[raisingAnarchy]

Not sure what I did (more likely the previous owner), but I just heard back from the indy mechanic that I dropped my car off at. I'm close to 45k miles on a CPO 2011 328 xDrive ZMT and I have low fluid in the transmission, a leaky front diff seal (driver's side), a whining rear diff (possibly pinion bearing), and possibly even driveline vibration from the rear diff (indy is checking wheel balance).

This was all found out because I had them look at why there was a rattle coming from my transmission in neutral at idle with clutch out (foot off pedal). The rattle would also change as I depressed the clutch pedal, and completely go away once the pedal was completely depressed. I also drove with the tech to have him listen for the whining sound and they noticed the vibration at speed after I guessed about the wheel balance.

Still under warranty, which is nice, but I haven't even taken my car to the track yet. I have no delusions that I'm the best manual trans driver, but with this car I spent a lot of time practicing my clutch work, reading forum discussions and watching videos to make sure I was doing the right thing. There have been 0 "launches" or money shifts or any of that garbage in my hands, but I'll never know what happened on the first 30,000 lease miles this car had.

[AWDBooSTIn90]

The rattle you brought it in for is the clutch throw out bearing/clutch release bearing.

A leaking front and rear diff seal has nothing to do with driving habits in a road car, especially at that mileage. It just happens sometimes. Have you been showed the signs of leakage?

Also what kind of vibrations are you getting from the rear? Like as in vibration while driving? Whining under load/acceleration?

[raisingAnarchy]

Originally Posted by AWDBooSTIn90

The rattle you brought it in for is the clutch throw out bearing/clutch release bearing.

A leaking front and rear diff seal has nothing to do with driving habits in a road car, especially at that mileage. It just happens sometimes. Have you been showed the signs of leakage?

Also what kind of vibrations are you getting from the rear? Like as in vibration while driving? Whining under load/acceleration?

I thought the same thing about the rattle, but they're saying it can be fixed by replacing the fluid since it's low in the trans.

I haven't been shown the leak, but I'll have them show me when I get the car. I'm picking the car up today and will be taking it to the dealership as soon as I can get an appointment because I would expect this to be covered by CPO warranty.

The vibration from the rear is at speed and only at certain speeds (like 50-60mph), feels like tire imbalance to me. The indy is checking to make sure the tire balance is correct (they're the same shop that mounted and balanced these new tires a couple months ago), but they were saying yesterday it's related to something in the driveline on the rear. I'll have final word on their opinion this afternoon.

The whining sound I've had for awhile. It's not related to load/acceleration as it shows up at speed regardless of whether I'm in gear or not. I'd say it's starts around 15-20 mph and probably stays past 45-50mph, which I can't confirm because road/wind noise drowns it out at that speed.

Several months ago I asked the dealer to check it out and had the tech ride with me, but I couldn't tell if they actually heard what I was trying to point out. They ended up chalking it up to the xDrive system being noisier than RWD, after claiming they put it on a lift and spun the wheels while listening to diffs and such with a stethoscope. I believe that they did after meeting the techs and having a few discussions with the Service Manager.