How "quiet" should the engine be while idiling? I find that I hear a fan type noise coming from under the hood when idiling. Now I dont know if this is from the extreme cold snap were getting where I live (its about -10 degrees Celcius) or not. I recently (2 weeks ago) had the hydraulic belt/pulley thing replaced, and its definately not that noise. It just sounds like a fan click/chirp type noise when idiling.

2004 X3 [2.5i]

Could be the idler pulley bearings going bad... that makes a similar chirping kind of noise as the tensioner and pulley when it starts failing.

Thanks for the response. I have it booked to go into the dealership this Wednesday. I was getting a bit nervous reading some of the other threads similar to my symptoms on this forum over the weekend. Some speak of head replacement, valves, rings...as you can tell I'm not mechanical and the thought of all that troubles me a bit conisdering what the vehicle cost me! .....anyhow, thank god for warranty!! Hopefully its nothing major....

Was the part that you had replaced the vibration dampner?

I'll let you know today for sure, my appt was re-scheduled to today...I just my dropped the X3 off actually :)

argggg...they want to keep it over night...they said they dont know what it is an opened a case wity BMW?! Dont know how they cant hear it....i hope i dont get a "this is just how they sound" answer...that would blow...