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99 Dodge Stratus Road Noise..Tires or Bearings?

One of our cars is a 99 Stratus with 86K miles. A few weeks ago, my car was in the shop for the timing belt replacement and I had my wife drive me over to the shop in this car. I noticed a pretty loud whirring noise coming from the rear of the car that increased/decreased with speed. I almost sounds like large lugged truck tires driving down the road but not as loud. I was thinking the wheel bearing might be going out so I jack up the car yesterday and there is no movement in either of the wheels with the parking brake off. I would think that if a bearing was going bad, there should at least be some minimal movement there.

So then I looked at the tires and on both rear tires, the inner tread groove had a noticably raised slightly jagged tread pattern compared to the the other lines of tread in the tire....If a tire was bad, I would think it would happen on only one tire and not both on the rear, but this was the same on both tires on the rear. I wouldn't think this is by design. So I went ahead and rotated the tires..rears on the front on the same side to see if the sound moved.

I can still hear it and it does sound like it has moved from the rear to the front and the wife confirms this. So am I still looking at a tire issue or still a possibility of bearing somewhere? Turning sharply left and right doesn't seem to make a difference in the noise (noise decreases but probably just due to slower speed, but doesn't fully go away.)

I guess I'm just puzzled about both rears having the same unususal (at least to me) wear.

Do you think that the raised inner tread will wear down in time and that is where the sound is coming from, or do I have a deeper issue?

Looking for any advice as I'm just not finding much on steering/suspension issues on the 99 Stratus...If there is, could you point me to them??

Thanks, Mike

Reply to
Moparmaniac
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One other note..these are about 2 year old Kumho tires with abround 30K on them.

Reply to
Moparmaniac

I would suggest following the tire scenario first. As you know, these cars have sealed rear bearings, so the entire until must be replaced when they go bad.

Since you mentioned some noticeable wear, when was the last time that you had an alignment done? Since these cars have adjustments on both the front and rear, it's best to get a "four wheel" alignment done, to ensure that the rear tires are correctly tracking the front. It costs around $80, but will ensure that everthing is lined up correctly.

-KM

Reply to
kmatheson

On Mon, 09 Apr 2007 17:00:27 GMT, "Moparmaniac" wrote: .

What you are describing is called cupping. It can be caused by inflation issues, alignment issues, lack of rotation or worn suspension components. Used to be you could have the tires shaved smooth again but I don't know if anyone still does that. The tires will not wear back right again... they are pretty much toast at this point. When you get the new ones make sure the suspension is in good shape and get a four wheel alignment.

Steve B.

Reply to
Steve B.

I agree with Steve, and will add that this is more of a problem in general on so-called "hi performance tires" - these tires typically have large tread blocks rather than smaller ones and lots if siping lines.

Also, this is why it is imperative that you rotate your tires in the future - every 5000 to 7000 miles without fail. Especially imperative with the so-called hi performance tires as, like I said, they are much more prone tho this problem. Also as Steve mentioned, it is important to keep the alignment in check.

If you change your oil every 3000 or 3500 miles, then rotate the tires every other oil change. That will even out the irregular wear patterns before they become irreversible and begin manifesting themselves in this manner and requiring you to replace your tires early due to irregular tread wear (i.e., wearing below the wear bars in only a few places) or unbearable noise.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Reply to
Bill Putney

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