Honestly, I don’t know why none of them wear ear plugs…
I developed some hearing loss from target practice w/hand guns and attending too many Emerson Lake and Palmer concerts back in the 1970’s. Those were separate events you understand … lol … So anyway, now when I go to the gym and the instructor puts the music volume too high I put in earplugs, and am constantly teased about it, especially by one particular cycling instructor. He’ll say to everybody “Why is George putting in earplugs, doesn’t he want to hear what I say?”. It’s just good natured kidding, everyone gets a chuckle or two. But a few weeks ago he comes into the gym after being absent for a couple of weeks, saying he’s lost 100% of his hearing in one ear and was absent b/c of ringing and dizziness associated with his hearing loss.
the wheel hub temperature on the fronts after highway drive of 10 min was 100 on left and 104 on right – essentially the same. I’ll test again tomorrow.
I’ll ask them to check the brakes and pads . Has flipping and switching tires corrected this noise in anyone’s experience. I’d hate to have a worse noise.
the tires (original to car) are Yokohama Avid S34, DOT FDH4 (N5Y2513), S34D P205/50 R17 88V.
at 22,000 they said “tire tread at 6/32 inside edge of tires slightly cupped”. Mileage is 23,000 and change now. is that enough tread to last the summer but not next winter. are these junky tires to begin with.
Your brakes would have burned up by now if they were dragging and the smell would get your attention.
If the tires are remounted with the cupped edge on the outside they will still make noise until the tires are worn smooth. If you want quiet tires I think you will have to buy them.
VDCdriver: Yesterday I heard not one but two cars with “singing” wheel bearings. They were doing about 30mph and I could hear them coming and going from a block away! Some people should not own anything with moving parts.
I didn’t read through all of this but you mentioned the right front tire as being a little choppy on the inside edge of the tread. That alone can cause noises, vibrations, etc.
I would sure love to see the paperwork on how they wrangled a transmission through as a warranty claim; especially seeing as how Subaru is chintzy on the warranty reibursement and when I worked for them any transmission problem meant repair of the problem in the transmission; not replacement of the entire transmission unit.
You asked about how the dealer is paid for warranty work by Subaru corporate and the answer is as cheaply as possible.
The labor time is severely cut as compared to customer pay, the per hour flat rate labor charge is lowered, and any parts used can only be charged out at dealer cost + 25% instead of full retail.
It’s a bit baffling to me how they could wrangle a trans replacement through without there being a very clear cut and obvious reason for the failure.
I am assuming here that the transmission was actually replaced and this is not a case of being BSed into thinking it was replaced.
Did they give you a copy of the repair order actually stating the transmission had been changed?
FYI, if the cupping is on the inside edge of the tire(s) and you reverse the tire to move it to the outside edge, it will be much louder, but at least you will know that it is the tire(s) and not something else.
"Yesterday I heard not one but two cars with "singing" wheel bearings. They were doing about 30mph and I could hear them coming and going from a block away!"
That’s why I stated “not necessarily”.
Yes, most of the time, wheel bearings will make noise even at lower speeds, but…not always.
I am sure that, if my friend continued to drive his Rav for a few more weeks before replacing the right front wheel bearing, it would have been singing at low speeds too, but when I picked up on his problem, it was only apparent at high speed.
The easiest factor to change is the wheel/tire where the noise appears. Take that wheel/ tire off and put on a known good new one The temporary spare will do. Drive the car and see if the noise persists or - we all hope - disappears…
This troubleshooting step would be one of the first ones to do. It’s hard to imagine it hasn’t been done, but neither can we be sure it has. The car owner could do this at home in less than an hour. There would be no need to rely on any shop or dealer and all the concomitant possibilities of miscommunication…
Has flipping and switching tires corrected this noise in anyone's experience.
I have done this for uneven tire wear, not noise.
As Kieth said, if the noise changes you’ll at least know it’s the tires.
they did print a new Serial # on the serviceorder for the transmission. at some point you have to trust, right. work order said “run car on lift and traced noise to center of transmission”. no further explanation given. I scratch my head, too.
ShanoniaI’ll put the spare on right front this weekend and see if noise goes away. If so, then 4 new tires probably a good idea. I had my previous Outback (bought new) for 10 years and neverhad cupping. Maybe it’s a very common problem and I just got lucky with the Outback.
My fingers will be crossed this weekend, hoping you’ll be able to define the source of the noise. Even if not, you’ll have the satisfaction of having done what you can do, without relying on (perhaps unreliable) others.
If it turns out that uneven tire wear is involved, this would be something to bring up with Subaru USA. You might get some compensation for this, after all the rigamarole you’ve been through.
Before or soon after buying new tires, maybe scope out who are the well-regarded wheel and alignment shops in your area. It may be the tire store, but it may not.
Good luck, and please keep us in the loop.
If uneven wear on the right front is due to a damaged suspension component caused by a pothole or curb strike that would not be a warrantable repair.
After reading this post, I can’t believe that there is no ending. What was the outcome? The tire?
the transmission? We would like the final diagnosis and repair…
Sometimes people don’t come back and update us. But now that you’ve replied, SuzanneJ will get a notification someone posted. Maybe she will come back.
Wow, this was a long time ago. A very frustrating time for me. Without revisiting that post and getting worked up all over again, I can say that the dealer replaced the transmission because the mechanic " heard a noise " from the transmission area when they put it up on the lift. I think they were trying to make some money because it was still under warranty. Because the original noise I complained about did not go away when the transmission was replaced, at that point they changed all the tires and good-willed half the cost of the tires and then there was no noise. The car is still running fine, has been sold to a family member who needed a reliable vehicle. I am happily in a new Crosstrek at this time at a different dealer.
Always good to hear final resolutions! BTW- most of the time, the dealer doesn’t make much money at all on warranty work because the factory closely controls how much they are reimbursed for the work. And the bigger the job, the more likely they could actually lose money on it. So they’re not going to suggest swapping out a transmission unless the factory agrees that is the right next step and then they get peanuts to do the work…
I had a new Honda Pilot with Goodyear tires. When new, I complained about noise from the right front tire. The service manager insisted that I leave the car for an entire day so that they could road force balance the tires. When i picked it up, the noise was still there.
On the way home I stopped at a local tire chain. They had a special; life time balancing for all four tire and road hazard for $28 bucks; all four. They re balanced. Better but not acceptable. I returned to the dealer who commented on the non-honda balance weights. and took another day to balance yet again. No improvement.
In a few weeks I returned to the tire store. Now it was evident that the tire was defective. It was cheaper to replace the tire under the tire store’s policy vs. Goodyear’s
When i got another new car I asked about the cost of lifetime balancing and road hazard, and it gone up to $130 or so.