1996 Honda Civic EX Tire Buzzing (?)

When I drive my car down the road, it sounds as if it is a prop plane. It seems to be coming from the driver’s rear tire. It seemed to start one time after I had the tires rotated, and they told me it was because the front tires wear differently. However, I have had the tires rotated a few times since then, and the sound is always exactly the same…

I have you looked to see it there is something rubbing against the tire? Another cause could be a bad bearng.

Sounds like you have had this noise for many miles, apparently not increasing. My take on a bad wheel bearing is that it would fail catastrophically before then.

Try wizard’s suggestion and look for something rubbing on the tire. With that much noise, you should see the wear strip on the tire. Does it change around a curve? on bumps? It’s hard to imagine something rubbing on a tire that doesn’t change as the suspension moves!

Try jacking the rear off the ground and spin the wheels?

I had tire wear that was causing a ton of noise caused by an alignment issue. Check to see if the tread on your tires is “cupped” or uneven in anyway. Tires with wear like this can be extremely loud. A wheel bearing could also be the cause. Check to see if any of your wheels (not tires) is unusually hot after a jog on the freeway.

Apparently he has had this problem through 3 tire rotations. Now most recommended tire rotation intervals are perhaps 20K. So that’s a lot of miles for an alignment or wheel bearing problem.

However perhaps he has been rotating the tires every few thousand miles in the belief he was helping…

josh, waiting for more info…

It may be one or more tyres. If it is you should be able to feel a wavy wear pattern on one edge or another of one or more tyres. It also could be a wheel bearing or a transmission/drive part.

The sounds started after the first tire rotation, and has persisted through a second…I don’t believe the interval between these rotations to be shorter than normal…