2011 135i clicking noise from underneath car

[vantagesc]

On the bumpy corkscrew ramp I take down to my parking garage at work (down 4 stories) I hear a clicking / rattling noise coming from underneath the car. Is this the waste gate? Does it need to be inspected by my dealer? The car has done this since new.

[miiipilot]

Exhaust system cooling off? You are also in a confined space so it might be amplified a bit. Any performance loss? Any other symptoms?

That's my guess. I have an '11 6mt and have noticed my car has a lot of weird sounds like this. But nothing alarming.

Hopefully that helps,
miiipilot

[vantagesc]

No performance issues whatsoever. It's not the exhaust since I can make the sound click faster or slower depending on how fast I go down the ramp (and thus how frequently I'm hitting the bumps).

[CrazyIvan]

[QUOTE=vantagesc;9633706]On the bumpy corkscrew ramp I take down to my parking garage at work (down 4 stories) I hear a clicking / rattling noise coming from underneath the car. Is this the waste gate? Does it need to be inspected by my dealer? The car has done this since new.[/Q


Classic. Try varying speeds just to confirm but sounds like a loose brake dust shield. You can easily fix that yourself, take the wheel off and tighten the shield on the back side of the brakes. Done.

[Focusedintntions]

I would occasionally hear that too...finally figured out it was the flapper valve in the muffler. I"ll be doing the mod this weekend to get rid of that.

[TiM235i]

I had an '07 335 that had that same kind of sound. Very metallic clicking that sounded like it was somehow from the exhaust -- but it would speed up and slow down with the speed of the car. I looked under the car and found a stick banging against the exhaust! I felt a bit dumb that it took two days before I actually looked under the car, but happy it was nothing serious.

[Sylon]

Did you check your tires for screws/nails? I had a screw in one of my tires on my first car and I could clearly hear the clicking whenever the screw head hit the pavement.

[GO135i007]

Originally Posted by Sylon

Did you check your tires for screws/nails? I had a screw in one of my tires on my first car and I could clearly hear the clicking whenever the screw head hit the pavement.

Yup, had that happen before.

[vantagesc]

I will check the tires but since this noise only happens on bumpy pavement, I'm inclined to think it's something else, since I travel in tunnels / parking structures quite often and cannot hear any clicking in those situations.

[sardius]

Mine does it too. It's the flaps in your muffler...according to a couple of service techs. More like clicking sound especially when you are shifting in MT at low speeds.

[Jcrewsn]

I had the same issue a while back and after a few trips to the dealer they found the noise to be associated with rivets on my front brake rotors. After they replaced them all was well. Check with your dealer and mention that.

[vantagesc]

Haven't had time to go by the dealer, but it turns out the noise is not necessarily induced by bumps, but by lateral loading (i.e. hard cornering).

[Diver]

Similar sound here. Dealer said it is normal operation. total BS.

[abirmaher]

When I drive in the garage where i keep it with the windows down there is sometimes noticeable metallic sounding clicks which i think is the transmission. I have a DCT and when it shifts is when i tend to hear the noise... but also I have this clicking noise which seems to come from the front wheels when turning and I was never able to pinpoint what that was.

[mike the snake]

There's a number of threads about this sound. Apparently it is common, as my car, my friend's M3, and many other 135 owners report having this sound.

It happens to me going slow, when fully turning (like on switchbacks going up a steep hill) and also when I'm cornering hard in turns, I can hear the clicking sounds when the windows are down.

Do a search for "clicking sound", some have reported replacing the bearings, others have reported the sound going away after removing and reinstalling their wheels, other reports of the brake dust shield bolts being incorrectly torqued.

To my knowledge, no one has difinitively solved this issue. There are a lot of reports of the sound being fixed, but then returning, including replacing the wheel bearings.

[vantagesc]

Originally Posted by mike the snake

To my knowledge, no one has difinitively solved this issue. There are a lot of reports of the sound being fixed, but then returning, including replacing the wheel bearings.

Thanks, I'll try not to act surprised if the sound returns. Sounds like it's hard to diagnose, or, the wheel bearings keep failing.

[1speedbike]

Originally Posted by mike the snake

To my knowledge, no one has difinitively solved this issue. There are a lot of reports of the sound being fixed, but then returning, including replacing the wheel bearings.

Originally Posted by vantagesc

Thanks, I'll try not to act surprised if the sound returns. Sounds like it's hard to diagnose, or, the wheel bearings keep failing.

Yeah, please report if it comes back. I've had this clicking sound ever since I installed hankook tires. But I don't think it's the tires. Every time the wheels get taken off and replaced, the sound goes away. After a while (and usually after a few rounds of hard cornering) it starts to come back, and steadily grows louder over time. I had everything checked, brakes, bearings, wheels, tires, and nothing was faulty. The clicking sound went away when they put on a set of stock wheels so they blamed my aftermarket wheels, though I had been on them for a year with no sound. Nobody knows what it is or why it generally comes back.

[Bimmerlover76]

A dead squirrel's skull?

[mike the snake]

I recently got my Apex wheels and new tires installed, and guess what? The clicking sounds are gone!

My guess is uneven wheel lug bolt torque is tweaking the rotors.