Deep howling noise at speed

Z

z4manchester

New member
I have had my new Z4 SDrive S20i for coming up to a month now and it has been great fun so far.

The only problem I have experienced is a deep howling/whaling noise which appears when the car reaches 60mph (usually on motorways/dual carriageways) and seems to be coming from around the passenger door area. I had hoped that it might fade with time or that I would get used to it, but sadly I haven't and it doesn't sound like regular wind or engine noise. It's quite distinctive and can be heard over the radio.

I took the car back to the dealer today for investigation and they claimed that they were unable to trace a problem, despite two of them going out in the car...

I was just wondering whether anybody else on here had experienced a similar thing and if so what it might be?

Thank you all :D

Dave
 
Feel for you as I had resonating noise in my old Alfa around 55-70 mph. Less than 50, greater than 70 and the noise would go away. Didn't seem mechanical as the noise wouldn't increase with engine speed. Had tyres swapped, brakes changed and it make no difference. Sold the car as I found it so unbearably annoying and nobody could pinpoint the problem.

Hope you get the issue resolved
 
Sounds like it could be a loose plastic cover under the car, or tyre noise, surely they should have spotted something if they looked hard enough. cheers Barry :thumbsup:
 
I have a similar problem with mine. It sounds like the passengers window is open and it's loud enough to hear with the radio on.
Haven't been to the dealer yet though as I haven't had time.
 
I would think it's down to the frameless window not sealing tightly against the rubber trim. The windows can be manually adjusted to fix this.

Either that or a piece of the rubber roof lining is catching in the air currents around the car.
 
funny you should say that, i had a similar deep howling from my lotus elise, in the end it turned out to be mrs smartbear :rofl:
 
I went back to Williams BMW yesterday for a second time and went out with a technician to see if he could hear the noise. First time they checked it themselves and said that everything seemed perfectly normal. Unfortunately as it was rush hour on the M60 this didn't really allow me to get above 60mph for more than a few seconds but we got a hint of the noise and the technician believed it was tyre noise. They gave me a loan car and carried out further tests on the car confirming that all seals and windows etc. were within their tolerance range and that the noise was almost certainly tyre roar. I was told that not all tyres are the same, even within the same manuafacturer and model and some just cause more noise than others... so I guess I will just have to live with it for now, as although they did say to come back if I still wasn't happy it seems that they would struggle to offer a solution. I must say that going back into a 1-series for the day I realised how much smoother and more refined this seemed than the Z4! Yes, the Z4 is a sports car, but whether it's the tyres or the proximity to the ground, it does feel quite rough compared to the 1. :(
 
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