Hello,

I own a 2005 Honda Civic with ~79K miles. Two days ago I noticed a vibration that gave a low pitch airplane noise that was only produced while driving.The subtle vibration could be felt in the accelerator. While in neutral and depressing the accelerator the sound/vibration was not present. The sound/vibration increases in pitch and volume while driving. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

If you shift to neutral and let the engine idle with the car moving, is the noise still there?

 

Yes. If I coast down a hill in neutral the noise is still there.

 

Tires could be bad, or need to be balanced.

 

I'd say there's two likely possibilities if there's a vibration and noise.

The first is out-of-balance tires and toe wear. Run your hands along the edge of the tread (both inner and outer edges) in both directions. If it feels a lot rougher one direction than the others, it's toe wear which will cause noise. You'll need new tires and an alignment; just getting new tires won't fix the true issue (your new tires will do the same thing after a few thousand miles), and it's never a good idea to align a car with bad tires since the alignment will be off when the tires are eventually replaced (not to mention it won't fix the noise).

The second would be a bad wheel bearing. They start making a "growling" noise when they go out, which actually sounds like an aircraft after 35mph or so. If you let them get bad enough, they'll eventually cause a vibration. Really, the only way I can think of to diagnose one at home would be to take the wheels and brakes off and spin the hubs by hand. The one with the bad wheel bearing will most likely feel "rougher" than the other three. To confirm the diagnosis, drive it around a lot of turns at a high enough speed for it to make the noise. If the bad bearing is on the right side, it will make more noise around left-hand turns due to weight transfer (same with the other side). Honestly, it's probably easier to take it to a shop and have them diagnose it, though.

 

Thanks! I greatly appreciate the advice. I will give your suggestions a try and let you know.

Thanks again!