boba001

My 2002 Maxima has started making a whirring sound while driving over 35MPH. It really sounds like tire/road noise. I have Yokohama AVS100's and they have been quiet up until now. It happens on every road/street.

I've done the obvious things - changed the tire pressure, rotated and balanced the tires. It's still there.

I'm starting to think it might be something else besides the tires. I'm pretty sure it's not a bad bearing (I had that happen before to my front-passenger wheel and when it went it made a really loud whirring noise.) The current whirring noise is more subtle but it's ticking me off.

What else could be causing the noise? I'll probably make an appointment at the Nissan dealership but they suck at diagnosing noises. I'd rather have a few good ideas on the cause so they could specifically check them out.

Thanks

DallasFan

I'm thinking it's a bearing. I know you said it isn't as bad as before but maybe it's just beginning to go bad.

I just had both my rear wheel bearings replaced.

Gsilk

loose lugnut which became a loose tire which became a huge mess. becareful

imjd

35 mph is a rather high speed for a bad bearing noise to become evident. Usually it is noticeable almost from rest, certainly by 20 mph or so. Not always... I had a Honda once with a bad front bearing that was evident only above 40 mph. Perhaps, as DallasFan suggested, it is just beginning to go bad.

You didn't say whether the noise depends on engine power - accelerating vs. cruising vs. slowing down in gear vs. coasting (clutch in or automatic in neutral). This can be a useful clue. Another clue is whether the noise changes when the car is cornering. I'll attempt to give some guidelines.

Often, if the noise is a bearing, it will change if you swerve the car. If the noise tends to disappear when turning left or right, and is independent of engine power, that suggests wheel bearing pretty strongly. (You might have to swerve the car pretty violently to make enough change in the bearing load to notice a difference. Curving on- and exit-ramps are also good.) However, if the noise varies with engine power when driving straight ahead it is probably not a wheel bearing.

Can you tell whether the noise is from the front or the rear? If it is from the rear, there is not a hell of a lot back there that can go wrong other than a bearing - maybe some oddball problem with the brake disk or pad, but those wouldn't usually make "whirring" noises. (But my "scrape" might be your "whir.") However, if it is from the front, the other likely candidate would be a transaxle problem. This would likely be sensitive to engine power. If the noise is in the transmission, it would probably also depend on the gear you are in, but not whether you are driving straight or turning. Differential would not depend so much on the gear, but might change depending on whether you are driving straight or turning, and would almost certainly be sensitive to engine power.

There are more exotic possibilities too, some of which are pretty easy to catch with a visual inspection or just by wiggling parts. (though having the car on a lift will make life easier) Perhaps a plastic body piece is catching the breeze. Possibly an exhaust hanger has broken - contact between the exhaust pipe and the body can cause a surprising amount of noise.

Hope this helps, good luck.

wdave

I have the Yokohama 100's too and they make so much road noise at about 35 (sound like the tires on a jacked up 4wd) that I will probably not put them back on this summer, otoh, they're pretty quiet in the 60-80range.

boba001

Have they always made noise or just as they started to wear a little bit? They were fine for 7000 miles or so, just recently the noise has become bad.

boba001

(In reply to imjd's post)

When my bearing went bad it would happen at 20mph+ and get louder the faster I went. This noise seems to stay at a constant level and while on the freeway (80mph) it's hard to hear because of the wind noise.

Gear, acceleration, braking, etc. don't really affect the noise. It's a constant rotating type whirring noise. It's more pronounced when braking semi-hard (maybe from 50mph down to 15mph) but that's only while hitting the breaks. If I cruise down it just fades away under 35-40mph.

I'm pretty sure the noise is coming from the front. And it's only noticable from inside the car - if you open the window and listen for it you can't hear it. Like the insides of the car echo the noise and make it louder.

To check for a bad bearing I should jack the car up and try to wiggle the tire from 3-9 back and forth right? How much play would be too much?

Thanks guys

wdave

They started out beautifully quiet, by 6-7k they had become annoying.

irish44j

iTrader: (38)

so what happened with this? I now have that same noise. I have Falken 512's and the noise seems to have coincided with my rotating the tires.....but all the symptoms sound EXACTLY like what boba001 had....

aussie983

iTrader: (16)

I have the RE950. Same thing happened with rotating tires. I think its just road noise from the rear tires. i guess for some reason the rears which have more tread are at the the front now and maybe more tread for these tires means more road noise?

irish44j

iTrader: (38)

I'm gonna (temporarily) rotate them back tomorrow and see if the noise goes away. That way I can at least rule out bad bearing if the noise goes away....

aussie983

iTrader: (16)

ok...that was just my logically based opinion on what it could have been. Im not 100% sure, so tell us what happens.

irish44j

iTrader: (38)

well re-rotated the tires and that did not work....I have ruled out everything possible except for the bearing now. Had to take off my BlehmCo brake kit and put the OEM rotors back on so the dealer doesn't try to screw me with warranty by saying the brake kit caused the bad bearing (!)....so taking it in tomorrow and hopefully then it will be fixed...