Thank you everyone for the responses. To be clear, I didn’t have an actual appointment with the mechanic I was recommended to. I simply waited until he was able to do a test drive with me. He didn’t turn me away after that. He was just too busy to look at the car. That being said, I did bring the vehicle back today and upon lifting, he said he saw nothing suspect. He even checked all four wheel bearings. I had even asked him about the right rear tire and maybe that tire was defective and causing the issue. He said the tire looked fine and he saw no point in moving it to the front like another posted mentioned.
He continued to be adamant about how this somehow, someway, by some bizarre happening is a bit of a “normal” road noise. I told him flat to his face that I disagreed and that a noise like this is anything but normal.
Seeing as how the left rear tire was replaced and fine, and over THREE mechanics have now all checked the bearings with one even claiming to have changed out the possible suspect bearing, and nothing made the noise go away, I can honestly say I’m shocked.
I know all about chasis ears but really, like another poster said, in this car, it’s the bearing or it’s the tires. There really is nothing else that could possibly cause a loud “woo woo woo” noise at high speeds. So personally, I don’t see the point of bothering any mechanic to use the ears. That all being said, I still feel lost and like I’m in the twilight zone with this noise. Is it possible that these tires are maybe just somehow not well meshed with this car? The key thing to remember about the tires is that the left rear was one recently replaced and the noise in my opinion remained the same, or at least close to it. All the fabric and everything around the tire that it could maybe be rubbing against, it’s all tight and good.
I’ve also let some air out of both tires in the rear and the noise remains exactly the same as well.
In my diy’er experience, when I reach a point of diagnosis frustration where I know something is wrong, but have no idea what is is, I simply make a guess and test, usually involves moving something, or replacing something. Not that? Make another guess and test. Sometimes I’ll get it on the first guess, other times the 10th guess.
For example, recently had a poor engine idle condition on my truck. Did the typical diagnostic stuff, no obvious problems found, so the cause remained unclear. But I knew the spark plug wires were old enough to be in need of replacement, so my first guess was to install new ones, along with new distributor cap and ignition rotor. Looked great, but no help at all with the engine problem … lol … Next guess was the carburetor’s idle circuits. Removed carb, removed idle mixture adjustment screws, cleaned passages, problem entirely resolved.
A new hub and bearing is about $135. A four wheel alignment is about $150. As the saying goes, start putting your money where your mouth is.
I remember I got ten spade planted trees with my lot, but I had to ride along in the truck for the day while we planted them. He was a good ole guy. Just before lunch a guy flagged him down and begged to have some tree work done. The contractor just begged off saying he was just too busy. Afterwords he said he’d never do business with that guy. Never satisfied and would chisel all the way. Sometimes people just do not want to do work for other people for one reason or another. Word gets around among a small group. Just the impression I’m sending from a couple thousand miles away.
What?? Wait a minute, you believe the guy when he says there is NOTHING wrong with your car, but disagree with him when he tells you the noise is NORMAL???
Think about that for a minute…
When you like what the mechanic says you agree with him, when you don’t like what the mechanic says you disagree with him… hummmm makes perfect since to me…
NO ONE on this forum can hear the noise (other then video) nor drive the vehicle, much less
properly inspect the vehicle the way we would in our own shops, from our computers…
So all we can do is advise you as to what to do, and so far you have declined to even try a few things that some very good pros have mentioned… You either want help or you don’t, we don’t get paid either way and probably not going to effect our sleep either way…
Sometimes if you don’t have the proper equipment you can do a few simple test just for process of elimination… But so far out of 43 post so far, how many suggestions (right or wrong) have you tried???.. I don’t remember any, except take it to a mechanic that you only agree with when it is what you want to hear…
I’m not sure what you mean. All mechanics aren’t car gods. Yes I stand by saying I completely disagree with him daring to call the noise “normal”. I had a friend in my car a few weeks ago who asked what in the world is that noise. I’m actively trying to do my best to figure this out. I think the problem is a lot of mechanics just can’t be bothered helping me put in the leg work. This clearly is a difficult problem to diagnose.
AGAIN, read the post above by another poster asking if you have rotated the tires yet…
There is ONLY about 4 things back there causing the noise IF IT is in fact at the back of the car…If the alignment is good and nothing is loose…
Tire noise…
Wheel/hub bearing making noise…
Tire rubbing something…
Something going on with the brakes at that location…
Rotating the tires will either CONFIRM or DENY the noise is coming from the tires… Plus Rotating the tires will also give you a better look for the tire rubbing something… As well as give you a better look at the brakes …
BTW, I think WE ALL agree that the noise is NOT normal… lol…
Replace the bearing then call back. That will be one positive step to resolving the issue. I think you already said you rotated the tires, but if not, that too. Then a four wheel alignment and study the results for that wheel. Might be a bent member from the original delivery. Stop running around to every mechanic around.
Not an alignment check but an actual alignment. Then you’ll see if the alignment is off and if they can’t correct it, more work needed.
Like I probably said, I had a rear tire wear problem on my park avenue. A good guy at the tire shop said during transport to the dealer, the cross member can get bent due to how they hold the car down. Only 20,000 miles. He guaranteed that was the problem but would need to install a shim kit. I said ok and that was it. That’s why I said to get the alignment to see if it is in spec or not. Even the one rear wheel on my Acura is slightly out of spec but not causing any problem.
Just a thought. I have read that there are other Honda civic and accord owners that have had noise coming from there rear tire area. some of the noise was fixed by changing the hardware clips for the rear brakes. it seems it might have been putting unequal pressure on the pads or something. it might be worth trying to change them to see if it helps. nothing else seems to help.
Just another update: Today I had my tires rotated. The noise remained and was the same. This is now evidence that it has absolutely nothing to do with the tires, a possible bent rim, or anything at all to do with the wheel. The rear alignment was also checked and was good. One thing to note however, is while rotating the tires the mechanic took note of and showed me a few things - First, he said that aside from the brand new tire I just got, all three of my other tires were, in his opinion, a little “groovy”, in that if you ran your hand around them while spinning the tire (he showed me one in particular), it wasn’t completely flat or flush. Personally I didn’t feel anything drastic, but he claimed this was POSSIBLY responsible for the noise. He said that “bad shocks” could be the cause of this issue. That all being said, again, it needs to be remembered that the noise is coming specifically from the left rear tire, which of course is a brand new tire, recently replaced while trying to find this issue.
Secondly, he then removed the bearing on the suspect wheel and showed me something he said wasn’t good, which was the fact that one of the threads (ridges) in one of the screws in the spindle was somehow worn out. This possibly meant that the bearing, while good (he inspected it) was possibly not being completely tightened to its fullest extent. I was excited by this discovery. He then did something to create a new thread and tightened everything up completely.
I drove the car off the lot and the noise remained coming from the left rear wheel area. At this point I’m almost thinking the previous mechanic might have been onto something. Maybe this IS just somehow normal. Well, not normal, but maybe all the tires on my car (sans the new one) are somehow somewhat wonky and it’s creating a noise coming from the rear, and somehow specifically the left rear. The fact that this has also gone on for almost 6 months now and nothing has failed in the car also makes me start to point to this tire issue somehow being a reality.
Anyway, I was charged $100 flat for all this labor today which brings my grand total now to $310 for the last 2 weeks trying to figure this out. Feeling ready to give up soon…
