Thank you for the suggestion. One always needs a plan B.

Thank you for all the advice. Will keep it in mind. Now need to see if garage are able to do a rebuild or will have to find someone else in N Wiltshire area.

Thank you X5Sport.
The car came with 20 inch runflats tyres originally. However on 2 new sets the tyre wear was always asymmetrical. So changed to 18 inch non-runflat tyres about 4 years ago - alloys and tyres BMW OEM - with vast improvement in ride.

Hello all, I've had this 2012 (Build Nov 2011) X5 for 9 years - ZW42 - N57 - 180kW - E70 (XDrive30D M Sport Auto). 2nd owner. Drives beautifully. Tows a caravan with about 25mpg, otherwise have tested to 42mpg without. 1 front shaft recall - replaced. Recent grinding sounds with loss of forward move...