Question I drive a 03 Ford Escape. Bought SUV new and noticed a slight roar coming from front end or tires.Suv was under warranty so Ford ran a noise test on tires and discovered 2 noisy tires so they were replaced.I rotated tires and aligned reg. and kept proper inflation.
2yrs. later noisy tires returned. Warranty expired. I bought a new set of tires which would be the 3rd set of tires in less than 40,000 mi. Noise was gone for about 1 year, or 10,000. I found after following all the rules of reg. alignment and rotation the roar returned again. I noticed when I cornered to the left the roar was even louder so I replaced L. baring, did not help, still roars.Now roar is so loud it drowns out radio.I feel this is an engineering problem. Any thoughts??
AnswerChris,
This sounds like an an alignment problem. I have been hearing about folks with Escapes with alignment issues - and I suspect there is a fundamental engineering problem wit the vehicle - bump steer or the camber curve.
So I think an alignment is in order - one where you know what the beginning values are and what the ending values are. So you need to find a shop that will give you those values.
You need to find a shop that will also set the vehicle up the way to tell them - not what the "book" says.
My experience says that the published alignment tolerances are too wide. Not the target value, but the allowable deviation from that value. I think it ought to be half of what is published.
Put another way, the alignment should be within the inner half of the spec.
