Hey guys, I was wondering if you could throw me some ideas on why I am hearing a humming or howling type noise coming from my drivers side tire. I just hear this constant humming noise with the rotation of my tire. Whenever I decelerate it slowly winds down until I come to a complete stop. I would appreciate any help I could get guys.

 

Anyone?

 

Some tires are just noisy would be my guess, sounds a lot like it has everything to do with the design of your tread compound gripping the shit out of the road. lol

I might have this backwards but IMO softer tires = less noise/low treadwear rating while harder tires = more noise/high treadwear rating. I'm pretty sure that's how I want to say it. lol

 

Could be a wheel bearing going bad.

 

1) Are the tires directional? If so, are they all installed to rotate in the proper direction, per the arrows/graphics on the tire sidewalls?
2) Visual inspection: check for signs of damage to the tire(s), like bubbles, slits or folds in the sidewall showing internal damage.
3) Visual inspection: Do the tire tread blocks look unevenly worn or worn in an unusual pattern? Might be a bad alignment.

 

How many miles since the last tire rotation?

Is it a loud pulsing sound that can be noticeably heard while braking? kind of like a "wong wong wong.."

get your hand and feel the inner tread blocks of your tire along the edge (inner side of the tires). If it has a saw blade kind of pattern on the inner blocks there's your problem. If it's bad enough you can also see it visually, there's dirt on one half of the inner tread block and none on the other, like a checkerboard. This type of wear is inherent to a FWD setup, and tire rotations are a must if you want to counter act it.

usual culprits for heel/toe wear on tires is worn suspension (compliance bushings?) or not rotating tires at due intervals.

 

what kind of tires do you have? The dealer put Sumitomos on my TL-S during the CPO process. They are LOUD on the hwy...

 

please check the ball joint on the drivers side too.

I had a similar problem recently with my 2003-3.2 TL - and then a mechanic found out that this was due to a worn out ball-joint on the front driver's side.

He also replaced the 'wheel bearing' on the passenger side front wheel.

In my situation, the sound I heard, seemed to come from the driver side front wheel, and it sounded like a whooshing sound that seemed to suggest that the wheel/tire was rubbing against the wall of the cavity in which the front driver's side wheel is located.

-S