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Road noise - from tires?

My car (2001 Chev Impala, 45K miles) is getting annoying road noise at speed over 30mph. The noise is from bottom of the car, sounds like a helicopter flying underneath. On highways, the noise is not that "noticeable" as it's offset by wind noise.

I suspect it's made by tires (Tiger Paws). But the treads look very good. I bought the car used a year ago, had about 5K miles on it, and no tire work since.

A tire rotation could work? or it needs alignment, balancing etc...? or could be other reasons?

Thanks.

Reply to
Dave
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check your tire pressure and look at each tire for broken belts by spinning each tire and see if their are disfigures in the rotation?

Reply to
tudysmuck

also its sounds like you have a broken belts thump thump pop lol lol

Reply to
tudysmuck

I'm not clear whether you have replaced the tires or not. If not they could be worn down to the wear bars. Also, check for uneven tread wear.

Reply to
John S.

When the belt on one of my tires slipped it was a dull sound like a drumbeat.

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Reply to
William R. Watt

Very common, especially with old hard rubber tires, hardened rubber bushings, and dry wheel bearings.

Go to tirerack.com and look through their specs section where they show the noise ratings for various tires. It may be time for a quieter set. Fwiw, mine are noisy enough that I wear foam earplugs on long trips as the tire noise is deafening and irritating.

I'm hoping my next set (Goodyear Comfortread) will dampen some of the tire racket down to a livable level.

B~

Reply to
B. Peg

It's probably your tires. I've got an '05 Impala with about 7K miles on it and the tire noise is the loudest thing at 70 MPH. I think the stock goodyears suck. It doesn't help that the design of the car wears the tires all funky either; I just had the tires rotated as the fronts were badly feathered. I guess that's what you get when you put a guy used to driving a Porsche behind the wheel of a nose-heavy, full-sized FWD car.

nate

Reply to
N8N

Thanks all. I'll do as advised. It does sound like drumbeats. My initial thought "Oh my God, the car got piston slaps......" Now I can relax a bit.

Reply to
Dave

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