Loud noise problem in Chevy Aveo

[Regina]

Hello all. I'm new here and hoping someone can help with my Aveo's issues. I have a 2009 automatic Aveo.


It all started back after last winter. We had a rough winter. My car sounded louder to me. 10 months later the car is still loud and I(nor my son, husband, father or mechanic) can figure out what's wrong.


Car starts fine and no noises.but as you accelerate over 30mph the car gets louder and louder. When driving on a highway at 60-65 you can barely hear another person in the car talking.


It was taken for an oil change last spring where I was told it wouldn't pass the next inspection because of the ball joints and sway bar. Had both fixed. Problem remained. My husband thought it could be the wheel bearing. Both were replaced, yet the noise remained. My mechanic replaced the driver side wheel bearing again thinking maybe I had a defective one to no avail. He also offered to replace the passenger side as well but I'm not sure it's needed.


So that is basically it. A noise that starts at around 30mph and gets louder the faster the car goes. When slowing down the noise also gets quieter until it goes away when I hit 30 again. I've also been noticing my tacometer going a little crazy and revving up even when I'm not accelerating then going down on it's own. I'm not sure if it's connected to the loud noise issue.


Any ideas? Thank you in advance!


Regina

[petrified.rabbit]

does the sound immediately react to the gas pedal? Like if your going over 30 mph and you let of the gas and gas it again, over and over does the sound change in rhythm??

[Regina]

It's not a sudden noise. It's more like a gradually almost like it's building up kinda noise. If I went close to 30 then took my foot off the gas the noise would gradually go down, until it's gone and hitting the gas again would start the build up once again.

[petrified.rabbit]

I was originally thinking you might have had a bad flex pipe. But it would react to the pedal more. But still have the >30 mph requirement. if your mechanic replaced the bearings, and you did as well i am guessing it is a metal "scrapping" noise, and not an exhaust, thumping or vacuum type of noise?

if that is the case, then it could also be axle joints, or your transmission (final drive or a gear). do you have a way to post the sound while driving?

[Regina]

It doesn't sound like anything is scraping. It almost sounds like a bad muffler sound. But the muffler has been checked. Also I don't think the noise can be heard from the outside. I've had my passengers try to listen while driving at a higher speed and it doesn't sound loud outside. At least that's what they said. I've also rolled my window down while driving and really don't hear anything from the outside.

I wont be driving until the morning on my way to work. I'll record and try to find a way to upload then add it on here. Thanks for your help so far.

[petrified.rabbit]

If it does sound like a bad muffler, I would check the condition of the flex pipe. Its hard, if not impossible, to pin point noises over the internet, but based on your description, it would have to be load conditioned, so it would need to be a flexible part issue. The flex pipe and intake tube are the only two things in that area that will be "loud" You might have have an issue with a vacuum on the variable geometry intake. But that would't be as loud.

I can't see how a mechanic could miss this if it is a exhaust, but the flex pipe can reseal it self.

[MetroMPG]

It doesn't sound like anything is scraping. It almost sounds like a bad muffler sound.

A quick way to tell if it's engine/exhaust-related is to release the gas pedal and shift to neutral while at highway speed (when it's safe ... nobody riding your bumper, obviously). If the noise goes down immediately (because the engine RPM and load drops) you have your answer.

---

Another potential culprit is bad tires. I've seen very noisy tires caused by a broken belt, creating a rumble/roar at highway speeds. Obviously the noise is proportional to road speed and gets worse the faster you go.

My mom had her car in to the mechanics 3 times last year for an annoying droning noise at highway speeds (similar to the noise of a bad wheel bearing). They kept sending it back saying "nothing is wrong". So I swapped her wheels with a set from another car and the noise was gone. Turned out 2 of her tires were bad.

[06T200]

Good point about the tires, some can be noisy as heck. First thing I thought of is could there possibly be a broken splash shield in a wheel well catching and rubbing somehow at speed? Or maybe a heat shield/part vibrating on the floor?? So hard to tell over the internet, but look for anything loose under the car or near the wheels that might rub a moving part at speed, or 'flap' with wind. These can make sound that increases with speed.

[Regina]

I took a video. It's kinda long, but you can hear the sound. Towards the end I turned the video to my speedometer so you can see the noise going up and down depending on the speed of the car.

Don't mind the oil light being on. It just turned on this morning on my way to work. The tire light is another bane of my existence. But the noise was there before the light came on. That's for another post I guess. As far as the tires, I had 4 new ones put on this July. The noise continued on...

[Regina]

So the video didn't load..let me try something else.