I'm a bit frustrated with this one.

2004 530i 64000 miles

Over the past couple of days, I've noticed a grinding noise coming from my driver's rear wheel. Thinking it was the brakes (although the wear sensor say 44K left), I took the wheel, caliper, pads, and caliper mount off of the car. When I manually spin the roter, I can still hear the noise. I also checked to make sure nothing was touching the dust sheild.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Hmmm my best guess would be something wrong with the drive shaft. Any thick black grease around the area?

Nope...nothing seemingly out of the ordinary.

what kind of grind? does it grind at a specific point when you rotate the rotor?

The best I can described it as is that it sounds like when you have worn your brakes to the point of metal to metal contact.

I cannot tell if it is a a specific point or not (i.e. top, bottom, left, right).

This has been getting worse each day for the past 4 or 5 days. At first, it wasn't bad, now it's very imbarrasing.

The only other sign I can give is that I think I feel the slightest of vibration coming from the rear. Not enough for other people that ride in it to notice, but I can tell it's different.

BTW--Thanks for helping me talk through this!

well if you turn the rotor clock wise and you hear it grind then turn it counter clockwise a bit and turn it clock wise again does it grind?

Yes it does. And, it grinds in both directions.

does your other wheel spin? are you sure it's not that one making the noise?

While I'm spinning the driver's rear, the other wheels are on the ground.

hmm i'm out of ideas. maybe someone will chime in? just wondering how is your hand brake? tight or loose when you pull it?