I purchased a 2007 525i new in May 2006. Car has 37k miles. About 18 months ago BMW replaced something with the valve covers because of a design flaw that limited the amount of oil getting to the valves (or something like that as I recall). Subsequent to that I noticed that the car started to develop a vibration through the steering wheel and parts of the interior (resonance I suspect). It was independent of speed or temperature as best I can tell. Interesting thing is that parked you can hear the variations in the vibrations oscillating through some cycle of sounds but the RPM really did not change at all. I tried different gas and injector cleaners but to no avail. I googled and read that there was a service bulletin out to service the exhaust mount if it was failing and creating noise. I had BMW perform the task and the resonance went away for 2 weeks and now it is working its way back. So I suspect the exhaust mount was a symptom not a cause. I think the engine is vibrating and loosening up other things and setting it to vibrate. I read somewhere that cleaning the air mass meter sensor will correct this. Anyone have a clue? I have owned 323ic, X3, X5, 530, and have never seen anything like this. Not to mention that the engine sounds like a sewing machine but that I suspect is a whole other story which no one has been able to explain to me except that it is not broken... it is supposed to sound like that! Cure for this I hear is supposed to be to add heavier oil. I did not fill out my Consumer Report ratings this year because I just cannot believe that this is representative of BMW ( and really a CR downgrade because of a cup holder!) Thought? Thanks, Alex
my 06 525i also has a little vibration. but mine is at idle only. they claimed my 06 already had the better exhaust bracket, but they put in the 'better' dampener, and that helped. you probably got the better dampener too -- it's all part of the same tsb. in fact, i think you should have been in the same boat as me with your 07. so did you get the better dampener? if none of this makes sense, i think i have the tsb somewhere, and could scan it and post it. as far as trying a different oil goes, i think that's a good idea. are you using bmw synthetic oil now? that's obviously a good place to start. bear in mind that some dealers, to my astonishment, apparently do not use bmw synth. i guess they can get away with this because there are a host of bmw approved oils. so don't assume. if you have been running bmw synthetic already, you might want to try 'german' castrol sythetic 0w30. it can help with valve ticking.. not sure about helping with vibration. i'll be putting it in my e60 after my maintenance is up..
Yes, I would like to think that they put in the better dampner. (I showed them the service bulletin I found on another blog.) I am using Mobil 5w30 and will move to 0w30 next. I read somehwere that flushing and changing the Transmission fluid also reduced the noise for someone so I will try that as well if not too costly. Thanks for the feedback.
