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[joekitch]

this is seriously baffling me
to add to the confusion, if i open the right rear window and pass by some solid objects like houses at 30mph+, i can hear the sound coming from my car being reflected off the houses! from the outside it sounds like playing cards sliding across an aluminum sheet in quick succession

what the heck is it?

[Hidden]

Could be from un-even wear of your rear tires. Could be a slight warp of one of your rear rotors rubbing against the brake caliper.

If it makes you feel any better mine does it too. My G35 did it as well.

[NGEE]

What tires are you running? Conti Extremes?

I'd have the wheels checked by a wheel shop - could be slightly bent.

[#Tee]

what was the last thing you did to the car

[Outlaw]

I had a similar experience with my car, turned out it was coming from the rear brakes, so I'd get them checked.

[diaz92376]

By any chance did you add spacers? I had that problem, wheels needed to be blanced and i had spaces that didnt sit flush with my wheels.

[joekitch]

Originally Posted by diaz92376

By any chance did you add spacers? I had that problem, wheels needed to be blanced and i had spaces that didnt sit flush with my wheels.

no spacers as far as i know. ionly got the car a few weeks ago. judging by the maintenance history i dont see this being owned by a ricer, the owner took it to a dealer religiously

im scheduled for a general inspection by an indie shop tomorrow at 4, ill see what they find

[bmodzelewski]

wheel bearing going bad?

[The Cleaner]

Tire, bearing or Diff.

[Zach1328]

Probably the tires. My 335i rides like a piece of junk and sounds awful on the Hankook Ventus V12 Evo's. Most people don't notice its noisy/rough, but coming from Michelin PSS' on my 535i its deadly!
The Hankook's are low on tread so that's probably why they ride so noisy and rough, however I ran my PSS' down to the threads and they still drove like brand new tires...
Can't wait to get the Pilots Super Sport's on my 335i too!

[joekitch]

i'd be surprised if it was the tires, i did the penny check on all the treads and its about the same (up to lincoln's eyes)

[BKV122]

Wheel bearing perhaps

[Chriztofor]

Originally Posted by joekitch

i'd be surprised if it was the tires, i did the penny check on all the treads and its about the same (up to lincoln's eyes)

I had the same sound but it was constant; turned out to be tires.

[joekitch]

also i dont suspect its the bearings, i've listened to many bad wheel bearing issues and its a constant noise, not a worbling

[joekitch]

NEVERMIND;
got a post-purchase-inspection today by landshark automotive (decent little indie shop nearby)
no codes, ghost codes, leaks, or anything wrong at all....

except he did confirm the noise i heard was in fact the right rear wheel bearing, not the rotors or axel or anything.
but hey at least literally nothing else is wrong!

[joekitch]

ok so! now that i know for certain that it's a bad wheel bearing

1) how long will it last before things get potentially dangerous? should i stop driving immediately? will it last until next weekend?

2) any good links for DIYs? to prevent it from taking 6 hours on my first time i really want to read everything i can about this so i know almost all the eventualities. being able to do it without expensive specialized tools will be nice but i'll probably need to do this for the other wheel bearings within the next 20k miles anyway

3) i see a lot of need for "special tools" to replace all the wheel bearing bits but...is it possible just to buy a new pre-assembled hub assembly? with the bearings already pressed in? that seems way easier

4) if i chuck it to an indie shop, how much do you think it'll cost? like $400?

thanks

[joekitch]

oh dear
lots of googling reveals.....basically no diy information on this. the front bearings look easy but there's seldom little mention of the rear bearings at all....anywhere

do they just fail very very rarely?

[joekitch]

so at a good indie shop the total cost is about $400, it takes them about 2.5 hours and the part is $100

i called my local bmw dealer out of curiosity to see what they charge;
$600 labor for 4.4 hours
$380 for the part itself. just ONE bearing

i mean holy shit. how can a dealer take almost twice as long for half again the per-hour labor cost and have triple the parts cost? how?

[Zach1328]

Originally Posted by joekitch

so at a good indie shop the total cost is about $400, it takes them about 2.5 hours and the part is $100

i called my local bmw dealer out of curiosity to see what they charge;
$600 labor for 4.4 hours
$380 for the part itself. just ONE bearing

i mean holy shit. how can a dealer take almost twice as long for half again the per-hour labor cost and have triple the parts cost? how?

BMW charges a ton for parts simply because their parts are stamped with a BMW logo. Buy OEM parts online because they are the exact same parts BMW sells just a fraction of the price since they aren't stamped with the BMW logo.

As for the labor - that indy shop is charging $120 an hour and the BMW dealership is charging $135 so that's not a huge difference. Either way that is some damn expensive labor!!
My local BMW dealership charges ~$125/hour (never had ANY work done there - other than recalls) and the amazing indy shop I go to occasionally charges ~$80/hour. The guy at the indy shop I go to works FAST and does quality work.

[joekitch]

i called a few other shops to get quotes and it varies quite a bit
landshark automotive, the place where i got the inspection done that originally suggested the wheel bearings need replacing, booked it for 4.75 hours and $99 for the bearing+$130 for the hub that the bearing sits into. this is the first i'm hearing that you need to replace both at the same time so i'm a little dubious.....also 4.75 hours is longer than a dealer

another place, Bolt's garage up in Hudson which i have heard nothing but good things about said it'd take about 2.5 hours and cost $400, that's the indie shop i mentioned before

yet another place called medway imports in medway called it 4 hours labor and $541 total with parts cost.

I'll probably chuck it to a local indie which i trust quite a bit. they dont usually do BMWs but all the techs there are quite good and do good work, plus they have a crap ton of bearing tools and presses. Their service manager wont be in until tomorrow morning though so i'll call and ask him then

on the upside while the bearing noise is getting louder, there is zero lateral play in the wheel yet, no wiggling of any kind, which hopefully means it'll last a few days longer before anything serious happens

[NormE91]

I dunno how far a drive it is for you, but Gary Stanley's International Auto in Westford is very good. Also, Tulley BMW in Nashua tends to be a lot less expensive than BMW of Sundbury, if that's the dealership that quoted you.

[joekitch]

and...then it got moved to wheels and tires?