XSeries-forum

Morning all,

I have a 2004 x5 with a constant vibration which apparently only I can feel! It's so frustrating as its my car so when my partner drives it on longer runs he cannot feel it but all the local driving I do it makes me feel so ill.
It's while driving, through the wheel & the seat. When cruising, accelarating, in auto & in manual mode

Had new wheels & new tyres, new driveshaft, wheel bearing, rear caliper was sticking on, gear oil & transfer oil change, new lower arms and ball joints. No mechanic can find anything else wrong.

Other than replacing the front prop on the off chance, what else could it be?! I am happy to continue to spend money on it but not when there are no indications on that it will fix it.
Any ideas?

Hello and

Which engine? Diesel or one of the V8s?

Does it change under braking? That might be a warped disc. It could be a number of things, including engine mounts, front prop, another sticky calliper, wheel balance (these are big wheels!), rear prop support bearing.

Is the engine running correctly? I’m thinking misfires (rare but trying to eliminate things).

Any error codes logged on the system - not those you see in the dash, but found by a code reader plugged into the OBD2 port?

Thanks it's 3.0 diesel, no miss fire, no codes.
All wheels were balanced I only have 17s on there
No change under braking. No other calipers getting hot.
There's no way of testing the prop like you can landrover from what I have heard so it's a big risk changing.

It’s unusual for an E53 to suffer trouble with the propshaft. The rear one has a centre bearing and that can be checked for play whilst on the vehicle. The front one is much shorter, but again can be checked for play in situ.

Do you get any vibration in Neutral and very gently raising the engine rpm to match what you get when driving around town? Does the frequency change with speed at all?

We’ve seen reports of bad engine mounts in the past, and your car is 19 years old now so might be worth a look?

Well the last mechanic I gave it to he had a list of things to go through including checking engine mounts so hopefully he did check them, and he said the prop bearing was ok too. I would like to think he checked the rear too but who knows.

I also remember weirdly if you are in traffic like all in a 10 mph crawl it feels like the car limps, like 1 side is not level but again I asked for 4 wheel alignment at some point so I can only guess it was done.

Oh I haven't tried the neutral & revs thing but I will tomorrow on my way home

Just drove around 5/6 second hand car garages to see if anything jumped out at me to swap but they are all just crap modern cars!

Impromptu trip out tonight shows no difference when you put it in neutral.
Thanks for your replies so far

Engine mounts would tend to create a vibration at high loads when accelerating hard as the engine jumps about . When is the vibration worse as it must vary with engine speed or road speed ? I take it codes have been checked for any clues like an injector going bad ?

No codes, and it's all the time, if I pull up the road from a junction I can feel it, when I get to speed and cruise I still feel it.
Not worse one way in a bend than the other
I can only assume it's getting worse as I'm sure it wasn't that bad, so guess I'll have to wait till something breaks to find out what was wrong.

Is it there when parked, or only when moving? Vibration frequency would change with speed if anything in the transmission or engine. If the vibration is constant and doesn’t change regardless of engine rpm or vehicle speed then all I can think of is a in-car fan out of balance, air compressor (if you have rear air susp).

If you’re not certain of the ‘build’ (options etc) of the car, it would be worth putting your complete VIN into something like bimmer.work or m.decoder on line. Either will pull up your ‘as built’ spec from the factory.

There isn’t much left to try. If the vibration changes with engine speed (in Drive or Neutral) then that points towards the engine and it’s ancillaries, injectors (as Leslie suggests), rough-running control, power steering pump, ac compressor (have you tried turning the ac off?). Someone else on here may have other ideas to look at as well.

Crank pulleys worth an inspection as they can separate from the rubber not sure if the e53 is prone to this but look for a wobble when idling.

Just when moving.
Another mechanic today says the same as you the prop isn't normally at fault but then it would point to the diff.

The e53 front driveshaft is well known for stripping its splines and after all the other checks id be tempted to take it out for a look ,once they fail completely the car will not move
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeF0X3v6cj8

Not seen a report on here of front diffs causing vibration. A driveshaft might, as explained above. You can check the diff by letting the car move at walking pace on full lock left and right. Might show up in reverse.

Are all four wheels the same size? You said you have 17” so I’m assuming they are all identical. 19” and above were different front/rear so different profile tyres.

Do you know what wheels & tyres a previous owner had? It’s just beginning to make me wonder if the wrong tyres were fitted historically and caused trouble. All BMW xDrive cars are sensitive to tyres, with the wrong choice potentially causing damage. It’s much much less of an issue where the wheels are all the same size and the tyres were replaced as a set.

Check your AC compressor.... Just had mine replaced after years thinking a vibration was the torque converter / driveshafts / exhaust etc.

X5Sport wrote: ↑Wed May 03, 2023 6:06 pm Not seen a report on here of front diffs causing vibration. A driveshaft might, as explained above. You can check the diff by letting the car move at walking pace on full lock left and right. Might show up in reverse.

Are all four wheels the same size? You said you have 17” so I’m assuming they are all identical. 19” and above were different front/rear so different profile tyres.

Do you know what wheels & tyres a previous owner had? It’s just beginning to make me wonder if the wrong tyres were fitted historically and caused trouble. All BMW xDrive cars are sensitive to tyres, with the wrong choice potentially causing damage. It’s much much less of an issue where the wheels are all the same size and the tyres were replaced as a set.

Thanks that's a good point but I have the original little wheels on there now we powder coated them black they are these: OW59444
2002-2006 BMW X5

What am I looking for in the diff if I test as you mentioned above? I have had the n/s one replaced