I put new wheels and tires on my car and it has started to make some new noises. When I’m going around 40mph and up, there’s a howling noise from the rear that increases in pitch the faster I go. It’s almost like a droning type of noise. The clicking noise existed beforehand but has gotten louder. Both are coming from the rear end. Normally I’d blame the tires being noisy but the noise gets a little too loud for comfort especially since the car has almost 280k on it and I don’t know when the last time any work has been done on the rear end.

Things I’ve tried:
Had tread checked
Wheels/Tires balanced
Alignment
New brake pads/rotors
Drained and refilled diff (no metal shavings)
New struts
Trans fluid check
Checked both wheels for play multiple times


Unfortunately my finances at the moment won’t allow me to just throw parts at it so I’m trying to get to the root cause and would love some advice on what to check and replace. I know the ball joint on both UCA’s need replaced which could be causing the clicking noise but would it cause a growling noise too? I also know wheel bearings are going to be the first assumptions but my brain has been avoiding that answer until I have the money to replace them and the ball joints at the same time. I feel no play in the wheels except a tiny bit of movement when wiggling in the 12 and 6 o’clock position hence the need for new ball joints. Rear end parts also seem to be kinda hard to come by for this car, especially the rear UCA’s - at least compared the the front suspension.

 

You're already arriving at the same conclusion I would. Speed-sync roaring noise will typically be linked to wheel bearings, that's the failure mode for those. And there's more bad news - the rear wheel bearings are not an easy job to replace.

Go on Youtube, listen to some videos of worn out wheel bearings. That's how I would confirm the noise is indeed wheel bearings.


A good item to note here: the volume\tone should change during cornering from more & less load on the problematic wheel bearing.

You should also be able to get the car in the air and spin the tire. Worn out bearings will make noise even just spinning them by hand.

Is the clicking noise also tied to the speed you're traveling? Or is it associated with bumps and jumps in the road. CLLEXUSS posted below about it being the CV axle, and after doing some research, that is a good candidate for the clicking noise.

I find it interesting that the noise started when you put new tires on it. Did you put special super sticky tires on? I think it's unlikely you put R888's on your car. They will certainly make a ton of tire noise - but those usually go on... well, faster & better handling cars than the LS400. Any normal, or even "summer" performance tire won't have a meaningfully larger amount of road noise. But just to be sure. What tires did you get?

The other suspect item I would consider is the differential, but you said you addressed it and appeared to be in normal working order. There isn't anything else that makes noise like that when it fails that I know of. Everything else has vibrations or other things associated with it. But I'm just one person - I hope some others can chime in and give their opinion of perhaps a way less expensive remedy. 280k miles does sound about the right time for wheel bearings to go though.



So my car had this as well. Rear passenger wheel has 12-6 play. Maybe 1\4 to 1\2 inch of wiggle (measured from the top of the tire). One shop told me they were sure it was the wheel bearing, you could feel the bearing itself having play with your finger. I thought it was the upper A arm. They disagreed. At the end of the day, the play wasn't too bad nor was it making noise yet, so they suggested to just leave it alone until it starts making noise.

Against their guidance, I replaced the upper A arm anyway. 12-6 play went away completely. Wheel bearing is as far as I can tell healthy. So take this with a grain of salt - this is my experience in an isolated incident. I don't think the upper A-arm is causing the noise in your car. But it could be contributing to the 12-6 play, which is what probably helped cause accelerated wear of the wheel bearing.

I say this because, if you do end up having to replace the wheel bearings, a very good "while you're in there" item is the upper A-arm. It has a ball joint in it and is a huge PITA to get to.

