Hey, I've been looking through the threads but haven't seemed to find anything quite like mine. Lately I have been noticing when driving at slower speeds a loud resonating womp womp womp womp sound coming from my wheel area. The sound isn't noticeable at higher speeds but returns when I slow down, or take off from a stop. This sound occurs whether or not my foot is on the brake. It is also causing a vibration throughout the car that causes a rattle in my A/C vent..ANNOYING....The brakes have been checked, I need to replace the pads soon (3mm left, changing on Sat) the rotors are fine...Not sure what this could be but I could really use to help to narrow it down..Wheels Bearings?...its not clicking, banging, squealing, or anything like that...just the womp womp womp womp....the only way I can describe it....HELP!

 

It may be your tires. The tires my car came with had plenty of tread but it made that sound coming to a stop and taking off. I took it in to the dealer and they replaced my front bearings under warranty and the sound was still there so they swapped out my front wheels and the sound was gone. They told me it was my tires. The tires looked great but finally I could not stand the sound and figured that vibration is going to eventually hurt something. Got new tires and the problem was gone immediately. My tires were Nankang. I hear they are not the highest quality. I got some Hankooks

 

Yeah, I was thinking that may be it too but wasn't completely convinced because of how completely the sound went away the faster I went and how loud it got the slower I went...I'm by no means an expert on anything so I'll take any advice! I think when I take it in for brakes I'm going to have them look at everything!! If they don't find anything I suppose tires is the answer?!

 

Swap the front tires to the back, see what happens.

 

My old tires did this at any speed up to 40mph, and at 80mph there was a vibration through the steering wheel. Got them replaced and both went away

 

This can be one of many things. It could be a bad tire, something broken, a bad suspension, or something is off balance.

Even if the tire looks fine, it could be a manufacturer defect that can't really be seen.

 

You can swap OEM sized staggered wheels for testing purposes without hurting anything?

 

^ just remove the bolt and you should be good to go. just dont daily it...

 

They are the same diameter as long as the offset(IIRC they are slightly diffrent) and it clears the brakes you can run it, just dont start pushing the car into corners and such. Just for testing its a quick and easy way to eliminate tires from the equation.

If its only on one side, you can just swap the tire from side to side and see if the noise changes.

 

Most people get this odd tread wear that cause saw toothed tread wear (adjacent radial tread blocks have "steps" between them).

My recommendations:

0. replace compression rod bushings and transverse link [lower control arm] bushings. Use polyurethane bushings.
0. check for worn ball joints / tie rods
0. get new tires that have a coninuous tread pattern (continental DW and OEM potenzas are examples)
0. align as close to the minimum OEM toe spec as possible.

Worked for me, I'm 5k miles in using this method and have no odd wear / noise problems yet. Most who just replace tires wind up replacing / flipping tires every couple of thousand to keep sane.

 

This is sad/funny........he's like so many untrained mechanics today, just start throwing parts at your car until you find the cause of the issue. What if you've spent the $2K he suggests and still have the issue? I had the thump noise you describe years ago on my Datsun 510 and the cause was a broken steel belt. Have a tire shop check your tires and wheel bearings....Gary

 

Chances are your tires are worn on the inner edges of the fronts. Our cars have an aggressive factory camber setup which leads to accelerated front tire wear on the inside edges. You wouldn't likely notice that they are worn at a quick glance unless you have your wheels turned all the way to one side, but usually this type of wear will make the sound that you've been describing. Check there first before you start throwing money at random parts.

 

Funny how members describe noises, the inside wear tire noise sounds like a ROOOOAARR below 40 mph. You can't turn your tunes up loud enough so it will go away for a reason....your tires are shot!
Gary

 

I have the same noise and my tires still have tread. But my tires are really loud when driving no matter the speed. So idk we'll see lol

 

I also think it's the tires. Get those checked out!