I have yet to jack it up (been way too busy), but we recently did a long (4,000 mile) road trip to SoCal and back in our 2012 Three that now has 72,000 miles on it. New Goodyear Assurance Comfortred tires were put on 2 months before the trip. About halfway through the trip the car started making some noise at speed. It is louder now. Starts at about 25 mph and seems to settle down a bit over 60 (or perhaps drowned by wind noise). It's very annoying at city speeds of 30-45. I can feel slight vibration if I put my hand on the door panel. I haven't noticed a change in turns/curves. I'm almost certain it is coming from all 4 wheels, which leads me to think something is going wrong with the tires, since I would never have guessed all the bearings could fail at once so early. That was before I see Prius are known to have weak bearings and we did have temps up to 120F, but there are lots of Prii in that area. Everything looks and drives normal (aside from the noise and slight vibration), but will be having the tires inspected and rotated soon. Anything else that it could be or to check?
Don't have an answer for you, but your tire description is exactly what I am going thru with my new Michelin Premiers. I have had 4 rotations, an aligmnent, tried various tire pressures... all of that in only 12,000 miles of use. Nothing has solved the tire noise problem. But your car has a lot more miles than mine. Let's hope it's not a bearing problem.
it may feel like it is coming from all 4 wheels, but i would check each wheel bearing individually. if you absolutely rule out a bearing, try rotating the tires to see if the noise changes at all. you can try drastic pressure changes as well, for help with diagnosis. who installed the tires, i wonder if over torquing the lug bolts could cause damage?
I sure hope he doesn't have bearing damage. I keep seeing price quotes of $500 per wheel to fix? Over torquing the lug nuts. They probably do in most cases, so does that mean there are millions of cars on the road with bad bearings? Or other damage? Most of those shops just use the air impact wrench. And others use the impact wrench, then go back and use a torque wrench on top of that! But three tire shops and the dealer later, nobody has said I have any kind of wheel damage. Or maybe they didn't even check.
It’s most likely not coming from all four wheels, but if the vibration goes through the frame of the car, it can seem like it’s coming from everywhere at once. It’s definitely SOMETHING, and something you need to get fixed soon. Problem is diagnosis. I’m not a pro mechanic, but it could be a lot of things: Bad tire, out of balance wheel, brakes, bearing, alignment (?) or something else. Since you just got new tires, start with the tire shop. They should look into it for free. They might not figure it out, but they should pull the tires and at least check the balance.
I think I'll have the tire shop check the bearings when they rotate. I believe the passenger rear is bad. The wife made me check tonight in the dark so tested both on the passenger side and it was making some noise that did not sound like the pads, which I could also hear just a bit. There was no play but I know that doesn't always occur. The reason I say all 4 wheels is because it sounds loudest up front regardless of which seat I'm in. While riding in back and sticking my head above each wheel well they both sounded about the same (above what it should be). Now to find some videos on swapping them out. I'd think it would be pretty easy since it is the whole hub, but I understand just removing the brakes can be a pain on a Prius so maybe it's not as simple as I'm hoping.
For better or worse, these failures are so rare that most of us here aren’t familiar with them, (touch wood)
Got it replaced tonight. Had as much difficulty with the caliper bolts as I did breaking the hub free using the "easy" method. Finally engineered enough leverage to break those loose. I was worried about the hub as the flange the rotor sits on was bending pretty well but it finally gave after I gave it a few whacks with a hammer.
Almost 6 years later and now at 121k miles, I replaced the driver's side rear. Somewhat ironically, we were again running on new tires and had just gotten back from a road trip when I started to notice some noise, which did change by curve direction. Since I had bought a pair when the first one went out, I've just been patiently waiting for the other to go bad. Still had the bolts and washers to break it free sitting on the new bearing box.