 

We, struts I don't think would have caused a groaning noise but I guess they probably needed to be replaced anyways. 280K miles is a lot. Sounds like a bearing, just a matter of which bearings. It's not an easy problem to track down sometimes because the noise emanation is deceptive as to where it's really coming from and it happens at speed. Sounds like to me it's u-joint issues, or wheel bearing, or possibly you rear differential. Maybe have a mechanic try to put it up in the air and run it. He may not be 100% certain either however like I say this kind of noise can be deceptive. Getting towards 300K miles bearings are starting to wear. Only way you are really going to know for sure is if you take the u-joints out and inspect them. I'd like to say it's probably just your u-joints with that clicking, that would be my guess, u-joints can make some wild noise when they go bad. Diff is probably okay, no play in wheel bearing probably okay. I'd tackle the u-joints, relatively inexpensive too. ( I am just theorizing on what I would do, not saying it is for sure your u-joints ) But the clicking and groaning is well within the range of how bad u-joints sound. Just be careful of a mechanic that tells you need an entire new rear end replaced, they don't always know for sure either, they'd rather replace everything and be done with it.

 

It's a cv axle to be more specific but operates similar to u joints, could be just one cv axle needs replacement, the one that gets used the most more likely lol

 

this is my guess, but I am just guessing.

 

what wheels and tires did you put (aftermarket wheels perhaps)? can you put back the old set to see if the problem goes away?

 

Struts were replaced before the noise occurred as the old ones were shot. Just wanted to add in the full scope of what I've replaced so far. I plan to do wheel bearings, CVs and UCA ball joints so I'll just try my best to get parts asap. If you know of any other bushings or such that are easier to replace while I'm there let me know.

 

Yes they're aftermarket. I went from stock to a 9.5in wide wheel. The growling noise isn't as apparent on stock wheels but the clicking is. Both noises are still there, just not as loud.

 

What tires are on both sets of your wheels?

 

Stock wheels have 225/60s and the aftermarket ones are 245/40s.

 

To be more specific, I went from stock wheels with 225/60s to aftermarket wheels that are 18x9.5 with 245/40s. The tires aren’t anything fancy, just some Ohtsu? summer tires that came with the wheels. They balanced out fine, so I think I’m in the clear on that end. I’ve read reviews that they’re noisy tires but I’m almost certain they shouldn’t be this loud. The howling noise does get quieter depending on the smoothness of the road. Really smooth = really audible. Really coarse = less audible but still there. I did everything I could to rule out the tires being the source but I will probably still wind up replacing them in the future.

 

Well there's quite a bit down there. I personally would tackle one thing at a time, what you are describing is most pertinent right now. Sometimes you do everything at once creates more possible variables. But to me everything you are describing is pointing to the drive axle cv shaft either right or left, or possibly both. (my guess) I am not sure which one is most common that goes first on these cars right side or left side, but generally one side gets favored more that the other I believe under normal driving conditions. But if you suspect one particular side and maybe can inspect for damage when you are under there and you want to save money just try replacing the side that seems to be affected and causing you the problems. (best to replace both sides if you can). The clicking groaning is very commonplace with a bad cv axle. You can't know for sure right now but I would just concentrate on that if it were me, and that's just me lol. Luckily they are fairly easy to pop in and out of there doesn't take long to replace them. You can kind of tell if a cv axle is bad once you get it out of there if you know what to look for, or you can take them down to a local shop and ask a mechanic to inspect your cv axles after you get them out of there, I'm sure he'll evaluate them for free for you if you are not sure, and he'll tell you the bad one, or maybe both are bad it's possible. But yes to not unnecessarily spend more money, have your axles inspected by a mechanic before you buy replacement cv shafts after you get them out.

 

I meant what brand summer performance vs. normal all season's or whatever.

I don't know what is\isn't reasonable noise levels and all that other jazz. Summer tires which have a low treadwear rating will be louder than bog-standard all-seasons just by nature. I've never run a LS400 with summers so I couldn't say one way or the other how much they impact the car. But as long as they aren't ultra-performance R888 semi-track ties, they should be pretty quiet compared to what a failing wheel bearing sounds like.

At best you would notice a difference when you first installed the new tires if you had all seasons on previously. Get the car in the air. Rotate the wheel with your hand. If it sounds like metal-on-metal grinding, the bearing is shot. It's as simple as that.