Why is my car runmbling when I drive?

June 26, 2018 6:49 AM

In the past 2 or 3 weeks I've notice my 2015 Ford Fiesta rumbles, as if I'm driving on a bad road, whenever I drive anywhere. What's up with that?

It feels like a bad road when I'm driving, but at certain speeds it feels more intense. For instance at around 20 mph it feels like I'm going over those bumps they put on the side of rural highways to keep you from drifting. It doesn't do any "rumbling" when I'm stopped in neutral and rev the engine. I've checked under the car and put my hands behind all four wheels, I'm not dragging anything and couldn't find any debris anywhere. Before this it felt very smooth, is my car just getting old? Should I take it to a mechanic asap?

posted by DynamiteToast to Travel & Transportation (8 answers total)

You should definitely go to a mechanic, but for whatever it's worth, my car did this when my wheels became unbalanced. I'd thrown a weight from one of them, and twenty bucks at my mechanic saw me sorted.
posted by mishafletch at 6:55 AM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

a 2015 seems to new to have ball joint or sway bar problems, so have a mechanic take a look at it. Did you hit a curb recently or anything that would mess up your alignment or wheel bearings? Also, when is the last time you got new tires; what do your tire treads look like, is there uneven wear?
posted by AzraelBrown at 7:08 AM on June 26, 2018

Response by poster: I don't think I've hit anything recently. Also, I inspected my tires a week after I started noticing it and saw some wire sticking out of the tread of one. I took it to Discount Tire and they replaced that one (my front left) and my front right, and rotated them. I assumed that was the problem and didn't mention it to them, but they did rotate the new tires and when I left I started noticing it again. Also I bought it used a year ago, and it only has 25,000 miles.
posted by DynamiteToast at 7:15 AM on June 26, 2018

Best answer: I inspected my tires a week after I started noticing it and saw some wire sticking out of the tread of one.
Prepared yourself to be scolded, because if a tyre got bad enough to get wire poking out of it YOU ARE NOT INSPECTING YOUR TYRES OFTEN ENOUGH. If it gets to the wire, the structure of the tyre is compromised, and the tyre is dangerous and should have been replaced long before. Also, if your car did something weird and noticeable enough to concern you and you waited A WEEK to even look at it, you need to go to a mirror and give yourself a talking to. Three weeks is just being stupid, honestly, and endangering yourself and whomever is alongside or behind you if something were to fail at highway speeds.

Also, the 'rumbling' could be a wheel bearing, a tyre delaminating, or a tyre imbalance - it sounds to me like you are sort of describing the feel of a rumble, rather than the sound of it, but either way if your car is making a weird sound or especially if it is doing something you can feel YOU MUST GET IT INSPECTED. Cars, when operating properly, do not suddenly change the way they feel or sound. It sounds like you have very little mechanical understanding of cars (not at all a criticism) so you should err on the side of caution because you can't otherwise validate that it is not serious.
posted by Brockles at 7:46 AM on June 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

You can't rotate new tires. They can be balanced, I suppose that might be what you mean. "Rotating" tires means you move them to the opposite side of the car from where they've been running.

Take it to a mechanic.
posted by humboldt32 at 10:17 AM on June 26, 2018

One possibility is that a wheel well liner (the plastic sheet that covers the interior of the wheel well to stop debris from the tire being kicked up into the body of the vehicle) has torn or come loose. When the car is stopped it won't be apparent, but at speed the wind will push it until it comes in contact with the rotating tire. It won't produce much vibration, but you'll get a rumble-like sound.

If that's the case, it's not great for the tire, but you're more likely to shred the liner eventually.
posted by figurant at 11:02 AM on June 26, 2018

Best answer: This sounds like a wheel bearing, if it's only a sound and you can't feel any vibration. If they rotated the tyres front-to-back, it's less likely to be a tyre unless the sound/sensation changed after that was done.

If the sound changes depending on whether you're accelerating, braking, coasting etc it might be something in the driveline, but my best guess is a wheel bearing. Any of these would be unusual after only 25k miles though.
posted by dg at 1:57 AM on June 27, 2018

Response by poster: Sorry for not updating, the strong words were just what I needed to hear since I was worried I was making mountains out of molehills. I took it in that day, and a day of work and $400 later they fixed my wheel bearings and now it doesn't happen anymore. Thanks for the advice/scolding.
posted by DynamiteToast at 9:25 AM on June 28, 2018