Rumbling noise when driving on highway

[LuckyTaxi]

I posted a thread a few weeks ago about vibration underneath my feet. I had my cousin check it out and he thinks it's either the tires or the struts. I'm finally going to have it corrected this weekend but we're still trying to figure out what it is. Before I felt and heard noise between 20-35mph, now it's more obvious when I'm on the highway (55-70mph).

He seriously thinks it's the strut but i dont want to replace them unless I have to. I know for sure the rotors need to go and I'm hoping it's the rotors! I bought new brake pads, rotors and 2 front tires. Let's hope a combination of all of those fixes the issue so I dont have to spend $$$ on the struts.

 

[CupCak3]

how many miles do you have on your car?

If its a constant "rumbling" i'm not sure what new roaters and pads are going to get you (unless its time). How is your alignment? Tires wearing evenly? It seems like a tire could be slightly off balance (maybe threw a weight while driving)

 

[AMCRambler]

Cheapest thing to try and what I would go for first is having the alignment checked and getting the tires balanced. My GTO has a pretty good rumble to it and I got a screw in one of my tires a few weeks ago. Took it to a shop and they patched it and re-balanced the wheel for me and the rumbling has decreased a bit. Its still there so I'm guessing one or more of the other three tires are also out of balance. I'll be buying snow tires soon for the winter so I'm not going to bother getting these balanced before then.

If the balancing/alignment doesn't fix it then you've got a bigger more expensive problem. It could be a wheel bearing going bad, or as you had suggested an issue with the struts although I would think more likely the bushings or strut mount bearings in the strut assembly than the strut itself. Usually when a strut is bad you just get a crappy ride/clunking noises and it may start leaking it's oil.

The last thing I would suspect is the brakes. I don't think your symptoms would be a rumbling noise if the brake rotors were warped or the brakes were dragging. More than likely you'd notice problem there when you actually went to brake and the pedal was pulsating or noise when braking or if the brake is sticking poor accleration.

 

[AMCRambler]

One way to tell if it's a wheel bearing is to see if the noise goes away when you go into a curve and you have your wheels turned at speed. Depending on the direction of the turn, your car will lean towards the outside of the turn taking the weight off the wheels on one side of the car. If it's a bad bearing you'll hear the noise stop once the wheel with the bad bearing has it's weight off it. So listen to see if the nosie goes away when making a left and or right and turn and that will tell you which wheel has the bad bearing. It will be the wheels on the inside of the turn so when you turn left, it's the left wheels that become unloaded and the right wheels when you turn right.

 

[radioouman]

If it is a rear wheel drive or all wheel drive car, you might have a bad u-joint.

 

[AMCRambler]

Originally posted by: radioouman
If it is a rear wheel drive or all wheel drive car, you might have a bad u-joint.

Good call Radio. I didn't think of that.