Front Suspension Trouble afoot....can you help?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Groovacious, Nov 13, 2016.

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  1. Groovacious

    Groovacious Junior Member

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    Stephan here,

    new member - but longtime Prius driver:

    About two years ago I made the huge mistake of buying these really hard Kumho tires.

    I believe that progressively they have damaged something in the front suspension as I now have a tire slightly out of round, which is producing the sound I have attached in a sound clip.

    The sounds shows up only when I drive faster than 70 mpH and is louder downhill than uphill.

    Hear it here:


    I have had tires out of round before but none have ever produced the metallic, knocking sound the car now exhibits. My mechanic has exchanged a U-joint from steering column to Rack and Pinion but the problem persists.

    Any insights would be greatly appreciated!

    Kind regards
    Stephan
     
    #1 Groovacious, Nov 13, 2016
  2. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Hmmm......Kumho's are really soft tires. They have a very nice ride but don't last long. They are a very inexpensive tire. I have run Kumho's on my Prius and liked them till they wore out.

    I could not get the sound to work but I think you on the wrong track. Tires don't damage suspensions. You probably have something wrong with the suspension my guess is the car has the original struts and it has 200K + miles and its tearing the tires up.

    How many miles and whats been replaced in the front suspension?
     
    #2 edthefox5, Nov 13, 2016
  3. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Why is the mechanic chasing steering u joint issues....whats going on there did you have the Toyota TSB performed?

    The car has rack and pinion to begin with so don't understand what your post means please.
     
    #3 edthefox5, Nov 13, 2016
  4. Groovacious

    Groovacious Junior Member

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    Hey edthefox,

    the shocks and struts were replaced 2.5 years ago and the tires were rock-head from the beginning.Every little shock from the street ends up in your hands and arms. Much worse than the softer tires it had before.

    My mechanic replaced the joint that connects the static steering wheel column to the rack and pinion.
    I guess if you can't hear the sound we won't be able to go much further - I thank you for your feedback though!
    Blessings

    Stephan
     
    #4 Groovacious, Nov 13, 2016
  5. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    What model Kumhos please? And how man miles on the car? And did you have the Toyota TSB done that repairs the steering column joint?

    Did you replace the tires?
     
    #5 edthefox5, Nov 13, 2016
  6. bikes4u

    bikes4u Member

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    I've had cars do that to me before where you turn slightly to the right or left and noise goes away. I believe its the tires in fact my car is doing the same exact thing now . I rotated the tires and the noise got better but I noticed at the time of rotation that the tread on my tires isn't wearing evenly. I have Falken tires which were nice when new but after 40k miles they still have tread but are much noisier then new.

    Rotate the tires and see if it's better or worse. Keep in mind tires in this size are pretty cheap so trying to get an extra 10k miles out of a tire may save you $10/tire but may not be worth the added noise of worn tires. I'm currently shopping for tires and found Firestone firehawk AS for $60/tire or Cooper CS3 for $63 per tire that I'll be purchasing within the next few days.
     
    #6 bikes4u, Nov 14, 2016
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