I was in my garage tonight and heard a strange noise coming from my car ('08 550i), which had been sitting for just over two hours following my return from work. I traced it to the left front side of my engine compartment (in the area just in front of where oil is added). It's very hard to describe, but it sounds like pressure is being released. There's a short raspy sound, almost like a valve is opening and closing and something is escaping (but there's no "clicking", just the start and stop of the noise). There's no discernible pattern to when the sound appears (it has been a minute apart, or 5 to 20 seconds; it varies), but is very short in duration (around a second, more or less). I have never heard this before, and no idea what this is. My car is just over 2 months old, and has less than 2000 miles on it.

Does anybody have any thoughts? Might there be an issue that warrants a trip to the dealer?

Lou

 

steaming noise from water in hood? hmmmm i hope its nothing major

 

Did it sound like in this video?