Tires: Tire Noise, tire noise, vehicle noise

Question
Remember as a kid when you put baseball cards in the spokes of your bike..the noise they would make.  Now apply that to my Forester's tires, only soften the sound a bit so that it's not so much a click, but more of a flutter.  Over the last few months my tires have been making this noise.  They are properly inflated and I had them rotated about 3 months ago (note: I don't do a lot of driving).  The sound speeds up as I do, and I can only hear it with the windows down...so no inside vehicle noise.  I really noticed it for the first time when I found myself driving in more enclosed areas where the sound would bounce back towards me, or when I'm passing near another vehicle on the road, again the sound bouncing off of them and coming back at me.  Any idea what is causing this?  A friend mentioned that she had tire noise issues after a rotation was done.  Could the folks who did my rotation possibly have done something wrong?

Answer
Pam,

What you have is irregular wear, and this is caused by misalignment, and aggravated by insufficient tire pressure and insufficient tire rotation practices, and commonly occurs immediately after a rotation, making people think the rotation is the problem.

In fact the rotation is actually trying to put a different waer pattern on the tires and the position that they are in doesn't like it.

First, verify that it is the alignment that is causing the problem, then you'll have to live with it until the tires develop the new wear pattern.  Then you should develop the habit of checking tire pressures once a month, and rotating your tires every 5,000 to 8,000 miles.  Find a place that will do the rotation free, perhaps as part of the oil change.

Hope this helps.