tire noise?

Take the snow chains off! ;-)

 

If this noise happens at low speed, I suggest you have someone drive the car in circles (for example, in an empty parking lot) while you stand outside the car. Maybe you can pin down where the noise is coming from, then you can decide whether the problem is a bad wheel bearing or not.

 

If something isn't stuck in the rear brakes or rubbing against the wheel a noise from the rear shouldn't be to difficult to track down, it's not a rear wheel drive car with a shaft spinning from the engine to the rear wheels, that car is ready for front wheel bearing replacement btw and noises can be relative...

 

Prius wheel bearings don't always go bad. My 2004 is at 171,500 and the wheel bearings are fine (as are the brakes). The OPs problem is unlikely to be the tires as Nokian i3s don't tend to get noisy so a bad wheel bearing is one possibility.

Our Subaru at 227,000 miles has now lost it's 3rd wheel bearing so this does happen.

JeffD

 

The most recent occurrence was last month. The sound seemed to be coming from the left rear and on the lift, you could feel the bad bearing as you spun the wheel in neutral. $350 dollars later ($450 at the Subaru dealer), no noise.

JeffD

 

Was the gear selector in N or in P? If in P, then when you are rotating one wheel, the other wheel is also rotating in the opposite direction.

Since you don't notice much noise when the wheels are unloaded, maybe a bearing is at fault and only makes noise when there's 750 lb of weight loading the bearing.

In any event you have a good idea about taking the car in so it can be checked out.

 

Busted cord in the tire, how many miles on it, if it's got more than 5000 you should replace the other one to, just to keep things in sync...Whom did you buy it from, check for warranter
The car didn't do it to the tire

 

That's great, better keep her around...

Sounds like a defective tire, but let your tire store figure that one out. Good luck.

 

I had the same basic thing happen in the rear, but when rotating tires they all got that way. First I blamed the tire, but then after replacing the tires and not rotating on purpose, I saw the rear tires flatspot in the most weird pattern ever and made a lot of noise.

These tires were very well balanced, so it was a mystery, until I took the wheel off to clean and inspect the tire. I turned the rear hub and felt 3 distinct grabs. The driver's rear hub only grabbed in a couple of places and was almost imperceptible, thus less flat spotting on that tire.

I surmised that it had to be bad bearings. Local Toyota shop said no. And they could not reproduce what I felt as the hubs were turned. After I got the Prius back it was time to get the new snow tires on, (on my 15 inch OE wheels) and this time I could not feel the slight increase in friction as I turned the hubs.

I would suggest you see if that hub is turning smoothly by hand. After I put the snows on, I've made it a habit to back up in a straight line and apply the brakes smoothly to a stop, once a week or so. Like the "old" days, adjusting the brakes. So far my snows haven't developed flat spots. New Summer tires go on my 16" wheels Wednesday.

I did get an alignment at the Toyota shop and they even shimmed the rears. That was just before I put the snow tires on at the beginning of Winter.

Just an idea to follow up on. Good luck!