HI EVERYBODY!

Ok, now that that's out of the way - I've been experiencing a reverberation coming from one of the wheels on my passengers side. Sounds like rear passenger.



The sound occurs once per wheel rotation, and it's not tire wear (2nd set of bridgestones, <13k miles), nor is it a rock in the tread.



Performance is not affected, nor is a vibration present in the pedals or steering. The frequency of the reverberation does not vary with throttle, as I can press the clutch, let the engine wind down, coast, and the sound stays consistent with velocity...

Now, this started to become an occurance as soon as cold weather hit the area, beginning of November or so..

Could it be a brake rotor? warped from hard stops in cold weather?

Tire out of balance? I recently rotated the tires, and the sound had appeared to be coming from the front of the vehicle - after rotation, it moved to the rear. Again, there is no discernable vibration in pedals, stick, or steering. The car does not pull in one direction, so there's no major alignment issue...

The sound is definitely starting to get on my nerves, and I would like a few opinions before I take my 8 to the shop.

 

well i was going to say loose wheel well lining. but....busted tire belt? look for indentations in the tire wall

 

^^^ interesting...

Wouldn't that cause a noticeable vibration though?

 

yeah

 

Any thoughts?

 

Yea 1. defected tire

 

did you inspect the tire for depressions/dimples?

 

Went to my local tire shop today, found an odd wear pattern in my rear tire treads, as if my wheels had a negative camber.

I am going to have my wheels aligned and balanced next week, so I'll post the end result of the alignment to see if that is the answer. They'll align toe, camber and caster on all four wheels as well as balance.

This is a shop i trust and will do quality work.


On a related note, I did find a small tack nail embedded in my rear driver's tire. Amazing the things you discover when the car is on the lift...

 

I have the same symptoms and have had them with the car since I purchased it, despite being on my third set of rims and third set of tires... for me it seems to be the passenger front wheel and it doesn't happen all the time, but the sound is exactly as you described and continues in time with the wheel while I'm out of gear. It doesn't have major vibration and I've had it inspected by three different shops (everything in threes :P) but no problem has been spotted. I've sort of given up on figuring out what causes it.

 

try to swap wheels from side to side? what kind of noise are you hearing? happen at any speed? more when cold? try jack up the car and spin each wheel, noise still there?

 

The strange thing about it is that it did not happen on my OEM's, and I ran those to near-NASCAR-spec tread depth.

I will see about swapping treads left-right when I have it in the shop on Friday.. The cool thing is that I am able to mill about in the garage while they are doing work, so I will be able to observe and see if there's anything else that may contribute to it.

 

NOTHING!

Absolutely nothing.

My car was spot on within spec on all four tires, for toe, camber and caster.

I'm at a loss. I will post the alignment printout soon

Swapping the tread would not make much of a difference for the noise.

These tires are the Potenza Pole Position S-03 (not OEM, i know) purchased from Tire Rack, and have a higher UTOG (220 vs 140 OEM); the wear should be longer....

 

FLAT SPOT.

There is a flat spot on each rear. Not too noticeable at a glance, but it's there. did a look at each wheel up on jack stands. Inside shoulder.

Basically, the best thing I can describe happening to cause the damage is back in late Nov. when I was practicing my high-speed late braking techniques on the highway one morning on my way to work.

I was following a convoy of trucks and a few cars that morning, and on a straight downhill section of the course (highway), the 2 trucks merged in the right-hand lane to allow the cars to pass left.

I sped up to pass, got up to about 80. I had to then brake from 80 to near 55 almost on a dime due to the fact that the follow trucker wanted to pass the lead trucker, and didn't care that I was RIGHT NEXT TO HIM!.. I then aggressively applied my brakes, changed my shorts, and aggressively applied the finger.

Locked up the wheels pretty good (read: AGGRESSIVELY applied the brakes), and with the weight pitched forward causing the suspension to compress and alter the camber, the inside shoulders of the tires took up most of the friction to slow the car down...

This all happened pre-tire rotation, for those of you playing along at home...

So there it is.. flat spots from heavy braking..