Show us your automotive diagnostic skills. Or more likely, let’s see who is just plain lucky! A squeak, creak, or rattle in your beloved vehicle can make you crazy in short order. I had two noises coming from the front of my 2003 M5 with 20,000 miles. Due to a recent accident involving a crack-smoking pickup truck driver plowing into my parked M5, my car was repaired (or rather, “restored") to the tune of approx. $22,000.
SOUND #1: So this first noise was a metallic, sheet-metal sound coming from what I thought was ahead of the steering wheel, engine side of the firewall. The sound could be easily reproduced by throwing the steering wheel side-to-side while traveling slowly in a parking lot. It would also clank when hitting some of the larger bumps in the road. Quite loud. Any ideas?
SOUND #2: This one was more of a “creak”. This would happen over bumps. It would also happen when moving slowly (as in 1st gear), when applying power and also deceleration. Since both struts and upper strut bearings were replaced, my first theory was a binding strut, or perhaps a spring perch, or misaligned strut or misaligned spring. Complete disassembly of the strut assembly showed no problems. Upon further experimentation, it would also do the same creak, albeit a shortened version, upon engine startup and also shutdown. The interesting thing is that I could bounce the car up and down violently while parked (by pulling/pushing on the body just behind the headlights with the hood open) and could NOT make it creak. I saw evidence of my Dinan strut brace imprinting into the new hood insulation, but removal of the Dinan piece made no difference in the creaking. Take a guess what I found!
Hint: Use ALL the clues. Don’t guess “bad struts” if the noise couldn’t be reproduced by bouncing the suspension while parked. Hint #2: I searched the Board for “front noise” and got 7 pages of results. None of these threads contained the correct diagnosis. Don’t feel bad if you get it wrong. It took me approx. six evenings with the car up on jacks to figure both of these out ( I'm slow but thorough!)
Have fun! Winner gets the M5Master Mechanic Diagnostician Magician Award (a.k.a. bragging rights).
cherrsagai
SOUND #1: So this first noise was a metallic, sheet-metal sound coming from what I thought was ahead of the steering wheel, engine side of the firewall. The sound could be easily reproduced by throwing the steering wheel side-to-side while traveling slowly in a parking lot. It would also clank when hitting some of the larger bumps in the road. Quite loud. Any ideas?
SOUND #2: This one was more of a “creak”. This would happen over bumps. It would also happen when moving slowly (as in 1st gear), when applying power and also deceleration. Since both struts and upper strut bearings were replaced, my first theory was a binding strut, or perhaps a spring perch, or misaligned strut or misaligned spring. Complete disassembly of the strut assembly showed no problems. Upon further experimentation, it would also do the same creak, albeit a shortened version, upon engine startup and also shutdown. The interesting thing is that I could bounce the car up and down violently while parked (by pulling/pushing on the body just behind the headlights with the hood open) and could NOT make it creak. I saw evidence of my Dinan strut brace imprinting into the new hood insulation, but removal of the Dinan piece made no difference in the creaking. Take a guess what I found!
Hint: Use ALL the clues. Don’t guess “bad struts” if the noise couldn’t be reproduced by bouncing the suspension while parked. Hint #2: I searched the Board for “front noise” and got 7 pages of results. None of these threads contained the correct diagnosis. Don’t feel bad if you get it wrong. It took me approx. six evenings with the car up on jacks to figure both of these out ( I'm slow but thorough!)
Have fun! Winner gets the M5Master Mechanic Diagnostician Magician Award (a.k.a. bragging rights).
cherrsagai