I recently took my 2005 Toyota Camry LE to Costco and had a new set of Bridgestone Ecopias installed, this came with the balancing as well. However, now when I reach 65km/h or higher – I start to hear a humming sound coming from what I believe to be the front. I haven’t really troubleshooted too much, but as far as I noticed… Turning the wheel doesn’t change much about the noise. Also, it doesn’t always start at 65 – it could potentially start at 90 or 100, but the most common is 65.
I also have started to notice that while the steering wheel used to vibrate side to side before, it now is more intermittent. It’ll vibrate for about 10 seconds, then stop and stay perfectly still. Another 10 seconds later, it’s back to vibrating side to side.
I’m not much of a car guy, so I hope I explained it well.
Sounds like several problems. One is a balance issue and the other is a noisy tread issue. The latter may be more difficult to sort out than the former.
If you’re positive the noise is in the front you could try having the tires rotated front to back and note if the noise moves to the rear. If so there’s the possibility of a faulty tire.
The vibration issue could be a front tire that is slightly out of balance. It’s also possible that a bad tire can cause this along with the humming sound.
Sometimes when a tire is slightly out of balance it can oscillate due to the slightest bump. Think of a child’s top spinning smoothly. Touch it lightly and it wobbles before smoothing out. Same principle; sort of.
Is the vehicle still safe to drive, do you think? I have a hotel booked that’s about a 4 hour drive away, if I need to cancel – I need to do so within the next 15 hours.
I don’t think I’ll be able to get back into Costco to have the rotation done before then, as they were already having scheduling problems.
When I first saw the tires on the vehicle, they already had large spots of dirt on the sides. Perhaps the tires were not stored properly? But then again, they ordered them into the store and they were only there for a week or so.
