Hi again,

I bought a very nice 2000 Honda Accord SE sedan on the weekend and I posted about it a few minutes ago.

It was a private sale & the car drove beautifully when I test drove it... it was quiet & smooth... but somehow that all changed & the car was awfully loud on my two hour trip home. I feared that the wheel bearings had all gone out or that the front end was going to fall off before I got it home

It was a low growl noise that increased with speed... I stopped on the highway & couldn't see anything in the dark... got back in & the noise started at low speed and was absolutely roaring at highway speed... and for short stretches of road the sound would be gone. I couldn't begin to pin point what the sound was, but I was sure that it was bad.

I limped my way home & was afraid to say anything to my hubby, because I had made the deal on the car myself (How's the new car, honey? Oh, I love it - it's so much fun to drive, lol). I took my new car to my mechanic yesterday to have what was likely an unnecessary timing belt/water pump changed (in my last post) and asked him if he could also diagnose this low, but loud noise, as well.

Well it turns out that the seller had winter tires on the car & he was running them at 20 psi... and that was why it was quiet when I picked it up, but very noisy after the young gas pump attendant offered to top up my tires for me (because they looked very low to him)... I didn't put those two things together... but it all makes sense now, lol.

Whew, thank goodness that was all it was about. I have never been that afraid to drive a vehicle in my life, lol.

I searched the forum all day yesterday trying to read previous posts about low growling sounds to hopefully figure it out. Many of them said 'tires' and I couldn't see how that would be possible... but my mechanic immediately said "tires" when he drove it, so I guess it must be true.

I will definitely be replacing those tires with quieter ones when I have the chance.

I won't hold this against my beautiful new car, lol. She didn't have any control over what the last owners did to her.

I can't help but wonder who the heck puts winter tires on their cars & drives them like that year round, lol? Wow.

 

Where are you located? Need snow tires? When they get down to about 3/32 depth, they don't work so hot in the snow but still OK otherwise. So I have run them in summer to wear them out. Guess I'm just cheap enough to tolerate it for a few months so I don't feel like I'm "wasting" the tire.

Or... maybe he kept the GOOD tires for his next car?

Either way, I guess he could have explained that to you...