OT- tire noise- auto, not bicycle

[sjbraun]

I have about 40,000 miles on my tires on a Mazda CX-5. Last rotated and balanced 2,000 miles ago. At that time, tread depth did not suggest it was time to replace them. In the last two weeks, road noise has increased markedly. Any thoughts on what is causing my tires might to become so noisy?

[pasadena]

check tread depth?
usually it's wear, age, inflation pressure or a combination of them.
as tread wears, the gap between blocks widens. rubber hardens.

[Steve in SLO]

As above, check inflation pressure. You might have a low one and that tends to make them howl..

[sjbraun]

Tread wear now suggests new tires.

[C40_guy]

At 40K it's probably time. I've had tires go noisy on me at 30-40K miles

Noise could potentially also be CV joint or wheel bearing.

[robt57]

Originally Posted by sjbraun

Tread wear now suggests new tires.

When the wear bars start touching pave the noise changes I have noticed.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by sjbraun

I have about 40,000 miles on my tires on a Mazda CX-5. Last rotated and balanced 2,000 miles ago. At that time, tread depth did not suggest it was time to replace them. In the last two weeks, road noise has increased markedly. Any thoughts on what is causing my tires might to become so noisy?

I've also had the 'tire dude', who sold me my last set, that '4 tread line' tires are quieter than '3 line'...

[CNY rider]

Where do you live?
In this part of upstate NY, where some of the roads are dirt, and many of the roads are "sanded" during snowfall but not salted, you can build up incredible amounts of packed, rock hard mud on the inside of your rims.
It gets noisy and wobbly as well.
Just one thing to check.

[Ken Robb]

Check Tire Rack site for very detailed tire tests and customer surveys. They can help you zero in on tire strengths/weaknesses to pick a set that will be the best compromise for you. Tire rack is an excellent company with good prices and they will ship tires to one of their certified installers near you. OTOH you may use the info to choose tires from a retailer near you. I have found Discount Tire stores to be very good and COSTCO excellent with ongoing service/warranties for the life of the tires.

[mktng]

How old are the tires.
What make and model of tires and driving conditions?

[carpediemracing]

Typical causes for road noise:

Tires feathering/chopping. Run your hand on the tread in one direction, then the other. If it's like fish scales (smooth one way, not smooth the other) you'll get tire noise. If noise went from 0-100 in 2000 miles, that's very, very quick for feathering. If you have something happening with alignment (something recently went out, you slammed into a pothole 1000 miles ago, etc) then it might be that bad alignment caused the tires to feather.

Rotating noisy tires to the front. If you have feathered tires already, it's standard procedure to keep them in the rear, or to get the two worst and put them in the rear. If you then have them rotated you'll have the two worst tires in the front. Lots of noise, relatively speaking. Rear tires don't communicate noise like front tires.

Could be something else. Wheel bearing sounds like a howling tire but quickly gets worse. To check, just drive more. Or, if you want to be scientific about it, do another rotate. If the noise goes to the other end, that's a tire. If it stays, that's probably a bearing.

Unless you live in an arid environment, like San Diego or Phoenix or something, I'd replace tires at 4/32". I'd also replace tires at oldest 6 years old. 4 years they start to fall off a bit. Try and get a measurement value, not just "it's still okay". Run your hands on your tires too, to get an idea of how they're doing.

I am chewing through my snows. Feathered/chopped pretty bad now after 3.5 winters, but that's what happens.

I do my alignment every 4-5 months, and it's generally out by 5 months. I drive about 6,000? 8,000? miles a year. Rotate when tires are off by 1/32".

[Mikej]

How long did you wait between rotations? The braking affects the rears which will be noisy due to unevenness now pointing in the opposite direction.

[loxx0050]

I once had brand new tires start making a noise. Noticed it driving with the windows down and on a residential road. Turned out that an lag bolt pierced it and was stuck in there hex head normal to the surface. Lag bolt came from the garage door as that was old school wood and fell off after years of degrade on the garage door vibrations.

That wasn't fun pulling an 3/8" lag bolt on tires that had less than a few hundred miles on them but did patch them up. Once those tires wore out any grooves in the highway would pull the entire car like I was following train tracks rails though.

[veloduffer]

40k is a fair amount of mileage and most of all, time (UV, etc) causes all rubber compounds to harden and will increase road noise. Many tires get noisier as they age.

[VTCaraco]

Cupping/uneven wear (as carpediemracing is suggesting) or wheel bearing.

If you get a difference in sound when turning/going around a bend, that suggests wheel bearings.

40k would be early, but not impossible.
I had a Volvo that seemed to LOVE eating wheel bearings.