I have almost 19K on my V6 and I'm hearing a lot road noise. It's almost a "wa-wa" sound that gets faster with speed. However, I don't feel any significant vibration. Has anyone else experienced this with the Pirelli's? Or do I have another problem?

 

How have you been rotating them? Front to Back only, Left to Right only, or Cross Rotate Rear to Front, then move the Front to the rear?

 

Did you recently have them rotated after waiting a little too long?

 

Mine were worn out unevenly at around 20k. If you haven't rotated consistently, like the previous owner of mine, yours could be too.

 

I bought it used with 13K on it so I don't know how often they were rotated (if ever).

 

19K on tires? No, probably not them, unless you're scrubbing them off a lot. They should be 40K tires easy. Also, stock Pirellis aren't noisy. Do you notice any weird wear on them?

Is there a particular direction you hear the noise? Front? Back? A particular corner?

Mine was the rear, but couldn't quite figure out which side. Turned out to be the right rear axle bearing, but I replaced them both. Wa-wa gone.

If you can figure out if it's in the middle, rear, front, or a particular corner, you'll have an easier time finding out the issue, but the best way is to get it on a lift and have someone check it out right.

Quick test: At highway speeds, do a little lane switching, safely, mind, just quickly changing lanes left, then right. Repeat as often as needed and as safely as possible. If you notice it getting louder in one direction than the other, the opposite side is your issue. I.e., it's louder switching left, then the right side is loaded with weight transfer, and whatever's unhappy is howling more because of it.

You might swap tires left/right to see what that does. If it moves, then its tires. If it doesn't, it's gears/bearings on that side.

Assuming it's getting louder in a direction. No change is transmission or rear axle or possibly tires. Change is a bearing on a corner.

It's under warranty, being an 11. Have it looked at.

 

It's hard to tell but it sounds like it's coming from the front but I can't be 100% sure. It doesn't do it any more less when I turn. No unusual wear either.

I had bearing go bad in my old Lincoln LS and it didn't sound like this. It was more of a growl.

I think I'll take it to a tire shop first and have them check the tires. If they don't see anything, I'll have the bearings checked.

 

Turn the radio up...

 

take it to teh dealer. buy a loud exhuast

 

The factory tires crap once I burn mine off I'll be picking up a set of General G-Max-AS-03 or Cooper Zeon RS3-A both are around $200 ea and have over 480 treadware compared to the factory Pirelli's that are 220.

 

Tread wear ratings are not an industry standard. Manufacturers base their tread wear ratings against their own tires not against some national rating database

 

This. This tidbit is just not known about enough. I made sure I read about it, because the Cooper Zeon RS3-As that I bought (love 'em so far!) have something like a freakin' 580 rating, and I thought "No way that makes sense."

There should be a national standard. Ah well.

 

tread wear ratings mean little if you have a driving style thats different fromt he type of tire thats on the car.

 

On a RWD car, it should be cross rotated front to rear then move the rears straight up (caveat being it all depends on the wear, sometimes you just need to cross rotate all of them).

This is all pursuant to Ford's reccomendations in the owners manual in any event, although I suspect they reccomend the standard rotation parttern.

Tru'dat

Agreed

 

Pretty sure these happened to mine too. The sound drives me nuts sometimes.

 

I took it to a tire shop. The front tires are scalloped. I'm having them rotate them (which will only move the sound to the rear). I'll need to replace them but at $900, it'll have to wait.

 

Rotating them helped quite a bit. It still makes noise but is less annoying than before. I think not feeling it through the steering column helps.

 

Sounds like an uneven wear, make sure over time that the wa-wa doesn't get louder or that would mean an alignment problem

 

Yeah, I'm keeping an eye on the fronts now.

 

The P-Zero Nero all-seasons have a treadwear rating of 400.