2011 ZCP M3 clicking noise

[M3Pilot09]

Has anyone experienced a clicking noise from the motor? Seems to be on the left side in the wheel well area. I hear it when I pull in my garage and come to a stop. It does not sound right? This is my 9th M3 and consider myself to be in tune with my car. My 2008 M3 Sedan did not make this noise. Has anyone else had this problem? I have 4,700 miles.

[kouhii]

Is it like this one?

[M3Pilot09]

Yes, I can't believe I am having problems already!

[kouhii]

Please have your main bearings checked.
I had this problem at around 3000 miles.

These are the symptoms:
-Only hear it when your oil temp is ~170F or above
-It changes in frequency as you rev your engine to 1.5k or 3k rpm in neutral
-Drive in the highest gear at 25mph in a very quiet street and roll down your windows you can still hear it

If all above is correct get your main bearings replaced! Your car will be in the dealer for ~5 weeks! Good luck!

[duk]

damn that sucks if it's the main bearings

[satinghostrider]

Well BMW did apparently change the bearings after 10/2008.

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showpos...6&postcount=79

A few people were affected by this and most of them were 2008 cars, including mine. I also had very bad main bearings when I tore my engine apart due to warranty issues that I worked myself through myself.

If your is a 2010 car and it is confirmed the main bearings issue, then I really dont know what the fuck is going on at BMW. It seems they cant get things right. Even the N55 engine now still has the same HPFP problem and even after the S54 bearing problems, they still have it though in much less numbers. This should not be happening AT ALL!

[digi]

Originally Posted by M3Pilot09

Has anyone experienced a clicking noise from the motor? Seems to be on the left side in the wheel well area. I hear it when I pull in my garage and come to a stop. It does not sound right? This is my 9th M3 and consider myself to be in tune with my car. My 2008 M3 Sedan did not make this noise. Has anyone else had this problem? I have 4,700 miles.

Is that a typo, or do you mean all model years of M3? Or do you change cars every 3 months?

[MonteCarloM3]

it's a pebble stuck beetween the rotor and the metal backing plate perhaps. i had it also.

[farbarg]

Originally Posted by kouhii

Please have your main bearings checked.
I had this problem at around 3000 miles.

These are the symptoms:
-Only hear it when your oil temp is ~170F or above
-It changes in frequency as you rev your engine to 1.5k or 3k rpm in neutral
-Drive in the highest gear at 25mph in a very quiet street and roll down your windows you can still hear it

If all above is correct get your main bearings replaced! Your car will be in the dealer for ~5 weeks! Good luck!

I had a similar sound in my 08 (identical to the video above). Took it in to the dealer, they confirmed the sound, but we decided to see if it got worse over the next few hundred miles. Surprisingly enough, the sound disappeared. Pretty unlikely for a bad main bearing to spontaneously heal. I've since put on 23k miles with zero problems (multiple autox's, track event). However, what did fail is the valve inside my exhaust, which plausibly could make this kind of noise as well.

[Lodaka]

M3Pilot09, have you resolved this problem? I know that there are several posts on this but most of them discusses MY08 it seems.

My 2011 M3 E92 DCT has also developed this problem since my break-in service just this past Friday. It's irregular in frequency and goes away if the car is not running.

I had the dealer check this issue yesterday and their foreman told me that this did not sound right. He had four other technicians listen to the noise and could not quite figure out what/where it was.

They booked an appointment for me this Friday for a full diagnosis, which I assume will take more than a day. They also informed me that in their opinion the car is safe to drive and, as the noise appears to be external, I am in no danger of damaging any parts. Notwithstanding, I don't plan to drive it until I drop it off on Friday.

Another thing that I noticed, which I haven't told the service people yet (but I do plan to) is that the noise does increase in frequency when I do move from a standing position, but it does not appear to be related to any revv'ing. If I rev it slightly while motionless (i.e. N), the frequency does not increase, but only when the car starts to move.

Anyway, I would love to find out what happened to your issue. Thanks.

[saurabbhatia]

i'm trying to figure out what noise it is from the youtube video.. is it a smooth frequency noise or a rattling noise?

[JCtx]

Originally Posted by elmariachi

If your is a 2010 car and it is confirmed the main bearings issue, then I really dont know what the fuck is going on at BMW.

Amen to that. In fact, after the S54's main bearing problems, NONE of the S65s should have had it. I'm in the possibly affected range, with a build date of Jun '08. This is what is making me reconsider keeping this car after warranty. And the idle valve too... if it doesn't fail before warranty runs out (low mileage here).

Originally Posted by farbarg

However, what did fail is the valve inside my exhaust, which plausibly could make this kind of noise as well.

Who told you this? There's no valve inside the exhaust. Maybe you're referring to the heater that heats up the cats on cold starts . This thing looks like a fan, and sits at the back of the 'V' when you remove the plenum (below is a pic of it), but it wouldn't make that noise at all. And there's nothing else connected to the exhaust.

[Lodaka]

Originally Posted by saurabbhatia

i'm trying to figure out what noise it is from the youtube video.. is it a smooth frequency noise or a rattling noise?

