2012 BMW X3: Whoooosh Hiss

I love the sound of a turbo too, and it's too bad the BMW's isn't just a touch more audible when you get on it.

I wonder if they think people would be turned off by the sound, thinking something is wrong with the engine?

I came out of an M3 sedan and "downgraded" to a 535i with this N55 engine. It's downright boring.
The M3 V8's high pitch sounds like a poor man's Ferrari. The N55? Nothing. It's do darn quiet it feels like I'm in a library.
It's got plenty of low-end torque though. Around town, it feels like the 535i is quicker than the M3. Yeah, I know. It sounds like blasphemy but true. The 535's speedo needle climbs and climbs with the engine remaining dead silent and the tach barely reaching 2500rpm. On the other hand, you actually have to give the M3 V8 a workout to get up to speed.
There's no contest which car gives the driver more satisfaction. It's not even close. What I DON'T miss is the 14/20 mileage of the V8. A recent jaunt up to Montreal gave me an overall trip mileage of 33mpg, and that's with a fair bit of in-town driving.

With about 100% of all BMW engines going to turbos, I imagine they're wanting not to scare away the non-turbo buyers.

I used to think that folks like e90_m3 and blueguy who kept saying that the new engines were boring were just nuts. Turbos, at least 300hp, gobs of toque, how could one go wrong? I've always liked turbo engines, so I really couldn't see it.

Then I test-drove a 135i convertible. That was the most god-awfully boring 300hp car I have ever experienced. I don't care what the sacrifices are, I would much, much rather have one of the old straight sixes back than use the N54 or N55 engines.

I think the problem with audible turbo stuff is that even if you make it audible in the cabin only at high load, you're going to hear it sometimes when you don't want to in a luxury car.

Steady throttle climbing a grade will often get the turbo boosting and hearing that constant hiss/whine can be irritating as hell (I'm thinking of an Acura RDX I drove once - reasonably quiet interior, but you'd hear this hiss from the turbo/wastegate/downpipe which happened to be just in front and to the right of the driver footwell.). Fun at first and totally in character for a Evo/STI, but gets old fast in a quiet luxury vehicle.

The turbo hiss is alive and well in the new 335i too. Theres a video of one being revved repeatedly at idle and I was pleasantly surprised that the whistle is so loud this time around. First turbo engine Ive heard since my old Talon TSi that made me smile.

I've always been smitten with that sound that my 05 STi made as well. Especially in the morning when it's cold and the turbo spooling sound is even more prevalent.

I would think a K&N type air filter would open up that sound some more wouldn't you think? How been trying it out?

Turbo whine is nice for a while but I can imagine that would get old after thousands of miles of driving. I do think cars equipped with a turbo should have a boost gauge or a selectable display in the information display. I also wonder if turbo engines will hold up in the long haul. No matter who builds them and how well they are engineered they are bound to fail eventually because of the stress they endure. High heat and spinning at hundreds of thousands RPMs they will wear out. The turbos are bound to need replacing before there is any other major engine failures. Like it or not as fuel economy becomes more important turbo will be more vehicles to help small displacement engines provide high performance without sacrificing economy.

Have they fixed the High Pressure Fuel Pump (HPFP) problem yet?

Maybe BMW could just make fake engine noises with the radio like they do with the new M5. You could select it in iDrive after clicking through 3 layers of menus. Of course, in BMW tradition, it would be an extra cost option.

@ptc - the N55 engine isn't showing HPFP issues like the N54. Of course the N55 has less power (officially they're the same but N55 cars are not running near N54 times) and is a less engaging engine than the fairly banal N54.

I do like the occassional whistle of the turbo, but after 15k miles with a turboxs rfl (really f'in loud) BOV on my old DSM, I'm glad that the Evo's is rather faint and if I don't want to hear it I can just turn the volume up on the radio.

juke had a LONGGG snorkel tube to make the turbo really quiet, a cold air intake freed a few hp and made it nice and audible, likely what bmw did as well since they wanted it quiet and luxurious

I hate how turbos sound. I want any BMW engine to sound like the NA N52 engine in my E90 330i. I'm glad to know it's hard to hear, but annoyed it can be heard at all, but I guess it's a nice balance for those of you who do like it, although I bet chipping it would bring the sounds more to the foreground of the aural adventure.

You might hear some whoosh hissing sounds as you're snoring when you're falling asleep driving this dullard.

Bluedot...I've been looking at a few 535I's...when they change over to the newer N55 engine? Thanks.

Can just barely hear the turbo in my stock 08 LGT. I'd rather I hear more exhaust sound - I want it to smother the sound of that shitty boxer-4 mechanical sound. Sounds like a tractor engine was dropped into the engine bay (to be clear, I'm speaking about the engine sound itself - not the intake or exhaust sounds).

I haven't driven the new n20 engine yet, but I've driven the n55 in a few automatic applications (Damn hard to get a manual transmission NEW n55-engined BMW around here anymore - says alot about BMW).

It's a boring engine. Decent fuel economy, smooth, good power everywhere. Boring.

The only thing I can compare this effect to is driving a 2008 BMW 550i 6-speed vs. an 2003 M5.

On paper, the newer 550i has 4.8 liters pumping out 360 hp compared to 4.95 liters pumping out 396 hp on the M5.

When driven, the 550i is just "effortless" and fast - it's shove is damped. The M5 is razor-sharp and engaging, with snorts, burbles, tire chirps, immediate shove, and lots of wonderful engine roar that builds.

Comparing engines on paper means nothing compared to driving them.

@allthingshonda, modern turbo reliability is really a non-issue. The turbo on a passenger vehicle itself will easily go 100k miles and should really last 150k-200k miles. The turbos on diesel trucks will go 500k miles.

"Comparing engines on paper means nothing compared to driving them."

+1,000,000

PTC - 2011 for the 5 series.

On our WRX, there was a resonator/silencer in the intake, called a "snorkus" (hehe). It's whole job was to muffle the turbo sounds. Removing it made the sounds louder, and since it was before the filter, didn't do anything else except shed a couple pounds of stupid plastic. I bet the BMW has some kind of similar intake silencer.

@ spdracerut -

While I agree that turbos have gotten a lot better, they still increase the failure rate on modern engines. Both through added complexity (even if they don't fail any more often than any other part, more parts = higher chance of failure), as well as through the simple fact that they operate under some of the harshest conditions imaginable for an engine part. It's difficult for something to spin at 100k rpm, be exposed to 1800 F temperatures, undergo dramatic accelerations and decelerations, be built as light and responsive as possible, and still be expected to be as reliable as a camshaft spinning at 1/2 engine speed, or a valve that gets to bleed off heat every other engine cycle, or a piston that gets cooled by incoming fresh air and oil squirters from underneath. It's tough to be a turbo :)

As for diesels, good point, but turbos attached to over the road truck diesel engines typically undergo a much longer duration of continuous use (easier than constant accel/decel, heat cycling, etc.), are operated at generally lower speeds (and a narrower operating range), and substantially lower EGTs (which is one of the reasons that variable vane/nozzle turbos are so prevalent on diesels and so rare on gas engines).

Kind of like direct injection. There's a reason it tends to work better/easier/more reliably for diesel engines vs. petrol.

can't comment on the 535, but in my 2011 335i coupe there's plenty of nice noises: turbo whoosh, whistle and a nice throaty, exhaust note. Sounds much better than my old e46, and I even prefer it to an e46 m3 (though not an e90 m3)

@rjg96,

The 535i is much quieter than the 335i and unfortunately doesn't have the throaty exhaust note, it's much more subdued. Different market requirements.