Low frequency rolling vibration

Since you get the vibration under power or in N, at a variety of speeds, the problem is going to be in the tires, bearings, or something along that line. It's a little harder to isolate on a Prius, since everything is still connected in N, but it still suggests something like that. Does it stay the same when you rotate the tires?

Tom

 

I have the same problem with my 03. It has about 130,000 miles on it, and the rumble started around 120,000. It has progressively become worse. The sound is worst at 30-35mph, then again around 65. Thankfully, the speed limit here is 70, so I get a small decrease in the sound at 70, but it is nonetheless annoying. All of the tires are under 1 year old.

 

Start trying to isolate the noise:

Does it happen when coasting? Accelerating? At idle? Turning right? Turning left?

Tom

 

I'd guess a bad wheel bearing. It's not serviceble, you have to replace it.

We had a UK member with similar issues, but his Prius passed the usual tests. The dealership inspected a lot closer, and sure enough a wheel bearing was bad

The new sealed bearing assemblies will make noise, but diagnosis can be a lot more difficult

 

With the old unsealed bearings it was easier. When all of the little balls rolled out and looked like raisins, you were pretty sure the bearings were bad.

Tom

 

Like this?

Hub/Wheel bearing failure and replacement - Toyota FJ Cruiser Forum

 

How can a Toyota wheel bearing go bad 130K or even 57K if the OPs problem is this????? My SC400 has 300K miles and I just did a tire rotation and all 4 wheel had zero free play with the yank back and forth test.

 

A wheel bearing can go bad in 5K miles. The MTBF may be very long, but if you get unlucky yours can go bad at any time.

Tom

 

Did it start happening about the same time that you got the tyres changed or rotated? The wheels may simply need rebalancing.

Art's Automotive wrote an interesting article on their fancy tyre-balancing machine. It's supposed to be able to correct for more problems than many balancers.

 

Once is not a pattern, but it appears that bad wheel bearings have been reported here with pretty high frequency. Over in the ClubLexus forum, bad wheel bearings are almost never reported even on SCs with 500,000+ miles.

 

I had an issue with my FJ Cruiser when I ditched the absolutely horrible OEM Dunlop Grandtrek for Goodyear Fortera TripleTred. Had a shimmy in the steering wheel and a vibration in the rear axle

Found a shop with the Hunter Road Force machine. They had to do a lot of monkeying around with unmounting tires, swapping them around, matching tires to rims, etc, but in the end it was worth it. My FJ is now smooth as glass on the highway

 

I had my tires rotated on my '05 and there had been uneven wear so there was some vibration. I realize this has already been mentioned and most likely isn't your problem though.