Strange sounds while turning - 97 BMW 528

I have a 1997 BMW 528 with about 82K miles. Lately whenever I make a sharp righthand turn, I hear some annoying / disturbing noise from the front. The noise is hard to describe - kind of between a grinding and groaning sound. This only seems to occur on sharp - say 90 degree turns and usually between about 10 and 30 mph.

I had it at my local mechanic's recently and they said it had bad front wheel bearings. However after replacing those, the problem did not go away. Before I take it back in somewhere for service - it would help to have a better clue of what may really be the problem.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Hi, I am new to this forum and noticed your question.

I have exactly the same year and model and I had the same problem about 3 months ago. The good news is that after checking wheel bearings, shocks, etc. the solution was VERY simple.

In my case it was simply low power steering fluid level. No tricks involved in fixing it either - open the cap and check the level - if its low buy a bottle of the correct fluid from BMW (or another supplier) and top it up.

The noise disappeared immediately. Hope it works for you.

Hi there,

I'm new to the forum too. I found it by typing "strange noise front end bmw 5 series" into google. Imagine my surprise when I got first time hit !

Thanks for the tip Horseman. I did exactly as you said and sure enough; the noise has dissapeared.

Any idea why lack of steering fluid causes it ?