Sudden road noise increase

Either tires or hub bearings going bad. Rotate tires to see if there are any changes to noise. If tires are not directional you can cross-rotate. I found cross-rotation reduces tire noise significantly. Also if it is bearings you should be able to detect it while the wheel up by rotating it by hand. It will give "sand in the bearings" noise (different from brake chirping) good luck.Speaking of fatmat Peel and Seal sold in Lowe's/homedepot is very much the same stuff and cost $16 per roll. You need roughly 1.5 roll for 4 doors. After doing the doors IMHO there's no need to do trunk, just floor panels and front wheel wells. With just doors and x-rotated tires the most prominent noise is from A-pilars.

 

Ecopia what? And what's their tread depths? EP20 get noisy once their tread is down to around 5/32" or lower.

 

a sudden noise shouldn't be masked by sound dampener and ignored.

 

if it is bearings there will be nothing in the logs. It is weak point of Prius, they are easy to damage. I'd bet PO clipped a curb with rear right wheel. Mine went bad on left side at ~120k. Entirely my fault clipped curb hard enough to loose wheel hubcap. Noise showed up 20-30k later. Not sure what the price now but back then I was happy to buy hub assembly for <$250. Dealer wanted $400.

we just did the doors while replacing speakers. It was one of those things "I don't wanna do it, but we are there, so lets do it anyway". Took alot of tire noise out. BTW you don't have to wallpaper it. Just give a tap on surface and apply where it rings saves time and materials.

 

Dynamat 2.0 | PriusChat

 

I suspected this has been discussed before.

Another option if you wanna improve wheel wells and don't feel like taking seats/trim/carpeting off you can do spray on rubber coating from outside. Would need to take off wheel, plastic shielding and clean/wash of dirt prior.

Quiet tires and cross-rotation pattern other option to lower noise.

 

Good luck! we did the doors and rubber coating in mine and son's cars, but didn't feel like taking carpeting off at least until is decided on audio situation. Doing soundproofing and then taking carpeting/seat off to wire amp would be major pita. Well it is too cold now to work on it anyways.

I don't recall if I had that many cuts, but needed more than one pair of scissors for sure.

Nice to know that prices had gone down to $100, replacing bearing isn't that much work. Good luck!

 

glad to hear it is fixed for free!

 

great move on the warranty. are the auto zones oem?

 

Without wanting to sound too argumentative, while, in general the process isn't too complicated to a semi-competent mechanic, it can be a real BEAR.

Specifically, when I changed mine (after 120k miles), they were VERY, VERY difficult to remove.

I had a slide hammer, and thought that would pull them out - but it didn't. It was only by a stroke of luck that I decided to perform the change at my Father-in-Law's house, who happens to have a full air compressor, and it was his air hammer that was able to help get the old hub assemblies out.

Perhaps some of this was aggrevated by the fact that I live in New England, and the wet, snowy, and salty winters caused more rust between the hub and axle.

Just a warning to anyone that might consider replacing the wheel bearings that the extraction thereof can be a bear...

 

i just don't know of any way to measure manufacturing quality, if they aren't the same factory, so to speak. who knows, they could be better.

 

Get moog for aftermarket wheel bearing replacement. Expensive but autozone has them for 109.99 each they exceed all aftermarket brands. Come with a 3 year warranty, rest come with one.
Although that doesn't matter the most important thing about wheel bearings is installing them correctly to the right torque pressure. None-the-less I suggest you get moog from AutoZone (because it's cheaper there) and I'm sure it will take care of the road noise you're experiencing it's not some crazy other noise it's actually road noise and this will fix it. (Usually rear ones make it sound like its all around) just try replacing the rears before you even think about the fronts that may resolve it all.

 

I replaced my right front wheel bearing because of noise. It sounded like I had a big set of monster murders on it.
I have a video on YouTube on how to troubleshoot it. It wasn't hard to do and like others I choose the Moog bearing. I did take it to a shop to press and change the bearing in the knuckle. The knuckle is made of aluminum and the bearing of steel so they seize.