[MadPhotog]

First post, bear with me.

2008 328i 101K miles last production run before LCI

For the last several months (6+) I have been hearing a metallic "clink/clack" sound from the front driver side wheel. I originally thought it was the brake pads shifting in the caliper and gave it no thought. Then recently it got annoying and quite frankly, embarrassing. Two brake shops, and one Suspension shop were no help.

So I took the wheels off, the pads do move in the caliper, but they move on both sides of the car. Left move at the top, Right moves on the bottom. I'm assuming that's due to the rotation of the wheel relative to the way the pad is facing and that it is normal, and since there is only noise from the left I eliminated brake pads as the culprit.

I'm not the most mechanically inclined guy but I know my way around a car pretty well. I took a screwdriver and pried on the caliper, away from the center of the rotor, and there is movement. It imitates the sound but I believe the 328i has floating calipers so I dismissed this as well. Nothing is coming in contact with the dust guard (which can be sharp so wear gloves.)

Struts are good. Sway bar is good. Control arms are good.

After driving around in my church's parking lot for awhile I noticed it only makes the sound when turning left or when I tap the brakes while driving straight. There is one click when I push the brake in, and one click when I let the brake out while driving straight. No sound when I apply a lot of brake pressure only when "tapping" the brakes lightly. When turning left there is rapid clicking as I turn the wheel without touching the brakes, with the brakes pushed in 1/2 way there is no sound at all, there is sound all the way until the brakes are pushed in 1/2 way. Wheel speed is not a factor.

It is dead silent while turning right. If I go over a bump while driving straight there is no sound, however, there is sound when I turn left over a bump. I can't feel anything in the Brake pedal. I can't feel anything in the steering wheel. I have m3 control arms but the sound was there before installing (clicking is why I installed them). Car needs slight alignment but the clicking was there when perfectly aligned.

I've searched the forums here and found a few similar cases but no answers. only guesses. Has anyone had the same problem? Does anyone know what's going on? Anyone?

Two brake shops and one suspension shop later...I'm right back where I started.
Should I just drive my car into the lake? It's right around the corner.

UPDATE: took calipers apart cleaned them and pads. Then realized the pads are too short for the edge to wrap around the edge of the caliper... I ordered them from BMW, Dealer installed them. This doesn't seem very safe.

[MadPhotog]

Here's a video I shot showing the caliper movement. iPhone video.

[dbltakegs3]

Very interesting. I am having the same annoying sound. hopefully you find a fix and let us know.

[Meateatr]

I'm pretty sure that I'm having this exact issue too, mine isn't bad and seems to only occur in my driveway when I come to a complete stop when doing a k turn to back into my garage each day. But, same kind of clicking type metallic noise. Mine is only slight and hasn't seemed to get worse, but I am curious if anybody knows what causes it. And I am concerned if you say yours got worse, mine is an 08 E90 as well.

[MadPhotog]

Mine did get worse, however, it leveled off and is pretty consistent now. Still haven't found a cause or a solution. I'm going to put another set of pads on sometime within the month. I'm not very optimistic this will solve the issue, but I'll update when the pads are installed.

[rwalker]

sounds like a wheel bearing to me

[MadPhotog]

Not a wheel bearing. Double, triple, quadruple checked.

[mrgreenwood]

I had the same problem. My fix was replacing upper control arms.

[MadPhotog]

I got a new set oh Hawk pads in today. I'm going to try and install them this weekend to see if that fixes the problem. I'm going with Hawk over OEM because OEM is what I have on now (2nd set). I've got OEM pads with about half pad life left if anybody wants to buy them...