2

My 2008 Highlander had an alignment problem and caused some (or maybe all) of the tires to feather. I got the alignment fixed but the tires are still quite noisy when I drive and they seem to be getting worse. I've had them rotated once right after the alignment in the early summer.

Is there any way of fixing this other than spending $700 on new tires when these have 1/2 to 2/3rds of their life left?

Is there any way to know if the people that did the alignment did a good job? It doesn't pull to either side when I drive but it didn't prior to the alignment either. I'm worried that they did a bad job and that's why the noise is getting worse and now parts of the vehicle resonate at higher speeds. I hesitate to take it to another alignment shop since they might charge me for doing nothing and just tell me the last alignment was bad.

Looking at another question on here I realize it could partially be a tire balance issue. That might explain the vibration on the freeway but not the droning noise.

Update: It turned out the tires were not the source of the noise like I had believed. I had a wheel bearing failing and when I fixed it the noise continued, not because of the tires but because I had a different wheel bearing failing at the same time. After fixing that one it runs quietly again. I'm going to leave this question here since the answers contain potentially useful information about tire truing. Mods: feel free to delete if you think it has no value.

Improve this question
1
  • I actually recently had the inverse problem: I thought wheel bearings were failing, but the noise was coming from the tires that turned out to have overpressure (damn those cheap Chinese pressure gauges!)
    – juhist
    Commented Jun 12, 2018 at 16:27

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
0

You should be able to rotate the fronts to the back to even out the feathering. Do this every oil change until they are all evenly worn.

Improve this answer
3
  • 1
    I'm planning to get them rotated this weekend but I've had them rotated before and it's only gotten worse since then. Maybe rotating twice as often will help.
    – Steve Hiner
    Commented Sep 29, 2017 at 22:50
  • So you were rotating them before you had the alignment done - so they are all feathered already...
    – Solar Mike
    Commented Sep 30, 2017 at 7:04
  • I had not rotated them prior to the alignment. I suspect the alignment was off enough that it feathered more than one tire.
    – Steve Hiner
    Commented Oct 12, 2017 at 21:30
0

Without seeing the tires it's hard to give you a definite answer.In glenolden PA. there is a tire store that performed tire trueing, they basically took the mounted tire & ran it against a wheel with cutter blades& then balanced the tire. I never saw the merits of this but in your case it might be worth looking into, maybe on line see what you can find close to you Jim

Improve this answer
2
  • I did not know tire truing was a thing. Thank you. I'll see what I can find here in town. I did a quick search and found places online that will do it for new tires for $25 to $35 a tire. That won't work for me but if I could find a place locally that would do it for that price I'll be a happy guy with a happier wife. It would be nice to be able to have a conversation while driving on the freeway without having to talk very loud.
    – Steve Hiner
    Commented Oct 12, 2017 at 21:32
  • I have done fairly extensive searching here in Phoenix and I can't find anyone that does tire truing and when I asked some of the tire shops they told me they hadn't even heard of anyone here that does it. Bummer.
    – Steve Hiner
    Commented Nov 10, 2017 at 21:01

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .