Sponsored by The Tire Rack

[kcheung]

About 6 months ago I had noticed that my 06 330i got pretty noisy when driving. The noise, which seems to come from the front of the car, starts to grow almost as soon as I increase speed, peaks at around 40 mph, and tends to subside slightly when going higher speed (or perhaps the "wind noise" has overshadowed it?). The noise also seems to get louder when I let go of the gas pedal at around 30 to 40 mph and starts to decrease speed. I do not, however, feel too much vibration from the steering wheel but do feel some vibrations coming from the floor, especially at low speed when I let go of the pedal. I took the car to the dealership for service around X'mas and asked them to look into it for me. My SA told me that it was probably due to some uneven wears in the front tires, and went ahead and swapped the front and back tires and rebalanced them for me. The noise seemed to subside a bit but not completely - as there was still an obvious difference between the noise of my car and the (new) 330i loaner I got for the service.

In the past month, the noise seems to come back again. Any idea what could possibly be the cause of it? Do you think it's uneven wear again, or is there something else that the SA might have overlooked? I can think of the following possibilities:

1. uneven wear on tires (again)
2. alignment
3. wheel balance
4. bent rims/wheel?
5. problem with wheel bearing??

If it were the uneven wear of the tires, can I request for tire replacements since I have purchased the InTire warranty? I am up for my oil service appointment (~23K miles) next week and would like to see what else I can recommend my SA to look into. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have owned a '89 325i and a '96 328i before and have never had this problem at all. This definitely is putting a stink in my BMW experience...


Thanks.

Kenny

[P2]

Originally Posted by kcheung

About 6 months ago I had noticed that my 06 330i got pretty noisy when driving. The noise, which seems to come from the front of the car, starts to grow almost as soon as I increase speed, peaks at around 40 mph, and tends to subside slightly when going higher speed (or perhaps the "wind noise" has overshadowed it?). The noise also seems to get louder when I let go of the gas pedal at around 30 to 40 mph and starts to decrease speed. I do not, however, feel too much vibration from the steering wheel but do feel some vibrations coming from the floor, especially at low speed when I let go of the pedal. I took the car to the dealership for service around X'mas and asked them to look into it for me. My SA told me that it was probably due to some uneven wears in the front tires, and went ahead and swapped the front and back tires and rebalanced them for me. The noise seemed to subside a bit but not completely - as there was still an obvious difference between the noise of my car and the (new) 330i loaner I got for the service.

In the past month, the noise seems to come back again. Any idea what could possibly be the cause of it? Do you think it's uneven wear again, or is there something else that the SA might have overlooked? I can think of the following possibilities:

1. uneven wear on tires (again)
2. alignment
3. wheel balance
4. bent rims/wheel?
5. problem with wheel bearing??

If it were the uneven wear of the tires, can I request for tire replacements since I have purchased the InTire warranty? I am up for my oil service appointment (~23K miles) next week and would like to see what else I can recommend my SA to look into. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have owned a '89 325i and a '96 328i before and have never had this problem at all. This definitely is putting a stink in my BMW experience...


Thanks.

Kenny

Look at the wear diagrams in this TSB. Do you have the heal to toe wear? At 23k your tires would not be covered but maybe since you have been complaining about it since under 20K maybe you can get your service manager to approve the 50/50 in the tSB. If you started to complain before 10K go for free.
http://www.bmwtis.com/tsb/bulletins/...p/B360606g.htm

[montreal_bimmer]

yikes..... that would bother me...

[tctic]

Seems like it's the faulty Bridgestone Turanza tires that are causing the problem as the OP does not seem to have the Sports Package, which means high chance of faulty tires.

[kcheung]

It's kind of hard for me to see if the tires are having the heel to toe wear. In any case, I have complained about the noise at around 18K so I may be able to get the 50/50 approval. Here is the comments from that service on this issue: "Test drove car and duplicated complaint. Checked tire wear and pressure, found the tire pressure were all low between 15-20 psi. Checked the tire thread and found the front was at 6mm, rear was at 4mm. The inner edges were feathered and lower than the rest of the tires. Checked for any worn/damaged arts, all was fine. Tires worn unevenly most likely due to tires not set to the proper pressures and customer driving habits." So at this service the SA swapped the front and rear tires and re-balanced them for me... Does it sound like it will be a strong case even the car is now beyond 20K?

In the TSB it is mentioned that the reimbursement only applies to BMW Tire Center Target Satisfaction Program only. How could I find out if my dealership participates in the program, or are all BMW dealership part of the program automatically? Also, any idea how much it will cost me for the 50/50 split, which essentially is just the tire cost as the labor should be 100% covered according to the TSR?

Thanks.

Kenny

[driverseven]

I started getting road noise from the Bridgestone Turanzas around 16K miles.

I replaced them at around 21K with the Continentals and the noise went away.

I suspect that if you try to get the dealer to make good, they'll offer you a pro-rated price on new tires but at the dealer's inflated price. By the time you're done, you may save a couple of bucks over having it done by a discount tire place, but not much.

In my case, I went to the BMW mechanic who serviced my last BMW after the warranty ran out -- he took good care of me and when the warranty runs out on this one, I'll be going back to him for all service. So if someone's going to get my money, it's someone who will give a good price on service after the warranty.