Tires: WAH WAH sound, jaguar x type, wah wah wah

Question
WE own a Jaguar X-Type AWD fitted with Continental tires.
At about 15000 miles a "WAH WAH WAH etc" sound developed at what seemed to be the front of the car.
The Jaguar dealer said there was slight feathering on the tires and they (believe it or not) rebalanced the wheels and rotated front to back. They said the noise would now gradually disappear. Of course it did not so I took the car back. This time, apparently with a Jaguar REP in the car, they drove it and were emphatic that it was tire noise and nothing mechanical. They recommended replacing the four tires with Michelins or waiting it out until the Continentals wore out (there is still lots of tread after 20000 miles). I decided to have the alignment checked by a highly recommended shop and was told there was excessive toe out - it was realigned.
My bottom line question is how do I tell whether it is tire noise or something else because the warranty runs out in three months. Incidentally it is most noticeable at speeds up to about 40MPH at high speeds it is much less noticeable.

Answer
John,

Actually, balancing and rotating the tires was a good move.  If the noise moved, then the tires were the problem.  But if the noise didn't move, then it was probably not tires.

My impression is that the noise didn't move - which leaves the one possibility that tires were the source of the noise - and that is that all 4 tires have developed a wear pattern that is causing the noise.  The fact that there was a toe problem tends to point to this as a possibility.  But this is only a possibility if the tires were rotated frequently.

So I recommend you rotate the tires again and see if the noise moves or changes in any way.  If it doesn't, then the noise source is probably not the tires.

If it isn't the tires, then finding out what it is is going to be difficult as any rotating component could be doing it.

But just a word of caution:  It is common for folks to hear a noise or feel a vibration (which are the same things except for frequency) and even when the noise (vibration) is drastically reduced, to be able to focus in on that frequency and still sense its presence.  This leads people to think it is still there in abundance, when in fact a person who hasn't experienced the noise (vibration) would not pick it up amongst all the other noises (vibrations).  So be aware of that peculiarity of human nature.

The other thing is that the noise could be the road surface.  So if the noise only appears on certain roads, or the speed varies depending on the road surface, it is probably the car interacting with the irregularities of the road, and this is something that just can't be fixed without either changing the road or changing cars.

Also