Tires: Humming tires following rotation, quick lube oil change, michelin mx4

Question
I recently had one of those quick lube oil change businesses rotate my tires while they were changing the oil.  As I drove away I noticed that the passenger front tire seemed to be making a real noticable noise.  It got louder as I accelerated.  I asked a friend of mine who was in the tire business for years what he thought the problem was.  He checked and said there was no cupping of the tire.  Could it be that the tires need balanced or is there something else that would cause this problem.  If it matters, the vehicle is a 1999 VW Passat and there were no symptoms of the loud hum prior to the rotation.  What should I do?  Thanks for your help.

Answer
Hello, Rick
I've seen this problem before. Even if you see no wear on the tire it has developed slight tread pattern wear. Expecialy on front wheel drive cars. This seems to be a big problem with some Michelin tires. You really need to rotate your tires every 5K, or not rotate them at all. You can replace the front tires only and get almost twice the miliage on the rear. The tires you have should quieten down after you put some miles on them. I had a Honda Accord with Michelin MX4's and when I rotated them at 20K they were so loud my wife made me replace them with a differant brand. The tires still had plenty of tread left on them.

Hope this helps

Jack