tire noise?

for he last 15K miles the noise coming out of the front end gradually increased. in fact, at low speeds, I'd feel a thump, thump, thump as the tires rotated.

initially thought it was a bearing.

however, finally decided that w/ 45K miles on Goodyear Weatherhandler (Sears) tires (although they were only half worn), it had to be the tires causing the noise.

yesterday, I had four KUMHO Solus eco's installed. excellent value ($350 out the door). good LRR rating.

bottom line...car now rides smooth as silk. quiet w/ no road noise, no thump, thump, thump. obviously, tires had flats spots as rubber got old and hard.

life is good again

 

I had the same 'can opener' type noise on my 2008 Gen II Touring. My tire shop says it happens due to not rotating the tires every 3K to 5K miles. My tires had numerous flat-spot (e.g. cupping) on each tire. I just replaced all four tires with the Kumho eco Solus 16-inch tires ($368 from Tire Rack). So far, these tires are extremely quiet and smooth. They have an 800 A A treadwear rating. I'll be rotating them every 5K miles.

 

Rotating tires to hide alignment problems does not fix the alignment problems, it just makes you replace the tires sooner; and it does nothing to correct balance problems.

 

The main reason Prius and countless low end car models use twist beam rear axles like the Prius is that they are cheap. They are even cheaper if they leave off any adjustment provisions.

They are also relatively light and compact.

That said, there is no excuse for Toyota not making an adjustment kit like I can buy at an auto parts store for under $20/side available for later adjustment.

Toyota should tighten up the specs on the rear axles and hold them to it in production. That wouldn't cost much more.

I can't get too excited that Toyota doesn't make the adjustment parts available, I wouldn't trust a typical Toyota dealer to do a wheel alignment anyway.

 

Good news on how quiet the Kumho's are. I have Kumho's Ecstea's
on my other car and they are really really quiet. I'm still on the stock Integrities and although they are thee loudest tire I have ever ridden on they still look good all around. I don't rotate till the tire looks like it needs it which was at 15K last time. There due now. But still look really good dammit. Ride like complete crap but look good.
Can't wait to replace them.
I use Tirerack too. There great. Will drop ship right to your favorite tire store.

 

I had the same problem on my 2004 - rear tire(s) sounding like knobby off-the-road tires. Was loudest at 70mph. I noticed it would increase as I veered the car left and decrease when veering right - so it seemed to be the right rear. I would've *sworn* it was tire noise, but when I replaced the worn tires, the noise was exactly the same. Turned out to be a bad wheel bearing. $390 later (you have to replace the whole hub) the car is quiet, smooth. and rolls more easily. Will probably boost gas mileage as well! (BTW - car has 245,000 miles)

 

Are you sure it isn't something simple like wheel alignment? Many reports of bad alignment in Prii.