Whirring tyres

[corradophil 3]

My rear tyres have worn in such away that they are whirring, kind of like BMX tyres or off road tyres on a Land Rover. It sounds very similar to the noise you get from a damaged wheel bearing.

 

All the wheel bearings are good on the car, and tyres have done about 7000 miles from new on the back, so they have loads of tread left. If I swap them from the rear to the front the sound/vibration moves to the front.

 

My current tyres are Toyo Proxes TS1s 205/40 R17, but it also happened on my 16" wheels with Good Year F1 205/45 R16.

 

The shock absorbers are in good condition, which can apparently cause "feathering".

 

Does anyone else have this problem, and any ideas what causes it?

[dinkus 10]

It's a long shot - but are the tyres on the rims the right way round? (they're usually directional and have arrows on them)

[corradophil 3]

Yep, they're on the right way.

 

The only thing I can think of is it is something to do with the geometry of the suspension, but when I had the Toyos fitted I had a full 4 wheel alignment done and according to the print out it is all within tolerance.

 

It only happens to the rears. The fronts are well worn, but have no noise or vibration at all.

[Henny 0]

rear axle bushes causing the rear axle to "float" when cornering? Long shot, but worth a try...

 

Also check that the rear brakes aren't binding as this could cause the rears to drag slightly creating more rear tyre wear than normal...

[corradophil 3]

rear axle bushes causing the rear axle to "float" when cornering? Long shot, but worth a try...

 

That seems to be the only variable on the rear suspension geometry, I changed them in July, these tyres were on for a year before that, so if it is this I'll find out in due course.

 

Also check that the rear brakes aren't binding as this could cause the rears to drag slightly creating more rear tyre wear than normal...

 

Both wheels spin freely and smoothly.

 

It seems so far, only my car does this. What about wheel balancing? The wheels don't suffer from vibration through being un-balanced, but are balanced on the inside of the wheels only. Obviously I don't want weights stuck to the outside of the wheels. But I remember reading about various different types of balancing a long time ago IIRC a wheel can be correctly staticly balanced, but not correctly dynamically balanced. Anyone know anything about this?

[andy 0]

It could still be bearings, I've just changed a rear bearing that was less than a year old, I had a constant droning noise, a bit like I was running on flat tyres. This was only identified after I realised I could feel the droning through the back n/s strut whilst someone else drove the car. The bearing exhibited no symptoms whatsoever, no roughness, no play just drone and it had done less than 10k miles. When I took the old bearing off, some of the parts were pitted and worn prematurely, just a duff bearing. New one in, very quiet!

[corradophil 3]

Where did the duff wheel bearing come from? Both rear wheel bearings are pretty new. They were from GSF.

 

I am going to inspect the tyres more closely at the weekend. I'm pretty definate its the tyres because swapping them front to back moves the vibration and noise to the front.

[andy 0]

Funnily enough, my duff bearing came from GSF.....

 

Something I should have said, my droning sounded very much like it was coming from the front, so much so that I changed a front bearing unnecessarily. Well worn tyres can cause droning but if yours have lots of tread I doubt its that. My money is on bearings...

[corradophil 3]

All fixed!! The newest of the 2 rear bearings was well and truley shot. I think it may have been because of the grease I used originally. Anyway 1 hours work, a new tub of the correct grease and a new wheel bearing later the car is nice and quiet again.

[andy 0]

I knew it! Glad its sorted :-)