Full story, Hit a pothole a couple weeks ago. Began noticing some noise when driving. Kind of a rhythmic ossilation that occurs most at 45-65 and some vibrations. I had the cv joint replaced as the boot had split and spewed grease all over the tire. I rotated the fronts at that point. Now the noise and vibration is getting a bit worse and I noticed the tire on the side that hit the pothole has really worn tread on the inside. Mechanic just took it for a spin and didn't think it was a bearing as he said 'you'd feel that shaking in the steering wheel'.

The worn tires says alignment but the car doesn't pull. The noise says bearing or worn/unbalanced tires. Could a misalignment with a worn down tire cause the entire vehicle to whir when going up in speed?

Is it worth it at this point to take it to a tire shop and see what they diagnose as they have the equipment for balancing/aligning and my mechanic doesn't?

 

Could very well be a bent rim too man!

A bent rim's signature is usually a highspot and a lowspot on the tread 180 degrees apart...similar to a broken belt in the tire (if you're familiar with what that looks like).

It could be a combination of a bent rim and/or a bad tire. A "rhythmic ossilation" makes me think its something with the wheel. Question though...did the source of the sound/vibration move when you rotated the tires or is it in the same spot? If you rotated the tires and and the unaffected tire is wearing abnormally (which I think is what you meant) then its an alignment/suspension issue.

Moral of the story: don't hit potholes But yes to answer your question I'd have them balance the tires (this will let you know if you have bent rims), it'll also be very apparent if your tire is coming apart due to the impact (a tire is basically a balloon given structure by steel and polyester belts). And your car can be severely misaligned without pulling...just depends, if the two sides are both off about the same they'll counteract each other and drive straight while eating your tires/gas. I'd start with a balance and then consider an alignment depending on what they find...just tell them to shake everything down too.

 

rotating the tires does make it drive and sound different. It's hard to say exactly as the source of the shaking as it was felt and heard best with the windows closed in the floor. Now that the tires are rotated diagonally, the sound is quieter and less obvious.

As a sidenote when tightening the tires the right rear, when turning the bolt, I could physically move the wheel up the shock with a lot less effort than I could the other side. Think that pothole did more damage than just the front. Worn out shock? Did noticce more vibration when accelerating up a hill and turning right.

Thanks for all the advice thus far guys.

 

take the car to your mechanic or a tire shop if neither one can help, I would say dealer.......

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by scott1ct &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">rotating the tires does make it drive and sound different. It's hard to say exactly as the source of the shaking as it was felt and heard best with the windows closed in the floor. Now that the tires are rotated diagonally, the sound is quieter and less obvious. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, that makes me think you have a bad tire/wheel.

Hard to say on the strut... Do the old compression test. Put your knee down on the bumper and it should stop moving. You should get an up, down, and then it should stop in the center...if it keeps going you got worn struts. But shoot...most cars on the road have worn out shock/struts, depends how much its worth to you but I doubt the pothole had anything to do with it.

 

Oh this just gets better and better. Took it to a place that can handle alignments and tires. I mention the problem about noise and vibrations up past 40mph and about hitting the pothole. They give free alignment check. It is way off. They do alignment, take for test drive then send me on my way saying problem solved. By the time I get out and past traffic and onto the highway where I can go faster than 20mph, of course. Still shaky and road noise. Dammit. Why the heck can't I just find a mechanic who can solve the problem before handing me back the keys?

The only thing else that I can find in searches is that tire balancemay be bad for the problem to begin up around 40mph. Could a misalignment and running a tire tread down on one side cause this or that bad pothole? But then why have the symptoms gotten progressively worse over the past 2 weeks? I'm ready to throw down for a set of new tires but since no one will tell me this is the cause, it seems like a waste if that again doesn't fix the problem.


I'm just trying to find a correlation why all these symptoms started and came on suddenly and not a single mechanic will take any responsibility for fixing the problem instead of finding other possibly related issues and passing it back.

 

do you see any lumps on the tire? is your car lowered? if not then the tires should'nt be worn abnormally/un-evenly, unless you didnt rotate the tires. my guess is get some new tires!

 

one tire is worn abnormally having been from the misalignment. The inner tread is worn down. Of the remaining three, he two in the back have a little tread life left and the other one in the front is probably got 10k on it after the original blew. So the tire treads are fairly uneven to begin with but never gave me a problem until recently. Can one tire worn low on one side be the cause of the problem (exacerbated by the conditions of the other 3)?

 

For one man...I work at a Firestone and I can tell you we stand behind our work. I'm pretty amazed that after describing the problem after the alignment the guy didn't take the car on the highway!

I'm still thinking you got a bent rim and/or badly balanced wheels.

I wouldn't buy a new set of tires just yet...

 

so now 3rd mechanic take it in, say my worn tire is the culprit. Replaces the tire and inspects everything. Send me on my way. Problem still there. Take it back. He drives it. He balances all the tires. Takes it for a spin. Say's it all set. I drive it. Problem still there. Take it back. He says it "may" be the wheel bearing but there is no play in the wheel. He tells me to bring it back if it gets worse and if it is the bearing, it failing won't cause me to lose a wheel but nonetheless, he can't find the reason. So now $400 later, still the same problem!

So now the car has noise starting up around 40mph. A whum-whum-whum sound that picks up speed and can be heard more distinctly when I take a curve above 40mph either direction. On the highway around 55-65mph, in the pedals I feels a vibration, very steady and the passenger seat visibly vibrates.

Any ideas?? I'm at the point of trading it in if this can't be found.

The vibration didn't come until the cv joint was replaced. Could it be installed improperly or not lubricated or he broke something else? (noise is still around in neutral)

I don't have a full size spare otherwise I'd try each wheel one by one. Can I put the donut on and see if it goes away (stupid idea?)

 

I would have swore it was the left, as the floor vibration was felt mostly from there. But they just replaced that tire, now it feels more like the right...which is the cv joint that was replaced. It's so hard to tell. I jacked up the car and there is zero play in the wheels and spinning them produces zero noise and even the mechanic couldn't figure it out. What other diagnostics is there?

The mechanic told me the noise sounds like the bearing but the vibration is not a symptom of a bad wheel bearing. Is that true?

Is it costly for the part or replacement? Do I give up and take it to yet another mechanic? This is seriously too much work and way too expensive now for the problem to persist.

 

96 Accord Lx 2dr 5pd

Midas quoted me $250 just now over the phone for each bearing....and then told me, "well, if it's not the passenger side, then we'll do the driver's side". So they have no clue which side is causing the noise, tell me it's fine to drive on it til it gets louder, and that they'll replace one that maybe working fine and then charge me again to replace the other one until they find the problem. At this point, I've spend $400 on a 10year old car with 200k and now almost feel committed to it after all the money I've wasted. Had I knew this was going to be such a problem, I would have traded it in before shelling out to 3 mechanics. I've royally been screwed





Modified by scott1ct at 3:52 AM 6/17/2007

 

Conclusion: Dealer tells me both wheel bearing are shot and both lower ball joints are shot. Not sure how both bearings went out within 2 weeks to give me symptoms.

Also, which pipe is the B-pipe on the exhaust. They just quoted me over $400 to replace that since I had a leak?