I have a set of Michelins on my 2000 Grand Am. After this last bout of snomageddon, it seems that they are making noise. When I inspected the tires, I found out that I am getting near the wear bars, but not quite. Noise is not made when car is in neutral, and revving, but only when on the road, and increases with acceleration.
The only thing that I can think is that after 50k, these tires have had it, and maybe the noise is coming from them, but am unsure. Anyone have any ideas?
If you’re near the wear bars in snowy conditions, you’re risking a crash. I’d recommend new tires now, regardless of the noise issue.
I plan on it, but just am wondering if that could be the noise. A couple of months ago, when I checked, the tires seemed satisfactory to make it through the winter.
I agree. The age of the tires is far more critical than the wear bars. Your tires need to be replaced. Wear bars are one of those things that sound good on paper and in theory but real world conditions they prove otherwise.
Tires near the wear bars become noisy, some more than others. In addition to agreeing with Lion9car that tires close to thwe wear bars are no longer safe, I’ll bet my moring muffins that they’re the source of the noise.
Yes, when you get near the wear indicators most tires becomes quite noisy. This is common.
What you likely have is irregular wear, which is caused by misalignment and aggravated by insufficient inflation pressure and insufficient rotation practices. After 50K miles, even a small amount of misalignment adds up.
You might want to get an alignment to assure that the next set of tires don’t develop the same wear pattern.
Thanks to all who tried to help me. The problem was a bad wheel bearing. Yes, and I am getting the new tires next week. The old ones still have a little life to them, and will probably barely pass inspection in July, but even though the car has 150k on it, I am gonna get a new set of rubber for it, and drive it some more.
I guess I owe you some muffins. I’m glad you discovered the bad bearing rather than assume my answer was correct, even though worn tires do become noisy.
I think a key clue was how quickly the noise cropped up. Tire noise builds up more gradually.
True. He gets the muffins anyway. I’m just glad he got it fixed.