Loud road noise and slight vibration

how many miles on her?

 

Yes how many miles and what kind of tires btw? Hope there not Goodyear Integrities. Thats the worlds worst tire. And the ones most likely to have bumps just because there terrible tires. Nothing to do with the struts. And they are really really loud. Just awful.

Since your tires are lumpy start off with a new set of good tires. Lots of favorites here, the Goodyear Triple Tread and the Michelin's primarily. Depends on how much money you want to spend.

New struts are very expensive. So make sure there bad. I doubt there bad enough they are eating up the tires though. Simple test is the rebound test. Just push real hard on the front bumper right in front of the headlight and let go. My car has brand new struts and whn this test is done the car goes down and comes right back up and stops. No bouncing what so ever. Your looking for no bouncing and quick rebound. If there bouncing with a good hard push they need to be replaced.

Good Luck!

 

I'd try a new set of tires and rotate them every 5,000 miles before touching the suspension, unless the bounce test is conclusive.

 

Are the "bumps" primarily on the inside shoulder? If so, check the rear alignment.

 

The bounce test will not work on Prius. It might work on a 60's vintage domestic sedan with very soft suspension.

If the car has 90K miles I would say there is a high probability that the front struts and rear shocks are bad. Unfortunately it is hard to tell for sure until you've removed the old parts and manually compress them, comparing to the resistance of a new part.

 

I have a 2006 with ~150K on it of mostly highway miles. Notice the past couple days a gradually louding noise coming from under the hood area, it seems. Usually when operating greater than 30 mh I can hear it but it is not loader when the window is opened.

I do not believe it is struts nor tires. Tires are quite new, perhaps 5K miles on them.

 

You can also visually inspect the struts for signs of leakage. The Bentley Repair and Maintenance guide has a couple of pages with diagrams (taken from Toyota's own Service Bulletin), showing oil staining patterns and what they mean.
Basically, a few inches of even staining above the spring seat is OK, but oil stains past the spring seat or a narrow stream of oil down the shock body are not OK.
Handy book.

- D

 

I am having the same issue...I have 146,000 on a 2007. I have Bridgestone Ecopia tires... I just had them replaced and alined. I hit something and the bottom plastic low engine covers are loose... I think those are making the noise...

 

My front wheel bearings used to make the weirdest vibrations at different speeds in different locations, until I replaced them.

 

ursle you may be onto something.

Anyone who says replace your struts does not know what they are talking about. I also am having this same problem. It starts when the car is going greater then 30mph and gets louder. At first I was certain it was the front left tire, but then I rotated them and am still hearing the noise.

I would describe the noise as road noise that sounds slightly mechanical (a non lubed gear turning) sort of noise. I would really like to solve this without taking it in. My next thought was wheel bearing but it does not have any other symptoms of a bad wheel bearing but I will pull everything apart this weekend to get to the bottom of it.

 

On a safe piece of road, try making a series of aggressive turns. You don't need to drift around a corner, but the turns need to generate significant lateral force to load or unload the bearings. Bad wheel bearings will be louder one way that the other.

Tom

 

Get all four wheels off the ground and see if they have any axial play. Wheels with good bearings will turn freely and noiselessly, and if you grasp the tire with your hands and try to wiggle it side to side, it should feel solid.

 

I thought the loud noise while driving was from the replacement tires I put on the car... not so... we placed the car on jacks, took the tires off, turned the car on & listened. Turns out that the sound was there & was more pronounced when turning left.

Toyota replaced the left front axle hub just behind the disk brake. Warranty item. Apparently, moisture somehow got into the hub & corrosion took hold... the source of the noise. My car is now very quiet like it was when new.