[ezmaass]

Every BMW I've owned has, at least over time, developed front suspension related noises - usually due to loose control arms (upper/lower) and bushings. In all of those cases, it was obvious when driving over any slightly bumpy surface - you'd usually hear a bit of rattle and there would be some play feeling coming through the wheel. I don't believe temperature ever affected it, though.

Even if it's NOT the problem, I've found that it's just good "BMW maintenance" to replace the control arms and bushings every so often, regardless. It brings back that "new car" ride in many cases. Couple it with some new shocks and tires around the 50k mark, and the car will feel like new.

My previous 550xi was the first BMW I had with variable dampers, but I only drove that car for about 19k miles before replacing it with the current 650xi GC. My R8 also has a similar technology (Audi calls it "magnetic ride"), but again I haven't put enough miles on it to ever replace shocks. Given that the Audi ones are super expensive (around $8k for all four), I wonder if the BMW VDC shocks are similarly expensive... in which case, I wouldn't arbitrarily replace them as preventative maintenance (as I described above).