I think it's the clicking/ticking noise in the background. It doesn't happen often but if you listen for it, you can hear it around 18 sec mark, right after he says "one more time." Two ticks.

[saurabbhatia]

Originally Posted by Lodaka

I think it's the clicking/ticking noise in the background. It doesn't happen often but if you listen for it, you can hear it around 18 sec mark, right after he says "one more time." Two ticks.

Really I get that often I just thought that was the car warming up.. as it disappears after the car is warm...

[geneatals]

I think clicking can be heard on this e92 M3 vid better..

[Lodaka]

Originally Posted by geneatals

I think clicking can be heard on this e92 M3 vid better..

Yea, that's exactly what I have. I saw this video on one of the posts discussing MY2008 M3's.

Funny: as the video title says, this started only happening after the break-in service. I wonder who created this video and whether the problem was resolved.

[JCtx]

Originally Posted by Lodaka

Yea, that's exactly what I have.

Hate to be negative, but that sound can be no other thing than main bearings IMO . Would be delighted to be wrong.

Having said that, the engine is not going to explode, but will eventually get worse, in case BMW doesn't want to do the inevitable, which is to replace them. Damn, what a nightmare. And morning starts in cold weather with honey-like 10/60 oil certainly doesn't help. Appalling to read this happening to a new car . Please keep us posted.

[satinghostrider]

Originally Posted by elp_jc

Amen to that. In fact, after the S54's main bearing problems, NONE of the S65s should have had it. I'm in the possibly affected range, with a build date of Jun '08. This is what is making me reconsider keeping this car after warranty. And the idle valve too... if it doesn't fail before warranty runs out (low mileage here).


Who told you this? There's no valve inside the exhaust. Maybe you're referring to the heater that heats up the cats on cold starts . This thing looks like a fan, and sits at the back of the 'V' when you remove the plenum (below is a pic of it), but it wouldn't make that noise at all. And there's nothing else connected to the exhaust.

Yes I can understand where you are coming from and I seriously thought of selling the car off but I would lose too much money. Thats why I considered a rebuild with better bearings and parts and I will keep the car for a while now since I love the engine even more.

But for sure, I am very doubtful of BMWs quality and I would not be getting another one in the near future. Needless to say, I hope all those affected gets their ones fixed properly.

elp_jc, there was a 2009 car that also had main bearing problems here so it surprises me that it is not only the 2008 though in definitely more numbers that post 2008.

http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthr...=151600&page=2

Hope this helps all.

[JCtx]

Originally Posted by elmariachi

there was a 2009 car that also had main bearing problems here so it surprises me that it is not only the 2008 though in definitely more numbers that post 2008.

New bearings were introduced in 10/08, meaning some early '09s have the old bearings. But forget about that man; learned one '10 and another '11 M3s have the typical bad bearing engine noise on a recent thread. That's freaking unbelievable.

I also question the use of 10/60 oil for all climates. Both Ferrari and Lamborghini, with even higher strung engines, with higher specific outputs and higher redlines, spec 5/40 oil, just like all Porsches (and most sportbikes). TWS is like molasses, especially in cold climates. My only explanation is crappy tolerances. But why BMW didn't make it 5/60 is even more puzzling. Lamborghini recommends 20/50 (most owners use M1 15/50) for track use, and up to 0/30 (most owners use 5/40) for cold climates. Would love to hear BMW's technical explanation for that oil, rather than their marketing crap. I'm going to keep using it because with crappy tolerances you need it, or risk bearing damage, like it happened to S54s, but there's no need for such an extreme grade, proven by all other exotic engine manufacturers using 5/40. Take care.

[Dave07997S]

Originally Posted by elp_jc

New bearings were introduced in 10/08, meaning some early '09s have the old bearings. But forget about that man; learned one '10 and another '11 M3s have the typical bad bearing engine noise on a recent thread. That's freaking unbelievable.

I also question the use of 10/60 oil for all climates. Both Ferrari and Lamborghini, with even higher strung engines, with higher specific outputs and higher redlines, spec 5/40 oil, just like all Porsches (and most sportbikes). TWS is like molasses, especially in cold climates. My only explanation is crappy tolerances. But why BMW didn't make it 5/60 is even more puzzling. Lamborghini recommends 20/50 (most owners use M1 15/50) for track use, and up to 0/30 (most owners use 5/40) for cold climates. Would love to hear BMW's technical explanation for that oil, rather than their marketing crap. I'm going to keep using it because with crappy tolerances you need it, or risk bearing damage, like it happened to S54s, but there's no need for such an extreme grade, proven by all other exotic engine manufacturers using 5/40. Take care.

My 997.1S actually used Mobil 1 0w-40..a lot of people on the porsche sites felt this was too thin.


Dave

[jdgamble]

So I just went on a little drive and then did the 1000-2000 RPM test in the garage, and I hear a little ticking too. Not valve noise, because it's erratic. It almost sounds like the sound of exhaust cooling. My car has about 5300 miles on it (2011), but it drives like a champ... the engine seems to be getting stronger. I have a hard time believing this noise is anything serious. If a bearing was faulty, wouldn't there be other symptoms, like rough idle or loss of power or something?

God I wish I had never looked at this thread...

[kpneverdies]

so.... they had recall for MY08?