Throttle Body Air Getting In Sound (whistle)

[coolkolb]

I have a 2000 528i with 94000 miles.

When i give it gas it makes a very faint whistle sound. This happens when I am in gear or parked or neutral. It only happens for the beginning gas and if I depress very sharply it won't happen. It has been mentioned in the past it could be the throttle body now. Air is getting into the body somehow when the throttle is opened up. How would I go about testing this, and what is the priority level that I should be giving this for fixing? Is this something that needs to be fixed right away?

You have to have the window down to hear it. I can't place the sound on either side of the car. The whistle is not super loud, and sounds like air flowing out, but with a sharpness to it. It doesn't seem be affecting performance at all.

[billB]

Coolkolb\

While engine is running spray some carb. cleaner around the suspected area/s of the throttle body...if there is a leak your idle WILL change and let you know....throttle body has 2 gaskets....an orange one between the body itself and the intake ( by the 4 bolts) and a bigger black gasket which sits in the middle of the throttle body...the first one cost is $9 the black one about $18.......

P.S. while at it spray the carb. cleaner around the intake/vacuum hoses/ the back plate etc....just to be sure..................good luck

regards
billb

[bryan1970]

there have been like 3 recent posts about people notocing this noise. and it is the air going THROUGH the throttle body, like around the butterfly. i have also noticed that BMW's make this noise louder than other cars. i don't know exactly why but that is just how it is. while it could be a possible vacume leak if your car isn't running bad i would tend to think that it isn't. the noise is greated becasue when the t-body is closed at idle there is a lot of vacume in the intake and when the butterfly is cracked open all this vacume is exposed to an air mass with less vacume thus sucking in the air quickly and the noise is actually the air being sucked into the intake. what the air is actually going over to make the whislt noise i don't know for sure. but all cars do it just some are louder than others.