I've taken my 07 550i to the dealer once for the donkey-style noises my front struts make when I travel over residential road humps, but they're pushing back saying nothing is wrong beyond the top strut bolts needing replacement because they were over-torqued from the factory.

These are not speed bumps per-se, but the ones that are four feet long and six inches high and designed to slow down traffic to about 25 mph. When I travel over them at anything more than a 5 mph crawl, I get a loud noise that's best explained as groaning or the sound a donkey makes (there's no way to spell it out, but you know the honking baying sounds they make right? That's it to a tee!)

Has anyone else experienced this in their E60? How did you get the dealer to address the issue?

I've thought of video taping it happening and bring my camcorder into the dealership so the service writer can watch it and listen to it with headphones. The network is so locked down that he can't watch youtube vids or even do much with his PC, so there's no way I can email him the file.

 

could be the cars wish bone, the problem occurs if you went over bumps or pot holes too fast.

 

Quick update: Just picked up the 550 from Advantage BMW Downtown Houston and they replaced the top strut bolts that were supposedly stripped out due to over-tightening from the last time the car was brought in for this issue... you know, when they STRESS CRACKED MY WINDSHIELD (fixed at their cost, but nevertheless, a total screw up they didn't catch until I pointed it out to them). I specifically asked them to look at the wishbone control arms and the struts themselves but noooooo, they decided to screw around with some bolts up top.

Anyway, I drove the car to my office and it makes the same "donkey" sounding groaning up front that it made when I took it in this second round. The service manager told me to make another appointment, bring in the car, and take a shop foreman with me and find a road hump and duplicate the noise so he could then make sure it was fixed.

So why the heck didn't they do this with me last time since it was the second request to fix it? You know, I was evidently totally spoiled at the Lexus dealership with their service department. They always fixed things the first time, and even fixed things I didn't ask them to fix that they found on their own.

What a pain in the arse. They get one last time to fix this or I a) go to another dealer and b) make a formal complaint about their crappy service directly to BMW.

 

Keep us updated. I'm not sure what a "donkey" noise is, but I may have experienced the same thing, but I only get it once. When going over a speed bump type impediment when the car is cold or it is cold, I have heard the noise. More so when it is colder. However, on a second set of bumps I will not hear it. It is a one shot deal. I mentioned it once at the dealer and they couldn't duplicate. I figured it may just have been something with the shocks and the temperature (well below freezing at the time). Anyway, it is only on the front for me, but your post has me intrigued. I searched the forum under front suspension noise, but didn't see anything on point until your problem.

 

i hate the fact that you cant talk or explain to the tech directly about issues the first time.
its like you tell the service writer in detail about your issue, and they just put down "customer states noise up front".