Car started with brand new wheels. No noise at all, sounding nice and smooth.
Over time, I did suspension work on front. Forgot to do alignment and front tires wore out.
Purchased 2 of same type new tires.
Installed them and balanced.
When drove car home, noticed a small noise (kind of a noise you would hear if you had a pebble stuck in your tread), at smaller speed (up to about 50mph), and above that road noise increases enough that I can notice it.
There is no vibration on the steering wheel during driving. What I observe is noises.
These were not present on the worn out tires, or when these tires were new.

• Went back to shop, rebalanced, redid alignment again. Same.
• Came home, took wheels off, cannot see anything on tires themselves. Do not notice any tread defects that I can see. Cleaned each wheel, hubs, spacers, etc, etc. No change.
• Swapped front tires (left onto right and vice versa). Noticed small decrease in noise, but after about 50 miles, still hear the 'pebble' noice and increase in road noise above 60mph.
• Returned home, raised front, spun each front wheel one at a time to try detect vibration on the suspension. Each tire spins freely and smooth.

Stumped. Trying to identify if it is bearing noise (in which case I need to replace the steering knuckle on affected side), or tire noise (warranty from tire vendor).
Any ideas, appreciated.

 

If you raised the fronts off the ground and spun each wheel by hand, you would hear a slight grinding noise if it was the wheel bearing. Maybe give it a week and see if it gets worse.

 

Lift the car and grab each wheel at 9 & 3 o'clock positions. Apply force the "move" the wheel back and forth. If there is play you have a wheel bearing issue.

 

ciaka,
I don't remember if you have PCCBs, but if you do there is very little space between the outside of the PCCB caliper and the wheel. If an incorrect wheel weight were installed I could see it contacting the caliper.

 

Does not sound like a bearing, that would be more of a hum. Older tires also sound similar.
A bad bearing will get louder at some point. Still don t think bearing but if you are on a nice long road with room and you sway the car side to side (gentle long sways) you will actual her the sound go away when swaying to the offending bearing side as the weight comes lighter on that bearing.
Did you check the tires and make sure you do not have something in the tire?

 

 

I dont have play when applying force at 9 and 3 o clock. Also no play at 12 and 6 o clock. Applying force with arms.

 

Do not have Pccb. Dont see anything rubbing anywhere.

 

There is noth ih ng in either front tire. Removed them and inspected, cleaned, etc. Torque to spec. 118 ftlbs.
Find it would be very coincidental if it was bearing, as noise was not there before tire change.
There are two types of sound i hear. One a rythmic as if amall stone on tire, getting fastef qith speed. Another is a hum that gets louder with speed. I think bad bearing is much noisier.
I did take car for circles in my cul de sac, and i thought one way it was making more noise than in othef direction, but was hard to tell. From experience, bad bearing is really noisy due to rough, bad metal on metal contact.
what do u think?

 

They are mounted one way (on sidewall it says 'outside' to ensure mounting soecific way on rim).
i did take whe es ls and swapped them side to side (ptt back wheels are different size so you cant rotate front to back).
After I did that, did not seem to make a difference.
Almost feel like doing a launch with the tires, so if th here are mfg issues, they would be ground down.
Ideas most welcome. Thank you.

 

bad bearings are not really loud at first but get louder or hum louder just like worn tires. If you are sure you have nothing stuck in a tire I don t see why when you spin each wheel you wouldn't t hear the click? (other than the weight). Could it be you are just not used to the sound of a different tire? And if the tire is that much quieter that the clicking was alway there and you couldn't t hear it? I think I d drive it a 1000 miles or so and see if anything happens.

 

Make sure that the tire place didn't t put a weight in a place it can hit the caliper also.

 

my only experience with bad bearings was the rear bearings on a 914, sounded just like loud tires, no clicking or anything like that .

 

Outside marking is great but they still have to be on the correct side. There is an arrow. FYI

 

More details ....

• Arrows are only on "Directional" tires. - must rotate in a certain direction but there is not a specific inside / outside of the tire
• Asymmetrical tires are marked with outside and must be mounted on a specific side of the vehicle once they are mounted on the wheel - but usually don't care which way they rotate
• Symmetrical tires may be mounted in any configuration and rotated as you please.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiret...jsp?techid=180