Car: 2011 Kia Forte 5 EX
Mileage: ~35000
My car runs fine on city speeds. I noticed this last week when I get on the highway, in between 60 & 65 MPH, I can hear a “deep” (kind of sounds like added bass) sound. It goes away when I go past 65, but the “driving sound” (no music, no a/c running) just doesn’t sound as smooth as it did before I hit the 60-65 range. I get the noise again when I decelerate and pass through that range. My car does not display a Check Engine Light when this happens.
Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance,
-Jon
Are your tires the original ones?
If so, at 35k, the amount of tread wear could well be the source of this noise.
Many people do not realize that some tires become very noisy when their tread wears down.
What can you tell us about the tires?
Front tires were replaced today. Rear tires are the original, and according to the guy at Sears are still in good shape.
Replacing tires “two at a time” suggests that the tires have not been rotated as appropriate.
If your tires were rotated every 5k to 7.5k miles, all 4 would have had essentially equal wear.
Until someone else can come up with another possibility, I theorize that those “good” tires on the rear have enough wear on them to cause the noise that you are hearing.
GS: I own a 2010 Forte EX 2.0 with 30K miles. Granted, I don’t drive my car as much as you but when I do I often find myself – on the Interstates – driving at speeds up to 80mph. At 28K, I, too, had two new tires mounted on the front. I have yet to experience anything like you explain. I do, however, agree with VDC that your problem is most likely tire related. (Be sure the tire size is “by the book” with slightly more PSI, I do 36 all around.) Rotate your rear tires to the front and see if you still have noise. This would confirm it. BTW – I do, in fact, rotate my tires every 7K miles – without fail – yet two tires were worn to the tread markers (2/32) so I had them replaced. So you know, my way to rotate is fronts to same side rears… rears crossed to front. Now the “new think” with many tire mechanics is best tires on the REAR – on Front Wheel Drive cars. I’m still not sold on the merit of this method but do what’s comfortable. Good luck.
So did the noise begin right after the tire replacement, or did you replace the tires because of the noise?
I wouldn’t say I changed the tires because of the noise, but I did hear the noise before the tires were changed.