2007 x5 3.0l vibration/drone at idle

[PedroBMW]

Hey guys.. So I picked up a preowned 2007 x5 this week, its super duper clean 1 owner california car with 60k miles on the clock. So I have been loving it so far except for 1 issue ive noticed that is now driving me nuts. At idle, particularly when loaded in drive with my foot on brake and/or ac on, there is a slight vibration noticeale in the seat as well as a droning sound which sounds like the vibration just resonating through the vehicle.

The engine seems to be running great from what I can tell (not a misfire issue or something like that) so it makes me think it could be worn engine mounts or something..From my quick searches I see people complaining about similar issues on older x5 but I cant find any info on anyone actually resolving it. Has anyone ever had and fixed this issue before? Any ideas?

Im literally in love with this car but now that I have noticed this I cant unnotice it and its driving me insane. Also in every other condition the car seems 100% perfect and smooth and great its literally only at idle speed .. thanks in advance.

[ake53]

I have the same problem, noticed yesterday and when i switch to neutral it goes away. I will look into this and get back to you.

[ake53]

my problem went away. No clue what I could have been. something must have gotten loose and caused a vibration... bring your car to the dealer and have them inspect it.

[PedroBMW]

my problem went away. No clue what I could have been. something must have gotten loose and caused a vibration... bring your car to the dealer and have them inspect it.

Took it to dealer. Everything is fine according to them (enginemounts, trans mounts, exhaust hangers, etc. like I said the car is super clean). They told me there are tons and tons of complaints on 5 series and x5s regarding this. Unfortunatly its "normal" and the root cause is the exhaust vibrating at low engine speed (he even mentioned ont he old x5s they culd raise the idle speed setpointwith their service tool and it would fix it but no longer on the e70s). I did alot of searches online and its true, tons of people with same complaint (mostly on 5 series, but I guess because there are more of them), there was even a technical service bulletin put out by BMW to fix it (basically remove the clamp that holds the exhaust to the trans and change the vibration absorber near the muffler to the 32Hz one which is what the X5 already comes with). Unfortunatley even though I tried doing the items in TSB its still there, the only suggestion the tech had was to try different vibration absorbers and see if any help but he said he has tried that before without any luck. He told me he has chased this many many times on e70s and e60s. He said on their actual shop vehicle they have been trying to resolve it and have spent over 4 thousand in parts including all mounts and an entirely new trans, and its still the same as mine.

I'm almost positive you will see it again if you have felt it on your car, on my car its strongly tied to engine rpm and load so its slightly temperature dependant due to A/C load etc..

This is so brutal, BMW def shit the bed on this one. Either way, I am going to work on making a clamp on vibration absorber for the exhaust, if it works I'll prob make a bunch and sell them to members on here. I'll let you know what happens.

[wogboy9000]

I have this noise also on a 2004 E53 3.0i. Does anyone know if it is possible to raise the idle with the BMW Scanner 1.4.0?

Ideally I'd like to take it to the dealership and they would do it in 5 mins, but I can almost guarantee they won't know how.

[Guam135i]

same here feels like engine is sitting on the frame, curious if engine mounts would cure this

[dzajic]

I have the same problem, 2006 X5 3.0i. I thought for sure there was something wrong with the car, good to hear it's "normal", but disappointed there's no fix for it.