Harmonic Hum In Tires From 30 To 60 Mph

[katzjamr]

for the last week i have had a minor vibration in the steering, and less so in the brake pedal but definately a hum from the tires that starts at 30mph and continues to 60mph and probably farther but the road noise takes over. braking does not affect this, the car does not pull to one side. Two months ago about 1000 miles ago i purchased four michelin tires that were the same as the oem, this is the third set of tires i have 80K on the car now, the first goodyear eagles didnt last that long. There was no unusual noise when the tires were put on the car two months ago everything seemed normal.

Yesterday i went back to costco, told them i had this issue, they took all four tires off and rebalanced them, they do not do road force balancing. They put the tires back on the exact same wheels. The tire manager gave me my keys and said he was sorry but the tires were not balanced correctly when they sold them to me, all four were out of balance, and now corrected. I told them thanks for being honest but i had just spent two hours down there waiting for them to do balancing that should have been correctly done the first time. They gave me my money back for the balancing.

On the way back to work, nothing had changed same hum and vibration! So here are my questions. Did improper balancing and 1000 miles of use damage the susupension? Do i have bad tires? Why did it take two months and 1000K for this noise to start, and is it unrelated to tires.

Is my next step to go to the dealer for an inspection? should i go to a suspension shop and have them look at it first? also i had an alignment done at the dealer right after purchasing the tires, the worksheet showed minor corrections but nothing badly out of alignment.

Should i go back to Costco. Usually i have a clear idea what to do, this one i am not sure, any help would be appreciated. I am losing faith in costco as a tire source.

[RX400h]

Very seldom is choosing OEM tires your best bet when replacing worn out tires. Most will not last as long as good replacement tires (as explained to me by a Discount Tire manager) My guess is that your tires have internal issues - probably a rarity among Michelin tires but entirely possible. I would make a bet with the Costco manager - if replacing the tires with a different model solves the problem, you walk away without paying a dime. If it doesn't, you pay for their remounting cost. Odds are that you would win the bet.

[katzjamr]

i will go back to costco. i knew i didnt want the goodyear eagles. so at costco they only will sell you what was oem for the car unless im wrong about that, and the michelins were the next choice. they are better in the snow than the goodyears, and have double the wear rating.

back to the vibration/hum you think the tires are deteriorating and that is why the hum is here now? not when i purchased them? thanks for your fast reply, dave

[RX400h]

Katz,

I once had Sumitomo tires on our Nissan Quest. They started humming at around 8000 miles or so. My Bridgestone Alenzas that were on our RX400h started humming before they had much more than 30,000 miles. Every single time I've heard this kind of sound it was because of the tires, not necessarily because they were worn out, although in one case, it may have been because the tires were wearing unevenly. An alignment that is out of wack could very well cause this to happen. Hitting a curb hard enough can do this or damage a wheel bearing.

I'm assuming this hasn't happened to you but if it has, your alignment could need correction or bearings replaced. How did your Goodyear tire wear? Did you ever have an alignment done?

I'd be surprised if Costco has a rule about replacing tires with OEM models only but I never had my tires replaced there so I'm not sure.

[katzjamr]

first tires the goodyears did go 25K but with rotating the spare also. the wear was not even showing some misalignment i went to the dealer and they for some reason were not using their own machine it was at a neighboring dealership and not working. this was at 20K. then during the front suspension recall, they also realigned everything at about 40K and found the rear tires were quite out of alignment most likely from the factory. i had my first set of replacement michelins by then. I had the car aligned two months ago at the dealer and they found everything pretty close, this was the same week the new tires were on, and the new ones were on the car when they aligned. because of the aluminum wheels i am careful about curbs and have hit no potholes, i am the only person driving this vehicle. the more i talk about this the more i think it is tires too, it is the only thing that makes sense.

[RX400h]

Based upon those facts, I, too think one or more tire is at fault.

[katzjamr]

thanks for all your help. i went to les schwab today to have a tech drive it before i went to the dealer. he said no tires make that noise, it has to be a bearing, we all thought it was the left. lexus tech drove it and thought so too, but on the lift with a scope he found it the right side, or both but doing right first. $450, per side, covered under extended warranty. and they will align again at no extra charge since i had that two weeks ago at the dealer. drove off in loaner rx, the part was in stock at the dealer.

[RX400h]

You know, after reading that wheel bearing post, earlier today, I started to think it could very well be a wheel bearing, based upon mention of reports by Highlander owners that their bearings were failing.

It's good to see you have that issue resolved.

[katzjamr]

now that i know what to listen for, a sound that begins at 30mph and gets progressivly louder to 60, with some minor vibration at least in my case was a wheel bearing, i was just more mentally focused on tires. both techs tryed to swerve left and right to see if the sound changed to determine which side, i guess sometimes its both, and one side or the other is not obvious. extended warranty has paid for itself.

[SW03ES]

I was going to say wheel bearing too...hopefully that fixes your problem!

[katzjamr]

got it back today, its fixed was the right bearing, left one ok, they also added a different camber adjustment screw so the alignment could be more perfect, and did a better alignment than last time. hopefully no more issues for a while