[Stuabroad]

Need some help diagnosing a creaking sound, getting pissed off with my dealer. Bought my X5 MSport back in May, it has the air suspension, odometer just hit 50,000km, built Oct 2019. A few weeks after purchase in June, I started to hear what sounded like a faint "knocking/creaking" noise at slow speed, going over bumps etc. You can also hear it when accelerating or decelerating, where the vehicle moves forward or backwards and the weight shifts. It’s been into the dealer twice, two months apart, and they could hear the sound. On both occasions while up on the ramp, they found mechanical items needing replaced: two front tension struts which were corroded and leaking and on the second visit they found both front lower control arms needing replaced. The most recent visit was two weeks ago. The sound has come back again and is really loud this morning, so much so I’ve been able to record it on my cell phone. The scenario here is me driving around an empty cinema car park at 10km/h, no speed bumps, mainly flat ground. You can hear the creaking sound as the vehicle accelerates and decelerates and when turning or goes over a bump. It’s booked to go back in again on Monday. It goes out of warranty October 30th so I’m crapping myself that the air suspension is damaged or something expensive is at fault. I’ve posted the audio clip (1m 45s) – if you guys have any ideas what would make this sound, please let me know your thoughts. I’m going to refuse to take the vehicle back until it’s fixed this time. Thanks for reading

I can't upload MP3s - here's a link to the file on my OneDrive cloud share:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AmIoZuJAOxlnhawG...0JBbw?e=V47H3e

[radmjk]

This sounds like the issue I had with my 2020 X5 m50i when it was new. I have posted about this in the past. My vehicle was at the dealer and body shop for a total of 6 weeks before it got taken care. The car was missing a spot weld, and would creak over bumps, and when accelerating and decelerating as you had stated.

Search in the threads for “creaking sound” and you should find it. Dealer paperwork was uploaded as well.

[Stuabroad]

Originally Posted by radmjk

This sounds like the issue I had with my 2020 X5 m50i when it was new. I have posted about this in the past. My vehicle was at the dealer and body shop for a total of 6 weeks before it got taken care. The car was missing a spot weld, and would creak over bumps, and when accelerating and decelerating as you had stated.

Search in the threads for “creaking sound” and you should find it. Dealer paperwork was uploaded as well.

Crap; thanks for the feedback. Can't seem to find any of your posts and "creaking" as a search term isn't helping - any chance you could send me the specific urls?

[radmjk]

Here is the link. Kinda lengthy and others had chimed in with related and unrelated issues.

https://g05.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...creaking+sound

[Stuabroad]

That's crazy man, did they say what the spot weld consisted of and where?

[radmjk]

Originally Posted by Stuabroad

That's crazy man, did they say what the spot weld consisted of and where?

No I just surmised it was under passenger side rear seat bench because that was the location of the sound and I know they removed the seat. I think they had it nailed down earlier on but did not do a strong enough weld which is why it would come back. On that final visit though they did ultimately correct it for good.

[Stuabroad]

Originally Posted by radmjk

No I just surmised it was under passenger side rear seat bench because that was the location of the sound and I know they removed the seat. I think they had it nailed down earlier on but did not do a strong enough weld which is why it would come back. On that final visit though they did ultimately correct it for good.

Will see what the head mech says on Monday. It's like i'm trying to get through the list of loaners they have at the dealership.

[eelnoraa]

Is it possible to isolate between the chassis issue (miss spot weld, damn), or suspension issue? This would be my first step.

Before seeing your spot weld post, I was thing check ball joints and bushings. As they wore out, there will be play between suspension component and the subframe, when you compress the suspension, they will make noise. 50km seems to bit early for that, but it should be very simple check by any mechanics with a lift

As for the spot weld missing, I found it very hard to believe. Spot weld are done by robots these days, if they miss, they will miss for the entire batch of production. And fixing spot weld, I am not sure this is what dealer can fix easily without some case from BMW. After all, it is chassis defect, safety related. The person who can do it needs to be an experience welder for cars, meaning they need to do this often. A random tech at BMW dealer, probably never done one before, won't do a proper job.

But then let me also back up a big, how the hack dealer is able to find it is also a puzzle. They cannot see it easily, they must open some panels, grind off paints, adhesive .. in order to even examine the weld. This also mean they should leave visual evident behind. Can you ask for picture of where the problem is, and picture of the post welding?

[radmjk]

Originally Posted by eelnoraa

Is it possible to isolate between the chassis issue (miss spot weld, damn), or suspension issue? This would be my first step.

Before seeing your spot weld post, I was thing check ball joints and bushings. As they wore out, there will be play between suspension component and the subframe, when you compress the suspension, they will make noise. 50km seems to bit early for that, but it should be very simple check by any mechanics with a lift

As for the spot weld missing, I found it very hard to believe. Spot weld are done by robots these days, if they miss, they will miss for the entire batch of production. And fixing spot weld, I am not sure this is what dealer can fix easily without some case from BMW. After all, it is chassis defect, safety related. The person who can do it needs to be an experience welder for cars, meaning they need to do this often. A random tech at BMW dealer, probably never done one before, won't do a proper job.

But then let me also back up a big, how the hack dealer is able to find it is also a puzzle. They cannot see it easily, they must open some panels, grind off paints, adhesive .. in order to even examine the weld. This also mean they should leave visual evident behind. Can you ask for picture of where the problem is, and picture of the post welding?

Body shop had to do the welding, not tech at the dealer.

[charlie fairmont]

We had a very slight knock or clunk sound when going over mild bumps. The SIB the dealer referenced (attached) does mention creaks too, so perhaps the symptoms manifest themselves differently from car to car. They replaced both tie rods for us, and the sound is gone. Good luck!

[Stuabroad]

Originally Posted by charlie fairmont

We had a very slight knock or clunk sound when going over mild bumps. The SIB the dealer referenced (attached) does mention creaks too, so perhaps the symptoms manifest themselves differently from car to car. They replaced both tie rods for us, and the sound is gone. Good luck!

THat's interesting reading, though couldn't get the video links to play. i don't hear it coming distinctly form steering inputs. Like i could be hands off and it would still make the creaking sound. The service manager drove it with me this morning and heard it clear as day, he was pretty interested, not something he'd heard before.