Tire noise after tire rotation

Maintenance/Repairs
1

Hi everyone, I have a 2015 Subaru Legacy. I took it to the dealer for a routine tire rotation, and now there’s a cyclical whump-whump noise when I drive. It’s loudest at lower speeds( below 35), but I can hear it when going faster. I took it back to the dealer right away, and they said they re-rotated the tires. I still hear the noise, and it’s louder than before. The dealer said not to worry about it because I’m not seeing any indicator lights, Any idea what could be going on? Thanks much

2

Have the tires put back in their original positions.

If the noise goes away, there’s a problem with the tires.

Tester

3

They’ve been rotated twice. How do you rerotate?

4

Welcome to the forum…

Take the vehicle to an independent auto repair shop and have them check it out…

5

It wouldn’t hurt to have the tires balanced (preferably using a road-force balance machine) in case any wheel weights got knocked off during the rotation or in case the belts in the tires have shifted.

6

Thank you all!

8

Boy, that sound tells me you may have a tire with the belts or treads separating. If it’s one of the front tires you should feel it in the steering wheel.

I would have a tire garage check each tire carefully for that. Then have all 4 re-balanced. If you still get the Wop Wop I’m out of ideas.

9

+1
The recent rotation at the shop may have nothing to do with the situation.

10

A couple of thoughts:

Based on the first description, it sounds like the tires were the problem, likely irregular wear. But if the tires were rotated back and the noise is still there, it can’t be tires.

  • BUT -

For some reason, humans seem to have a peculiar sensitivity to vibrations and noise is a vibration. Once they feel (or hear) a vibration, they can focus on that vibration and even if it isn’t there, they sense it - usually from the ambient vibration (noise).

And a point about tire belts shifting - they DON’T. The term comes from the early days of steel belted radial tires where the steel belt wires didn’t have good adhesion to the surrounding rubber matrix. This resulted in a peculiar balloon shape and many folks mistakenly thought the belts had shifted - which they didn’t. But the term caught on and todays is sometimes used when the term “separation” would be a more accurate description.

/rant

1 Like
11

How many miles are on tires? How often have they been rotated?
Car is 10 yrs old. Original tires? Replaced 4k miles ago?