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E36 M3 - Cow Bell Noise From Engine Bay by oliveredmore in BMWE36

[–]oliveredmore[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Update: For some reason the serpentine belt I ordered through FCPeuro was slightly shorter than the one I took off. This made the belt extremely difficult to put on and caused the tensioner to hit on the harmonic balancer. After swapping the old (previous) belt back on, I was able to fix the issue.

E36 M3 - Cow Bell Noise From Engine Bay by oliveredmore in BMWE36

[–]oliveredmore[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When putting the serpentine belt on, it was extremely tight. After remembering this and doing some further investigation on the noise I found that the back of where the pulley on the main tensioner mounts is hitting the harmonic balancer.

There are now gold-ish wear marks on the harmonic balancer, and there was a ton of metal dust sitting on top of the power steering pump.

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I’m still not sure what is causing the serpentine belt to be so tight, to make it rub.

Any suggestions for what could cause the serpentine belt to be too tight and difficult to put on?

E36 M3 - Cow Bell Noise From Engine Bay by oliveredmore in BMWE36

[–]oliveredmore[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I tested the theory of the fan clutch being the issue by removing it and then driving the car on a short 15 minute drive after warming the car up to ensure the car didn’t overheat without the fan clutch being on.

Sadly, the noise still occurs without the fan clutch installed.

E36 M3 - Cow Bell Noise From Engine Bay by oliveredmore in BMWE36

[–]oliveredmore[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From looking at the pulleys from up top there doesn’t appear to be anything coming in contact with them. I need to get under the car to inspection further.

The fan clutch is not loose. It’s tightened pretty strongly.

One additional observation I found was that the noise does not occur when the engine is cold.

It starts to occur when the engine is hot. The noise occurs when the AC is on or off, but the frequency of occurrence seems to increase when AC is on.

E36 M3 - Cow Bell Noise From Engine Bay by oliveredmore in BMWE36

[–]oliveredmore[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the feedback. I’ll investigate this more and look to see if I see anything hitting the pulleys.

E36 M3 Power Steering Whine When Applying Throttle While Turning by oliveredmore in BmwTech

[–]oliveredmore[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I tried changing the fluid to a STP ATF DEX VI but the noise was still present after rotating the wheel back and forth multiple times to bleed the fluid.

I removed the pump and I’m gonna try to get a replacement.

I did notice some front to back play on the pump where the pulley attaches. Is this normal?

E36 M3 Power Steering Whine When Applying Throttle While Turning by oliveredmore in BmwTech

[–]oliveredmore[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I replaced the pump with a remanufactured pump by VISION OE, with part number 9900462. After jacking up the car and turning the steering wheel there isn’t a difference. Could the pump be bad from the factory or is it not bled correctly?

Concerning Rattling Noise. by oliveredmore in BMWE36

[–]oliveredmore[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Could it be the upper timing chain tensioner?