Are you heavily loaded? I'd have the tires checked whether you are
heavily loaded or not. I drove from NY to Alabama with a load of
household goods, and it definitely made my rear tires louder, so much
so that they had to be replaced.

Jim

On Nov 25, 2006, at 8:24 PM, mordo wrote:

> I've just completed 880 miles on my 90 Carat and almost all was
> well...except.
>
> Yesterday, driving around Corolla, NC the bus was running great and
> I was
> having a great time. Today, prior to leaving for Baltimore, I
> checked fluids
> and the tensions of the belts, etc. Almost immediately on the road
> I noticed
> an unfamiliar sound and felt its corresponding vibration. My first
> thought
> was front wheel bearing as i had recently had them repacked by a
> questionable mechanic. At my first stop, I checked the temp of the
> wheels.
> Nothing abnormal there.
>
> My next thought was tire noise. I thought perhaps treads had become
> distorted from bad alignment or some such. No, they're fine and
> they aren't
> abnormally warm either. Then my thoughts went to transmission as
> all other
> systems are operating normally. Coolant temp normal, transmission
> shifting
> smoothly, etc. So, I don't think its transmission.
>
> As I became more fixated on the noise, it of course seemed to get
> louder and
> the vibration at my feet greater. I'm baffled. The noise is like
> the sound
> of offroad tires ont he pavement. It begins to be audible at about
> 25 mph
> and grows louder as speed increases. I still am thinking it might
> be wheel
> bearings but I figure if they were bad enough to make that kind of
> noise,
> they'd be smoking hot or comppletely kaput after 350 miles at
> highway speed.
>
> Any thoughts, citizens of the list? There were no unusual events to
> associate the new noise with am I am stumped.
>
> --
> mordo
> 1990 Carat
>