While driving above 45 MPHish my 2005 Prius makes a low womb womb womb noise. I did a visual inspection under and the only thing I found was the muffler seemed to be loose. But is seemed like this was normal from what I could tell from the pipe hangers. I have noticed that some very cold mornings seem to be louder than warm mornings. The noise doesn't change with turning, acceleration, or ICE or Electric running. I checked CV joints but the only thing I found there was on the drivers side inner joint had some black build but but it just looked like road gunk. We also had a big snow here about 1 1/2 months ago and like a genius I drove through the snow (Im still use to having a Jeep) and I was thinking maybe I pulled the muffler loose. Does anybody have any suggestions to what it could be or what I should be looking for. If any pictures would help just post and I will take them. Thank you
carefully check your tire tread and inner/outer sidewalls. we had to replace two tires with uneven wear on our hycam at 20,000 mile. woom, woom ,woom...maybe wump, wump, wump.
Yea I just went outside and checked that. I forgot to add I did a test the other day and added more pressure than normal (37 PSI) and the noise was considerably less(or it was less in my head with hopeful thinking). Tires I can deal with, a new transaxle I cannot. I loose hours a sleep a week thinking about that(knock on wood). I'm thinking of getting new brakes this weekend and will have them rotate the tires and see if that changes anything.
Also bisco thank for your advice and I love trying to turn car noises into text. "I hear a clunk ching womb womb blating. Oh you mean a plunk ping woom woom patting." LOL
That's funny I'm dealing with the same noise. For some reason I think it's the rear breaks. My Prius has 90k, never had the brakes checked/cleaned/adjusted, tires look good with 25k on them.
lol, it's always fun. do you really need brakes? what's your mileage? we tried rotating and couldn't notice much difference, but the mechanic found flat spots on the offending tires. all the best!
Yea my first thought was brakes to. I bought the car use with 62,000 miles on it and its at 113,000 and I've never had the brakes changed. Looked at but not changed. What is fare dealer price for a break change or could I just take it to the local mechanic?
i don't know the pricing, shop around i guess. a regular mechanic can do it, but i think patrick said something about disconnecting the 12v battery so the brake accumulator doesn't push the piston out. you may want to search a little. i doubt the brakes are making the noise if it's happening all the time and not just when you step on them. they definately should be inspected for wear and disc runout or scoring.
Huh? LRR tires are not all noisy. Only those with poor or aggressive (for snow) tread designs are noisy as in "HRR" tires. JeffD
Well in my limited experience with 6 Hybrids and 1 Solectria Force electric, LRR tires get very noisy as they wear. guess mine were all exceptions
