Hello,
For a while there was a loud humming sound coming from the back of our Honda Fit. I recently needed to replace the front tires and moved the rear tires to the front and put the new ones in the back.
The loud humming sound is now in the front and louder at lower speeds and when breaking.
One mechanic told me that after a while, an issue with the rear suspension causes tires to get irregular wear which ends up causing that noise. The solution: replace rear shocks to prevent dammage to new tires and put in new tires in the front.
Another person told me there might be a problem with the actual wheel which might have gotten warped due to shock.
This is entirely possible, but what i interpret this as meaning is that your rear alignment is off and needs to be corrected together with shocks replacement. It’s possible the shocks are good enough and it’s just an alignment problem.
My experience says that vehicles with more than 1 degree of camber tend to develop irregular tire wear - and not only does the Honda Fit spec a degree and a half, the description sounds like irregular tire wear.
There’s pretty much nothing that can be done to fix irregular tire wear once it develops - except to replace the tires.
I recommend the vehicle get aligned - and the rear spec for camber by ignored in place of a new spec of 3/4 of a degree. That may require a camber plate, but that will solve the problem in the future.
@CapriRacer is our resident tire expert so the advice is sound.
I’d like to add; Do you rotate your tires regularly? And how many miles and years are on those rear tires?
Regular tire rotation can help prevent those noisy tires from developing. Many people don’t regularly rotate tires so the rear tires on a front wheel drive car get old, hard and develops that funny wear while the fronts wear out. Since there is still tread on the rears, people keep them.
If they are in the rear long enough, that noise will stay as they rotate to the front and will never wear away. If that description fits your situation, replace the front tires with tires matching the rears and start rotating your tires every 5000-7500 miles or so… They will wear more evenly, last longer and stay quieter.
Thank you @CapriRacer, so would you say to not worry about the rear shocks?
I have not rotated these tires in a long long time and will start to do this regularly now.
That is probably not going to accomplish anything.
My suggestion is to have a reputable shop diagnose any possible problems with the rear suspension, repair whatever they find to be problematic, then buy 4 tires, and begin rotating them on a consistent schedule (probably every 5k miles).
Don’t begin rotating your tires until you have a “clean slate” consisting of repairs and replacement of all 4 tires.
Bad shocks usually have indicative wear patterns on the tire, the shock can be looked at for signs of failure. It may just be a failing tire. Can you look at the tire for signs of cupping or alignment problem?
So in other words, the front tires will continue to make noise because of the wear. The rear needs alignment along with the front (4 wheel alignment), and the rear shocks might also need to be replaced if they are worn.
I’m going to take issue with the chart Barky posted above. I think the 2 conditions on the far right are more often caused by misalignment.
Radial tires are much more sensitive to toe than bias tires are - and even a little toe (within spec) can generate diagonal and scalloped wear. It just takes longer. Large amounts of toe generate it quicker.