Ticking noise drive me crazy. Someone help! - BMW Forum

magnuzza · 06-08-2008, 06:06 PM

I bought 1999 BMW 323i e46 a week ago. Everything is great until 1 day when I'm about to go to work, there's this ticking sound when the car in idle position. the ticking noise will go faster when I hit the gas. I brought it to BMW dealer 2 days ago and they said it's the power steering pump and they said previous owner put weird green liquid in it. Personally, I don't think its power steering pump. Anyone know what's the problem? Help would be much appreciate it.

*I did oil change but it's still there *

You can check the sound on youtube, search for "BMW 323i Engine ticking noise"

darkhorse737 · 06-08-2008, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by magnuzza

I bought 1999 BMW 323i e46 a week ago. Everything is great until 1 day when I'm about to go to work, there's this ticking sound when the car in idle position. the ticking noise will go faster when I hit the gas. I brought it to BMW dealer 2 days ago and they said it's the power steering pump and they said previous owner put weird green liquid in it. Personally, I don't think its power steering pump. Anyone know what's the problem? Help would be much appreciate it.

*I did oil change but it's still there *

You can check the sound on youtube, search for "BMW 323i Engine ticking noise"

take out the drive belt and run engine. If you no longer hear the noise, then the noise comes from one of those things that the belt drives... power steering pump included ;-)

magnuzza · 06-09-2008, 06:41 PM

Thanks for the input guys.

99323ilover · 06-23-2008, 12:02 AM

how much did it cost you to replace?

Kevin_abalos83 · 06-23-2008, 03:12 AM

My guess it could possibly be your tensioner bearing because what happens on e46's which is common is that the main tensioner bearing goes bad and while the engine is running your a/c & drive belts are spinning as they spin they put all the pressure on the tensioner bearing, now you really don't want that to go really bad because if that is the problem your tensioner pulley can fly off and mess up your radiator..

In my opinion just think of what moving parts you have while the engine is running, because if you think about it like you said in your section as your rpm increases, the ticking increases to me that definitely sounds something to be more like in the drive pulley somewhere.

I could be wrong but i hardly doubt your power steering pump would be making any type of noise while at idle but thats just my brief opinion. What you need to do is possibly change all your tensioner pulleys, new belts, new bearing, and i believe that may solve the problem because they do go bad on e46's.

magnuzza · 06-24-2008, 12:42 AM

The problem was the power steering pump. I already fixed it myself. Anyway, thanks for replying!

99323ilover · 06-24-2008, 08:14 AM

dont mean to pester the topic. however, i'm looking into a '99 323i so my concern about this problem is how much the pump costs to replace. any ideas?

thanks

darkhorse737 · 06-24-2008, 09:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 99323ilover

dont mean to pester the topic. however, i'm looking into a '99 323i so my concern about this problem is how much the pump costs to replace. any ideas?

thanks

power steering pump is $490 on the average... maybe 50% cheaper if you opt for remanufactured unit.

steering pumps hardly go bad. it is the rack & pinion that is prone to leaks(nt jst 323i btw... it's true to all cars)