Brushing sound

[Howard]

Put my new wheels on, but when I drive next to a hard surface I hear this "brushing" sound coming from the left side. Not sure if it's from the front or back rolling assembly. It's not constant but rather as if a certain point on the rubber was making a noise every time it rolled around - i.e. the occurrence of the sound is more frequent as I'm going faster.

Any ideas?

 

[boomerang]

You've got a number of posts concurrently on your car and it's getting a little difficult to determine what's going on. You've got a post asking about opinions on wheels and here you're talking about putting on new wheels. I also know you were talking about having a winter set.

So, with that in mind, are these the stock wheels and tires? If not, are you certain the wheels are the same width and offset? Are the tires wider, or taller or what?

If you've got a slight rubbing on, say the inner wheel well, it could just be the sidewall on the tire which is not necessarily going to run dead on true to the rim. That's where the question comes in about the wheels and the tires themselves.

It sounds like that's what's happening. But obviously is should only be happening if the tires and or rims are not stock. If you take the tire and wheel assembly off, you should be able to see where it's rubbing. Both on the tire and the wheelwell - the plastic liner. If the wheels and tires are stock, is the plastic inner wheel well loose and flopping around?

 

[Howard]

I just put on the new wheels and tires. The OD and width are a little bigger than stock but only by about 4% and 20mm respectively.

I don't think it's the wheel well lining but I'll check.

 

[boomerang]

With them being wider, I'd suspect the tire rubbing on something. I hope not, that would be bad.

Is the offset the same on the wheels? Offset is the dimension from the surface that mates up to the hub to the centerline of the wheel. If the offset is different, and it's biased in such a way as to move the inner bead closer to the center of the vehicle, you can get problems with rubbing. Especially if you bought wider wheels and corresponding tires to match.

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/tech/techpage.jsp?techid=101

A little bit here and a little bit there can stack up and bite you.

There are a bunch of tech articles at tire rack. This one might give you ideas on where to look for rubbbing. It primarily deals with suspension components.

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/tech/techpage.jsp?techid=95&currentpage=107

 

[KIAman]

Considering the sound isn't constant (and that you hear it all the time rather than in a turn or going over bumps), but based on the rotation of your tire, I doubt any part of your tire is rubbing against your car, unless your tires have some extreme warpage.

What do you mean by driving next to a hard surface? Do you mean next to a vertical wall that reflects sound back? Or do you mean driving ON TOP of a hard surface and no sound over a soft surface?

How loud is the sound? Is it inaudible if the windows are rolled up?

 

[Howard]

What do you mean by driving next to a hard surface? Do you mean next to a vertical wall that reflects sound back?

Yes.

The sound is not really audible with the windows rolled up. It's moderately loud with a reflecting wall... or even a curb, I think.

 

[Howard]

Might be something with my brakes. I found some black dust on the wheels on that side.

 

[KIAman]

Might be something with my brakes. I found some black dust on the wheels on that side.

Strange, it could be a deposit buildup on the brake pads or a warped rotor. You can test this by driving near a reflecting wall and gently hit the brakes to determine if the sound gets louder.

Does your steering wheel vibrate at all when braking?

 

[Howard]

No, the steering wheel didn't vibrate when braking.

I think I've figured out what the issue was - uneven torque on the wheel studs. I cracked open the lug nuts and retorqued them in the proper pattern, then did a couple of hard stops to remove the residue. At least the intermittent nature of the sound is gone; there might still be a little "brushiness" but it's at least constant now.