bad wheel bearing or just tire noise?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by SlabBacon, Aug 23, 2015.

  1. SlabBacon

    SlabBacon New Member

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    Vehicle:
    2011 Prius
    Model:
    III
    My girlfriend and I just bought a 2011 a few weeks ago. We test drove it a couple times ourselves, and had our mechanic take a look at it and drive it also. Everything looked and sounded good. Not sure how much it matters, but it's a Certified Used as well.

    A couple days ago, returning from a 45-minute drive which included some short stretches of gravel road, I noticed an oscillating sound. It's definitely not a noise that was there when we bought the car. Unfortunately, my cell is apparently bad at capturing audio, so hopefully my description will be enough.

    The noise is very faint, almost inaudible, at low speeds. Between 30 and 35 mph it gets much louder, peaking at about 33. There's some vibration through the accelerator pedal also. Above 35, it fades pretty quickly and I can't really hear it at 50. The sound itself is 3 beats on, 1 beat off, about every second. There's a slight difference in pitch between each beat.

    If that isn't enough to go on, let me know and I'll give the recording another shot and upload it if the noise is audible.

    Also, I'm not sure if the dealership balanced the tires properly, but it did have new ones on it when they sold the car to us.

    Thanks.
     
    #1 SlabBacon, Aug 23, 2015
  2. kenichols29

    kenichols29 Active Member

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    Mine has started doing the same thing. It sounded like it was coming from the front wheels then i had my tires roatatex and the sound was coming from the back wheels. I think my issue is a tire issue.
     
    #2 kenichols29, Aug 23, 2015
  3. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    If there's any mechanic near you who has a "Chassis Ear" ... it's a gadget with four (or more) clip-on mechanical-conduction microphones that you can clip different places on the chassis, with a receiver you carry in the car while driving down the road, and you can select different microphones to listen to. It was the one thing that easily pinpointed my failing left front bearing after I had been trying everything else I could think of for a month. Great tool.

    It has an output jack, so you can make good recordings from it too.

    You hear bearings, you hear brake linings make contact (the low-speed transition to full friction braking is completely audible), on drum brakes you hear the springs extend and contract .... :)

    -Chap
     
    #3 ChapmanF, Aug 23, 2015
    jdcollins5 and Robert Holt like this.
  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    could a pebble be stuck somewhere? anyhow, you should be covered by the cpo.
     
    #4 bisco, Aug 23, 2015
  5. frodoz737

    frodoz737 Top Wrench

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    "A couple days ago, returning from a 45-minute drive which included some short stretches of gravel road, I noticed an oscillating sound. It's definitely not a noise that was there when we bought the car."

    Based on that statement...check your treads for pebbles, clean your wheel/tire assemblies and wheel balance.
     
    #5 frodoz737, Aug 23, 2015
  6. spiff72

    spiff72 Member

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    Maybe check to see if a small pebble is lodged in there too (maybe that's what frodoz737 meant)? Pebble stuck between brake component and rotor could cause an oscillating squeak...
     
    #6 spiff72, Aug 23, 2015
  7. SlabBacon

    SlabBacon New Member

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    Vehicle:
    2011 Prius
    Model:
    III
    Ugh. We took the car to our mechanic, and he said as soon as he drove it in the bay and up on the lift, he could tell it was the wheel bearing. I'm definitely glad that this happened now, though, and not a year later when the comprehensive would be expired! Now it's up to the dealership to make things right.

    I definitely appreciate the suggestions. I did find some gravel stuck in the treads, and was hoping that prying those out would turn out be the solution to the problem. It would have been much less of a hassle than trying to figure out transportation for the next few days while our car is in the shop.
     
    #7 SlabBacon, Aug 24, 2015
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