Re: Whining noise - fan? bearing? 99 740il (archive)

Recently we started hearing a whining noise that is intermittent. Happens when driving, when idling, when braking, when turning but not all the time doing those things. It's getting more frequent and seems to be located more "mid car" if that's possible. What's wierd is that it's so hit or miss - sometimes we hear it a lot, sometimes not at all, but more frequently lately. Almost sounds like a fan or a slight grinding yet we can't pinpoint what on earth it's related to - anyone else had this problem?

I also have a '99 740i (Sport). This sounds exactly like what my car is exhibiting. The sound is something like a droning warning siren off in the distance, sometimes louder, sometimes softer. It also comes from amidship, and comes and goes as it pleases once the car warms up, always hiding when approaching the service department. It isn't always steady, sometimes warbling a little. If you find out what it is, I would love to know so that I may tell my service people about it.

On a similar and possibly related note: Just after starting the car and moving off, I hear a 'chirp' that occurs just before 2000 RPM. It only happens once after starting off and has an extended or shortened length of occurrence dependent upon how fast I am accelerating through 2000 RPM. The sound is like the dragging of a small metal plate against another metal surface. Alas, the service people have never heard of this before. I also heard a similar sound (different pitch, similar RPM range)in a loaner 528i (also with Steptronic Transmission), so maybe it is a normal sound. Has any one else heard this? Might this be related to the whining sound discussed before? Short of circling the BMW Service Department for an entire day until the sound kicks in, I don't know of any other way to get them to notice what is happening.

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