Tyre noise in the last few weeks.

[HHGTTG]

Over the last few weeks, or even less I have become aware of a sort of droning or booming coming from the rear of the car and this is somewhat road surface dependent. I drove across a grassy field carpark this afternoon and the noise disappeared whilst on that surface. My car and tyres have only done 16k and are the originals ie Michelin Energy. I wonder whether the tread has now started causing this and might get worse (or better).
The trouble is once you become aware of these noises you automatically start listening for it every time you drive the car.

I'm too old to start jacking up the car to spin the rear wheels for bearing wear etc. but I am sure it is not that.

[JimC64]

Sounds suspiciously like the "sawtooth" effect?

Run your hands around the surface of the tyre from front to back and then vice versa......If it seems "sharper" in one direction almost, its probably the sawtooth effect and the only cure is to replace I'm afraid.

Unfortunately this can happen on tyres with fairly low mileage and still otherwise very serviceable, if this is the case you either pay through the nose to replace them all or live with it until they need changing.

You're sure it's not a wheel bearing?

Hth

[SRGTD]

I had this on my mk5 and it started at about 16,000 miles. It was the sawtooth effect on the inside edge of the rear tyres. Tyres were Bridgestones, and I've seen many discussion threads on various forums where others have experienced the same problem. Seems to be an issue with cars that have independent rear suspension. I traded the mk5 in at around 26,000 miles, by which time the rumbling noise was very noticeable. My current car doesn't seem to be suffering yet at 13,000 miles - I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it won't.

[HHGTTG]

Very interesting comments. I had wheel bearing failure on a Ford Escort once and that was a humming noise that rose and fell markedly with road speed and anyway my noise seems to disappear on wet roads and on that grassy field this afternoon. However, will check my wheels with that rubbing test.

[srad34]

This odd tyre wear seems pretty common these days. I found this on a Mondeo I was booked to carry out work on the car after the owner diagnosed rear wheel bearings.
At 45k I was a little bit suspect, its down to the geometry/suspension set up on the rear suspension, pretty common and a waste of expensive rubber!

[-M-]

Sounds like uneven / sawtooth wear could be the fault - tyres should be rotated every 5000 miles to help keep wear to a minimum across all the tyres and not just focus the wear to a particular pair.

At 16000 miles they should have been rotated at least 3 times already. If you keep strictly to rotating every 5000 miles then it is not a problem unless there is a wheel alignment issue.

Dealers are aware of this fault and should be rotating tyre either as part of a service or quoting it to customers at additional work.

[HHGTTG]

Sounds like uneven / sawtooth wear could be the fault - tyres should be rotated every 5000 miles to help keep wear to a minimum across all the tyres and not just focus the wear to a particular pair.

At 16000 miles they should have been rotated at least 3 times already. If you keep strictly to rotating every 5000 miles then it is not a problem unless there is a wheel alignment issue.

Dealers are aware of this fault and should be rotating tyre either as part of a service or quoting it to customers at additional work.

I gave up tyre rotation, decades ago and no garage I know has ever rotated my wheels either.
No this is a strange phenomenon to me and as far as I can tell, my rear tyres look as though they have even wear across the width of their treads. However, I'll get someone to jack up the rear of the car so i can spin the wheels. I remember doing that on an Escort I had many years ago and the rogue wheel bearing was very evident just by hand spun rotation.

[james_tiger_woo]

I notice this as the tyres wear evenly - I put it down to simple tyre wear

However, when I had the sawtooth problem, god it was bad....

[percymon]

The sawtooth is pretty rare on 16" wheels, normally associated with 17 and 18" wheels with their stiffer sidewalls.

The sawtooth also seems to give the droning in a spacific speed range, ca 25-35mph normally

[HHGTTG]

The sawtooth is pretty rare on 16" wheels, normally associated with 17 and 18" wheels with their stiffer sidewalls.

The sawtooth also seems to give the droning in a spacific speed range, ca 25-35mph normally

I can't see any sawtooth patterning and my treads still have about 5+mm left at the rear across the width as I am not a tear **** driver. Will get a local bloke to jack up rear and check bearings although I think that the noise is fixed in my psyche now which doesn't help.