be doing that in the next couple of weeks and I'll let you know.

 

I have the same problem...i have a 540i 98 with 190,000km on it. My whine seems to
come from the driver side after 1500rpms and when the car is all warmed up. It almost
sounds like an electrical car or a golf cart sound. I just replaced the cyclone valve cover which might create your noise...it's located in the back of the engine on the intake manifold-this didn't help me.

I've isolated my noise by using a hose as a stethascope, found it to be coming from
the oil pressure hoses from the oil filter. Not only does this make the noise it
also vibrates. You can pull the throttle from the engine bay and you can actually feel the
hose vibrate after 1500rpms. I still don't know where the sound is coming from-HELP!!!

From experience, check fan clutch,pulleys and water pump. With your water pump see if
your belt is rotating staight-if so your good, if wobbles then water pump shaft is done. For your fan clutch see if you can stop it with a rolled up newspaper on cold start only-you should be able to do this no problem. When your engine is warmed up your fan clutch will spin with more authority to cool radiator down-just do this with caution. With your pulleys, take out the belts and check each pulley for noise.
Hope this helps.

 

I took mine into the shop to have engine reprogrammed and at that time added injector cleaner while I had the opportunity.

WHat I noticed was the whine is constant after the engine gets warm (put the AC on for a while to warm her up) and then it also gets slightly (not much but enough to change the pitch of the sound) louder when hitting the 1300rpms or higher. My tech also mentioned being a bearing issue but thought it would be hard to isolate where exactly.

What I noticed at the weekend after letting her get warm on the driveway was that instead of it sitting in the engine bay it was closer to the drivers side behind the drivers wheel well and almost towards teh center of teh front of the car if that makes sense.

The other thing I noticed is that if you listen carefully it sounds more like a whistle than a whine (only if you listen real careful) which makes me wonder if this is air escaping from somewhere.

I'm going to get my tech to hoist her up on the ramp so I can get underneath her completely next time but I am with you all on this its driving me crazy. My 540 should not be whistling/whining the national anthem when hot

WC

 

Anyone got any further with this, driving me frickin crazy

 

My car is in the shop now for this. They replaced the alternator a couple weeks back thinking that was the problem but it wasnt. They now claim its the underdrive pulley. They ordered the part and it should be here Monday or Tuesday so I wont know if that was the fix until then.

 

Well it sounds like we're getting closer to the problem. The "whistle" sound is exactly what I'm dealing with. I took an hour long drive through some curves and after that the whine was pretty much constant, even at idle. I ordered that stethoscope but it hasn't come yet. I hope it will help isolate the area, then I'll probably start replacing parts

Let me know what the shop did and if it fixed it.

 

MJT, let us know about the underdrive pulley and if that helped/ WHat is the expected cost of that ?

 

I have a 2000 528i that does the same thing. It has 69000, but my only whines or whistles at lower speed when accelerating. I will keep watching this threat to see what some of you find out.

 

I replaced both pulleys last year during a service. Cost was just over 100 for both parts, 105 labor. The whine went away for a while, but it did nothing for the whistle. I still need to get the fuel injectors cleaned/changed and will post results when I have. Has anyone else tried this?

 

MJT, let us know about the underdrive pulley and if that helped/ WHat is the expected cost of that ?

I got my car back today and all was fine for about 5 miles. The problem has been intermittent but occurs 75% of the time so it obviously didnt fix it. My car is going in the paint shop to have the stone chips taken out of the hood on Tuesday so I wont be able to go back to the dealership until a week or so later. I cant stand this noise! Ill keep this thread updated as I find out more.

 

MJT

Please do. I was even thinking about picking up a stethoscope to see if I could pin point. THis is getting on my nerves too

 

The ENTIRE COOLING SYSTEM tuneup

In order to make the belt tight:
- Roller applies pressure on the belts by the force from the tensioner.

Over time, roller bearing dries out, also the tensioner weakens.

Change both if you have budget.

I am doing mine soon and will post tips at bimmerboard.com

Stay tuned

98 528 89k

As I promised, here it is. I spent 8 hours doing the entire cooling systema and 6 hours for the write-up!!!
http://bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/199986

Hope this helps all of you.
540i is a bit different than 528i but not much different.
Enjoy the write-up.

cn90
98 528i