As most of you know, I am lowered on H&Rs with aftermarket 19s. I am getting a lot of road noise lately, its like a constant loud(ish) humming coming from the front tires. It reminds me of when crocodile dundee was swinging that big thing over his head- its like the humming sound gets softer and louder as the tires go around. I am probably not making any sense, I cannot explain it.

Is anyone else experiencing anything like this or have any idea what I am talking about?

Thanks for any help-

 

have you checked your tires for feathering? how's your alignment.

 

sounds like mine. I am on the stock rubber and lowered. since its been dropped with the camber a hair out of factory spec(due to ride height) for 7000 miles, the tires are beginning to make some noise.

its from the inner shoulders of them wearing a little faster than the rest of the contact patch. anybody know if stillens tierod things will get the camber in check for the rear? I am still waiting for something for the fronts.

 

I havent checked the tires recently, I guess I should look at that. The alignment seems fine, I know its a little out of spec, as it wont go back in once lowered, like everyone elses. The car tracks fine though, its not pulling, vibrating, anything-

Thanks guys-

 

Its probably just your tires. My last car had 19's aswell and after 10k the tires made all kinds of road noise. How many miles do you have on the tires?

 

Maybe 5,000 tops. It seems like you can hear it varying as the tires turn, its a consistent oscillation- kinda strange. I am going to retorque the lug nuts too, maybe that would do something?!?!

I know very little about this, but there was some conversation a little while back about whether or not our wheels were hubcentric or not, and whether or not we needed some kind of rings or spacers?!?! What was the verdict on that?!?!

 

Thats what happens when agressive tires start to wear - the get loud. I'd check the inside of your tread to see if you can notice anything.

Hub rings are good for aftermarket wheels because it makes them sit on the hub and not just the bolts. I don't think it would contribute to the noise however.

 

OH MAN i dont have any road noise from the lowerage i hope this doesnt happen later down the road...ill let you know if it does. I thought maybe since you have 19's and low pros i assume that your experiencing the road noise from that?

 

No noise here.

Is the noise coming from 1 wheel/tire or from all 4 corners?

I've been doing research on tires and reading a TON of reviews. It seems that tire selection has a lot to do with road noise as well. I don't recall exactly which model tires you have but in many of the reviews, it is reported that road noise tend to go up as the tire starts to wear down. It seems to be less the case with the premium tires.

Centering rings are suppossed to ensure the wheel is perfectly coaxial to the hub. A wheel that is not perfectly coaxial will make excessive noise as well. I'm still on the wall about the centering rings being required for wheels designed for conical lug nuts. I believe the wheel will center as long as the wheels are torqued down evenly allowing the all the conical nuts to find the center of the holes. Most others say centering rings are a necessity.

If your wheels didn't come with centering rings, it doesn't hurt to get a set and try them.

 

I too have been having a rather annoying humming sound after putting on my aftermarket rims..but my situation is rather different.

My two front tires have 15mm (hubcentric) spacers installed.. the humming sound SEEMS to be coming from the front tires, though it could just be that's because I'm expecting the sound to be coming from there.

My tires DO NOT have hub centric rings, what I am going to do as soon as i find the time is get the hubcentric rings and take the car to a tire shop,both to put the rings on and have a good alignment done.

I will post my results, but if anyone has any additional insights into what theproblem might be or what we can do to solve it, please feel free to share.

 

Where do you get the hubcentric rings, how much, certain sizes?

Also- I think I have pegged down my main problem, I think I have a bad right front tire. I let my brother drive the car today and it was much more noticable sitting on the passenger side, I could even feel it. He races anything with wheels and is very knowledgable, so I trust his input- He seems to think the belt has seperated in the tire and its starting to form a bubble, essentially a defective tire. I am going to try and contact who I bought the tires from about any kind of warranty info etc etc.

I would be interested in trying the hub centering rings as well...

On a side note- while he was driving the **** out of the car today (and scaring me to death in my own car) he was able to get the right front to rub going hard into a sharp right. It was under heavy braking for entry and pretty hard turning to the right, it bumped. When we got back to the house, we looked under to see where it had rubbed- you could see a clean spot on the metal- I will go out and try to snap a pic...

 

Pictures- its not REALLY clear, but I think you get the point:




and one of the tire:

 

See those dark spots spaced out every 1" on the inside edge of the tire?
That is the uneven wear the 350z guys usede to refer to as "feathering". That uneven wear makes the loud noise. You can probably run your hand across it and feel the uneven-ness. You may want to try a front end realignment.

 

I noticed the tread feathering as well.

I'm not sure if I see anything rubbing on the aluminum part though. I would expect to see scuffing in an arc pattern. Can you take a look at the top side? I'm guessing that on heavy loading, its the top of the wheel that deflect inboard ... possibly rubbing on suspension components.

 

I started hearing this noise recently. I have not aligned it yet because I have not ordered the rear camber kit, but will very soon. I thought I had a bubble in my tire when I first heard it. I realized a few days back it may be a toe in and camber issue. This seems to also be coming from the front.

While driving the passenger side seems to be the tire that it's coming from, the passenger says they think it's the driver side. Therefore it's probably both. I was beginning to think me tires were just noisy and somehow I over looked it before. Time for a kit and alignment!!