unsual tire noise wobb! wobb! wobb! wobb!.....

It's my '93 Previa. The noise happend once in a while. 2 Michellin tires with 95T speed rating on the front, and 1 Mich with 95T & 1 Bridgestone with 95H on the rear. On the scored (longitudinal direction) freeway lane, I can hear the when I was slowing down from

65 mph to 50 mph.

I checked the tires. No puncture No bulge No dents but alignment is a bit off. Tres still have good treads. Lug nuts torques are all 76 ft-lb. Really weird.

Today, I heard the noise 1st time from the surface road when I was coming home with the slowing speed from 40 mph down to 25 mph for ready into my driveway. Again, wobb! wobb! wobb! wobb!wobb! wobb! wobb! wobb!....... What is going on?? It really gets on my nerve.

Matt

Reply to
Matt
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Could be a separated belt. MCB

Reply to
Artfulcodger

Well ... we could explore a tire or two whose carcass deforms unevenly at speed. There's a process of checking tire balance with the tire loaded (Load Force Balancing). Your 'better' tire stores have this special machine.

Reply to
Philip®

This happened to me recently, it turned out to be cupping of the tread, basically uneven wear around the circumference of the tire. No failure of the tire, just the wobb wobb sound and vibration at low speeds, under braking and in slow corners exactly as described. I was told that bad front shocks can cause this, I changed the shocks and the tires and so far so good. I could see the uneven wear pattern if I looked closely at the tire, fronts only.

You might get away with rotating the tires.

Brian

Reply to
Brian

This often causes a pull toward the bad side -- do you notice that you have to dial-in a noticeable amount of steering correction in what should be straight-line driving on a smooth flat road? (This can be confounded by misalignment.)

If they rebalance the tires while doing the alignment, they might see something that looks a little off, but maybe not -- the problem can be completely internal to a tire. Yet another symptom of this problem, sometimes, is an inexplicable inability to achieve and hold balance, and/or the need for an extraordinary number of wheelweights.

If all four tires make it through all these procedures, have them rotate the tires too. This is yet another diagnostic for invisible but seemingly tire-related wierdnesses: rotate 'em and see if the problem emanates from a different corner of the car.

Best of luck,

--Joe

Reply to
Ad absurdum per aspera
1) Take a good, close look at your tires. Look at all the sidewalls, inside & outside, for bulges. If you find any bulges, buy new tires. That one is about to come apart, maybe dangerously. Buy four tires the same. There are top quality low cost tires...Falken Ziex 512 is one, Kumho Touring A/S in another, Bridgestone Turanza LS-T is more money but excellent.

2) How are the shocks & struts? On each corner of the car, put your knee on the bumper or another way of putting a lot of weight on the car, push down very hard and quick, get off, and count the number of bounces. If it bounces up & down more than once, buy new struts & shocks. Monroe is having a sale.

3) Call around to find a tire shop with a Hunter GSP9700 tire balancing machine, preferably with their "StraightTrak" device. This will diagnose tires that pull to one side, out of round, stiff on one side and soft on the other, bent wheel, out of round wheel, and balance.

Ken

Reply to
Ken Shelton

I'd try exchanging the front and back tires. If the noise persists,..it maybe some wear in the steering/suspension which is amplified by braking or a CV. I had a Mitsubishi Magna (Diamante I think they are called in US) with a worn CV which made little pulsing noises. I looked at the road wheel by leaning out the window, and under brakes or turning, it would jerk, as a worn ball and track within the CV came under load as the tyre turned...quite wierd!

Jason

Jason

Reply to
Jason James

This was my guess as well. What you are describing is a broken bead, and

*is* *VERY* dangerous! But what I was thinking of is a broken belt, which may not be seen except from inside the tire in most cases. The main symptom of this (other than the WOBB WOBB WOBB) is a shuddering somewhere. If it's a front tire, you'll feel it in the wheel esp at lower speeds. You can (in most cases) see the wheel pulsating in your hand! If it's a rear, you'll just feel a mild shuddering.

Take the car immediately to a tire dealer and have it checked. A broken bead or belt is *BAD NEWS*, and don't drive fast!

Reply to
HachiRoku

Thanks for all the responses. The struts and shocks wre ok. I rotated tires with the rear ones. I did not hear any noise like before. Alignment was back to normal. I took the van to Costco for checking. Thy said only thing they can do is balancing. I don't have any viration in the steering wheel; tire balance should be ok. Costco won't open the tires to look insght the tires for belt separation and recommended to take the van to mechanic for checking. That sounded odd. What is the right plce for checking tires? My best guess should be tire store, Shouldn't it?? But, which one is better? "Just Tires" shop or ??? Matt

Reply to
Matt

Try America's Tire Co., if you have one nearby. Very knowledgeable, helpful, always torque lug nuts, prompt friendly handling of any concerns - at least in our area.

Reply to
Daniel M. Dreifus

Rub your hand, carefully, around the now rear tires' circumferences, and you'll probly feel, and see, flat spots, maybe several on each tire. Come from unbalance on front end--when rear, smoother & more nearly "in-round" rear ones were put on front, the noise was lessened & flat-spotted ones were put farther from you; & the feel from those flatspots disappeared fom the steering wheel. HTH & good lck, s

Reply to
sdlomi2

I recheked according to all the recoms. I found out the strut on the driver side is soft. Can this cause the wobb! wobb! wobb!...noise??? Matt

Reply to
Matt

Matt, I once had a wheel weight hitting the brake caliber. Took a bunch of mechanics to find that little problem. It also made an odd noise at any speed but more so on turns. Just for thought. Marty In Charley torn, Orlando, Fla.

Reply to
martyl

Wow! Still haven't solved it, huh. I'm having someting similar happening w/a Plymouth Voyager. I can't find anything. See the post in a.a.toyota marked 'MDTtech, Tegger, or anyone...'. Good suggestions, none of them help me, but gave me a lot of stuff to look at!

Reply to
HachiRoku

May be something called "ply steer", or some variant of that. Happens when the plies start to separate/distort and cause a strange steering/balance problem. Usually fixed with a new tire,...just my 2¢ worth! And you know what 2¢ will buy a person these days! ;-)

Reply to
Jeremiah

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