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Originally Posted by steelerguy
Update on my lack of progress. I bought the parts at autozone & had the loaner tools. But when I took the wheels off & looked at the upper ball joints that had to be cut off & the lowers that looked like the access was really restricted, I have opted to let Pep boys change all.
The mechanic is going to rotate the tires to put the noisey tires in the rear. Lets hope that the humming is caused by them. If I have to change the hubs, I think I can do that.
Will update my results.
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Since 2 tires were cupped badly & a third was also somewhat cupped, I had Discount Tire change all 4 tires. The cupping was the entire noise problem. There is no noise at any speed. The type of cupping I had was probably caused by the tie-rod end that was bad & just replaced along with all 4 ball joints (cupping on the inner treads in the direction of the tire spin. There are supposedly 3 types of cupping).
The manager gave me a very good price (less than half) because of the following.
I pitched a minor fit when they told me that their records showed I had not had them balanced in the year and a half that I had them rotated. He said that balancing every 5K miles & cross-rotating in addition to the front back should have been done since my tires are not direcitonal. Told them that whenever I asked that they check the balance, their workers always ask if there is any shaking (which there never was until the noise started) and always told me they don't balance unless there is shaking. Nobody in his store ever mentioned cross rotating until my tires were ruined.
Lesson to everybody: insist on the free balancing every 5 to 6 thousand miles if you buy at Discount Tires. Also do the cross rotation to spread the effects of any cupping around if any suspension parts are going bad. They'll do it if you press it & by my experience, not shaking does not mean they are not out of balance.
Despite this little glitch, they are still the best tire store in my opinion. They will also repair tires for free even if you bought them somewhere else. Bring them a written quote for new tires & they'll match it. Especially if the other place charges for rotations, balancing & repairs, you'll quickly lose any money saved on the initial purchase. They are the only ones that offer a free road hazard warranty with free replacement for things like nails in the side wall or even slamming into a curb. $12 a tire for tires in the $600 range.
They do not inspect brakes or suspension or do anything except tires. That makes them very good at tires. Also, they are always polite.
I am also going to get my suspension inspected every 6 months. Will repair any faults immediately. Some places will even do free alignment checks though I am skeptical of anything free that involves repair shops.
Just to recap, my humming noise was caused by tire cupping & was initially noticible at 40mph. The faster I went, the louder it got. Tapping the brakes changed the tone a little but did not make it stop like other humming problems I have seen on this forum. After driving for a while, you could get it to start at 30mph.
The tire technicians at Discount tire could see the cupping as soon as they looked at it though a Pep Boys mechanic first diagnosed it when checking my suspension. I could feel it on the tire about 2 or 3 inches in from the inner edge. I never really could see it.
Good Luck.