My S 2000 is making a noise that can best be heard around 25 to 40 mph. It is a rotational noise that clearly has something to do with the rotation of one or more of the car's wheels. It isn't too loud and the noise sounds like "wu, wu, wu, wu...."

Like all rotational noises, it speeds up the faster the car goes. It makes the noise whether or not the car is in gear, out of gear and coasting, on throttle or off throttle, on brakes or off brakes, so I assume it has nothing to do with engine or tranny. Naturraly, the noise stops when the car is at a stop. It is difficult for me to hear under 20 mph, but my hearing sucks anyway.

My thought was it might be a wheel bearing or a loose spindle nut. I also considered a CV joint. As it is under warranty, I brought it in to Boch. They called me this morning and said I needed 4 new tires. The car has 14,600 miles, so this is not an outrageous claim, but the tires still looked pretty good to me when I inspected them last week. They also looked good enough for Boch to give me a new inspection sticker about three weeks ago. The fact that the noise continues when I apply the brakes suggests they may be right.

Have the rest of you heard a rotational noise as you reach the point of needing new tires?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Bill

 

Bill, can you sense any vibration through the steering wheel and does this change as the speed changes? Sometimes, a slightly imbalanced wheel/tire will cause odd wear on the tire and manifest itself in the symptoms you describe. Also, sometimes, a tire can show signs of imbalance as it wears (manufacturing irregularity) and can cause these symptoms.
I think you should make a close inspection of each tire tread for odd or assymetric wear patterns. Although, I can't imagine all 4 tires wearing in this fashion, I suppose your shop is telling you to change all 4 for reasons of safety (or for profit if they are selling you the tires).
They probably never checked the torque on the lug nuts. This might be something to check now just in case some are loose. Another thing you can try is to swap the wheels/tires from one side of the car to the other and see if the characteristics change. It won't matter that you are rolling backwards on your tires for a short time. Just don't do it in the rain. They are only "directional" for the rain grooves.

Wheel bearings could also give these symptoms but this noise is a pretty steady one and not the sort of pulsating one you described. Loose hub nuts give a momentary clicking noise upon moving off or a well defined change in speed. CV joints gone bad will generally produce a vibration upon moderate to hard acceleration.
Good luck, bud.

ps. Can you "borrow" someone's wheels/tires for a test? Start with substituting just the fronts, then just the rears.

 

Thanks Dave. I might try putting on the racing tires and see what it sounds like.

 

Speaking of Tires! Did anyone see the Grand Prix of America. What a lack of respect from Fans, Teams and the governing bodies of F1.

 

Bill's topic may be about an issue that might be related to tires, however, this is taking the thread way off topic. Please post this in the appropriate forum in a new thread.

 

Dave, if I take off my tires tonight I plan to check the torque on the stub axles to see if I have the loose hub problem. Is there a how-to about that?

 

I had a problem sorta like that. Turned out to be the boneheads at Goodyear over torqued the lugs... a lot. I also don't think they used a star pattern when they did it so the wheel wasn't sitting right.

I jacked up the car, re-torqued everyting to 85psi, and things were good again.

 

I don't think there is. Once you expose the hub nut, it will become obvious what you need to do. Best way to do it is to leave the wheels on and remove the center cap. Before you undent the locking notch, just put a big torque wrench on it to see if it will go up to about 181 lb/ft. Chances are, it won't budge. If it does, then they are loose. You'll have to pound out the indentation with a small cold chisel and then torque it to the new spec of 220 lb/ft. This is a precautionary thing that Honda has come out with, but if yours won't budge up to about 180 to 190, leave them alone.
ps. You must have a very large socket - 36mm in a 1/2" drive to do this. Most torque wrenches that go this high will be 1/2" drive also. 3/4" or 1" would be even better but not essential.

 

My S2000 had a set of crappy Goodyears when I bought it used (15k miles). The tires were brand new but after about 5k miles they got really loud. I can't say that it is exactly the same noise that you have- it has been a year and a lot of beer since I heard the noise, but after I ditched the Goodyears for a set of S-03s the noise went away.

Also, the Yokos on my beater GS-R got really loud when they were visibly worn down. I slapped a cheap set of Dunlops on that car and the car is a lot quieter, especially at highway speeds. The noise was there at any speed but it got worse as speed increased. Your description does sound similar to the noise I had. A '95 GS-R is not the world leader in sound suppression so if I noticed a big difference the tire noise must have been really loud.

<Edited to remove stupid typo>

 

Update.

I switched my front street tires with my Hoosiers and the noise was gone.

Note to community: The SO2s can make a strange noise that sounds like a bearing when they wear. I think my SO2s were worn on the inside and were cupping a bit on the outside.