unbearable rear tire noise RAV4

[tomcat27]

Last summer I drove a (family member's) 2009 RAV4 and could not believe how load the rear tires were. HOWLING! tonight I drove the same car - and the owner put on new Michelins after I drove it last year. still loud. maddeningly loud! in fact, my friends in the car were stunned! after some conversation and research - the problem is not the tires. its the RAV! apparently there was a redesigned rear control arm (recall) to address the problem. and the rear alignment specs are critical. despite this, this seems to be a widespread problem. does anyone have any experience with this problem and some recommendations?

BTW, the recall was already done to this truck.

 

[SigQAEngineer]

Call Toyota's National Customer Experience Center: 1-800-331-4331 (West Coast Time) to generate a case for the concern.

They can forward the case to your local Toyota dealer, dealer will proceed to contact you. At that time, ask them to road test your vehicle by a Toyota DSPM (District Service/Parts Manager), who will determine if the "excessive" road noise if normal comparing other RAVs from the same model year.

 

[Brule]

No experience with RAV4 in particular, but in other cars. Is it certain that the wheel bearings aren't the source of the noise?

 

[friendly_jacek]

Originally Posted By: tomcat27
this seems to be a widespread problem.


I have had RAV4 since 2006 and become active on RAV4world since. I can tell you that "unbearable rear tire noise" is not "a widespread problem" in Rav4s.
Wrong alignment will cup tires and make them noisy. It should be an easy fix.

 

[Maximus1966]

We've had two of them in the family and neither had any more road/drivetrain noise than any other economy car. A RAV4 could hardly be called a truck...perhaps you were in some other vehicle?

 

[JethroBodine]

Sounds like they did the recall and didn't do a 4 wheel alignment. I have a 2008 and the 4 wheel alignment was done as part of it. Rear tires could be out of alignment. I would have it checked at a tire shop to get an honest opinion in case the rear tires are now fubared.

 

[aualtima3.5]

If the recall was done, and the old, damaged tires (I'm assuming they are feathered) were used, you will never 'get rid' of the noise until the tires are replaced. They just don't wear back into a normal pattern after that. That's assuming they are feathered.

 

[EA82]

Unbearable noise, my guess would be wheel bearings, ive had a couple of vehicles that I suspected had noisy tires and it turned out to be the bearings.

 

[Rand]

I'm guessing wierd tire wear.

I had some wrangler RT/S that sounded like mud boggers..

no really.. MUD BOGGERS!!!

Usually after any major suspension work you get a 4wheel alignment
and replace the tires if worn oddly.

 

[tomcat27]

Originally Posted By: Maximus1966
We've had two of them in the family and neither had any more road/drivetrain noise than any other economy car. A RAV4 could hardly be called a truck...perhaps you were in some other vehicle?


so you're gonna quibble over marketing terms and insult me over my powers of observation? thanks!
Yes, it's a 2009 Toyota RAV4.
a quick internet search revealed many people with the same experience. one person who wears noise-cancelling headphones when driving his RAV.

and a genuine thank you to those that offered real suggestions.
I concur that a rear wheel alignment and new tires will likely fix the problem. for a while. problem is, the current set of $1000 Michelins have only been on the car for 8 months - and Grandma hardly drives it. The previous set of OE tires were also noisy. very noisy. AFAIK, it has always made this loud noise - but perhaps it took a while to start. I never drove it the first 3 years of its life.
the noise is currently very loud. every passenger in the car makes note of it. hard to have a conversation.

 

[Errtt]

Had an older Rav that always seemed to howl at the back end, but everything checked out fine so I just took it as vehicle design gave it some hollow howl sound.
What was weird was when I got to the point after some years if I was going to keep it much longer or not (was nothing wrong with it, just looking to upgrade for work commute vehicle & 200k on the clock), and it came time for new tires again. So then I decided to go cheaper and got the General grabber HTS. I couldn't believe how quiet it was. And after about 40k, still quiet, and I had a lot of tread left but many others say they wore fast on their applications.
The previous were Michelin LTX which I've had very good luck on other vehicles, but maybe for whatever odd reason it wasn't the best for the Rav. Had I kept the Rav, I would have put the Grabbers on again if time came.

add - One of my coworkers used to have a Rav (i think) also and if I recall he ran Firestone Destination LE and was happy with them.

 

[Drew99GT]

I've observed a few Rav4s that looked like they had excessive negative rear camber. Could be somewhat of a factory alignment problem. My mom's Impala had a camber problem from the factory and it chewed up rear tires and made it unbearably loud.