I got my tires rotated about 2 months ago on my 2003 Toyota Corolla. It had about 88k miles on it at that time. Since the moment I drove out of the shop, there has been a noise from my driver’s side front tire. There is no vibration in the steering wheel or on the floor and the noise only happens when the car is in motion. The timing and sound of the noise made me think it was caused by uneven wear pattern on the tires. But it’s been awhile since the rotation and the noise has not changed (neither increased nor decreased). The noise is most noticeable when I’m driving on certain road surfaces, like very smooth roads. Since the rotation, I’d be surprised if I’ve driven more than 500 miles max. Does anyone have any ideas about what this could be? My mother has me nervous that my car is in eminent danger of self-destruction!
500 miles would not be enough to wear out an anomolous wear pattern. Have you actually checked the wear patterns of the tires? Have you returned to the shop to ask them about the noise:? How much tread is actually left on the tires?
The back tires are both noticeably more worn than the front two. The wear on the the front two tires seem comparable to each other. I didn’t return to the shop because I thought the noise would go away if it was because of uneven tread. Good to know that 500 miles wouldn’t be enough to even out an uneven pattern - maybe I’ll give it some time to wear.
I’d go back and ask them to check it first. IF they say it’s due to uneven wear, and can show you, THEN I’d put the mileage on and see if it goes away.
What if the noise is because they forgot to torque your lug nuts? Do you want to take that chance?
I’ll definitely return to the shop to make sure they didn’t forget to torque the lug nuts. I hadn’t even thought about that - don’t know much about cars. Thanks a lot for your advice!
My daughter has an 03 Corolla and I can tell you this, if either front tire is low on air, it will make a lot of noise. It can be low on air and not be that noticeable to the untrained eye. they get noisy at around 15 psi or lower. When you have them check the torque on the lug nuts, also have them check the tire pressure.
Some brands of tires can get noisy if their direction of rotation is changed, that is if the left front tire came from the right rear, but that should also affect your right front tire the same way as it would have come from the left rear.