I own a 2003 a4 1.8t with the sports package. I recently have been noticing a sound that hums inside the cabin. NO its not the turbo, but a humming that seems to be coming from the tires.

Initially I went to the Audi Dealership in newport, ca, and they diagnosed it as a problem with the rear wheels and their alignment or balancing. They said that when a car has low treads, it will make noise by rubbing against (something within the tire well).

I recently replaced the back two that were coming to their ends, and the shop balanced them as well.

Still the sound is there and I cannot seem to find a solution.

Please help.


Any ideas?

 

I have the same car, and I have the 17" pirellis. The low profile sport tires tend to be a bit noisier.
Need to ask, were the tires quiet after installation, but only lately became noisy?
If both sets of tires were doing this, then maybe not a tire problem.

 

i had similar problem on my 01 b5 i feel like there was lump on the tire from the sound it was making but the tires were fine so after some time and saving money decided upgrade for rims and tire package which was cheaper then the 4 tires that i was going to replace the stock rims with.

 

I replaced the back two tires only. The front two are still on from when I initially heard the problem.....

Should I have the shop replace the front two as well? The dealership informed me it was the back two that were making the noises.




Frustrated in CA.

 

Noises can be hard to diagnose, what you should do is rotate the tires from front to rear and see if the noise sounds different like it moved. If it sounds different after you rotated the tires you know the front ones were bad.

 

When a tire is feathered, what are the symptoms?

Thanks for all your replies.

 

Steering wheel is usually off center meaning the tie rod ends are out of alignment or shot.

 

It could be the bearings as well right?

The dealership charged me 128 for them to tell me that my wheels are feathered. If I went back.......

 

Its highly un-likely wheel bearings will cause any visible tire wear.

 

I recently changed my power steering rack and pump because it was leaking fluid. Could that be the cause to any of this?