[floralscent]

I am experiencing a tick, tick, tick sound when my '07 X3 is idling after a cold start. The car sounds like a wind up car to me when it is making this noise and it is rather frustrating and embarrassing to me.

I inquired about this ticking sound in March of this year (bought vehicle in February '10 and didn't hear the sound at all while test driving) and dealer said that is typical of a BMW. Ok? Well it warmed up outside and I forgot about this issue. Now that it is cold again the irritating ticking sound came back so I decided to do some research myself and found a service bulletin (SIB 11 09 07) on this issue. When I took the SAV into the dealer, I told him about the bulletin I found and he said that BMW has now found the reason for the ticking sound and will replace the exhaust lifters since that is the cause of the noise. Great, as the car was still under original warranty.

Well, I started the X3 up the next day after work (cold start after sitting outside all day in 20 degree weather) and it still ticks! I haven't called the dealer yet as I wanted to see if anyone else had this issue and if so what did you do to remedy it. Since this "repair" last week, I am now under my CPO warranty as the original has now expired. Any suggestions and/or comments would be greatly appreciated.

I have driven quite a few lesser cars in my life and none of them have made such an irritating sound. Very confused-