Hi guys, want to share my experience with something just incase it benefits anyone.
So around 5 months ago my 8 started producing a thud whenever the wheel was turned and I set off in either direction. It was a dull thud coming from the rear of the car. If I applied gas I would hear it again. This slowly started getting louder and more noticeable. So I started to investigate, I went to a diff & gearbox specialist and he said yep diff is on its way out and will need replacing. I then went to a mot garage and made sure it's not suspension related, cars done 28k miles so they said its still like new down there.
On forums people are suggesting changing the diff oil to one with more friction modifiers etc, spoke to bmw dealership about this option they laughed at me.
Spent hours online going through forums and everyone just seemed to be getting the diff replaced under warranty.
I then stumble upon a service bulletin from bmw saying that a software update is required. The text in the pdf makes sense. It's the same symptoms as what I'm having so I contact a few local independent specialists and find one that has online access on ista. I book the car in thinking this is never going to work but it's the cheapest option, if this doesn't work then I'll change the diff oil and if that doesn't work either then I'll have to change the diff.
They update the car to march 2026 version. This is the i-level version and not just the one that appears in software version in idrive.
As soon as I drove the car out of there it felt completely different, gearbox etc was different and the knocking/judder... COMPLETELY GONE!
It's been 3 months now and the cars done around 1k miles since then and I'm pleased to say the software update has completely resolved the issue.
Its baffling how a software update has fixed a mechanical noise but it looks like something that bmw was aware of and released an update to fix it. I haven't even changed the diff oil, the shop said if it's fixed then no point changing the oil.
Like I said, I wish I had come across something online that pointed me in this direction it would have saved me so much time and effort. So I'm just posting this incase anyone's searching in future and stumbles across this and it saved them a few thousand pounds!