A droning noise (not the engine or road ) increases in pitch with speed only. Not in time with engine revs. Same noise on different road surfaces. Automatic 4-speed 6 cyl engine 2.4L. Engine and transmission oil levels full. The tyres are getting a bit low on tread depth and almost to the bald mark.
While you are driving, get up to roughly 40 MPH on a road with little or no traffic. Once at this speed, whip the steering wheel left and right as if you were making rapid lane changes. If you notice a change in the pitch or intensity of the sound, it is quite likely that you have a pending wheel bearing failure. The reason that the change will be noticed is because there is a rapid change in load placed on the bearings during lateral moves. Outside of the, the tires alone, can be quite noisy. I drive an old 1981 Mercedes 300TD wagon. I never realized how much road noise was coming from my tires until I replaced them with new ones!
Isaiah: Sorry I didn't get back to you earlier, I have been out of pocket. I had a few more thoughts on your problem.
How many miles do you have on the car?
Have you checked your transmission fluid?
If you do, it needs to be checked on level ground.
Get the car to operating temperature, this will insure that the transmission fluid is also at the normal operating temperature.
Move the gear selector from park to drive to reverse to park and then shut the engine off. Kia requires the fliud to be checked with the engine off. Pull the dip stick out of the transmission, (the top of the handle is RED) wipe it off and reinsert it, pull it out and see where it shows up on the stick. The stick has markings and there should be one which says "HOT" The fluid should be at the top of that line. Also, the fluid should be a semi clear red. Smell it. It should not have a burnt odor to it. If it smells burnt, it indicates that there may be a slippage problem.
The noise may be coming from the transmission if the fluid is low.
If the fluid is too high, it will cause the fluid to foam and that will creat the same type of symptoms as low fluid levels.
was your fluid a clean color like what you had added? Did you check it since I had made the suggestion as I had described?
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It might be your alternator. I had a Volvo S40 and I got a high-pitched whine when I drove - sometimes matched what the engine was doing, sometimes didn't. Turned out some of the wires on the alternator were loose. Hope this helps.
Same with mine, definately the alternator on mine
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I tried the suggested tested (quiet road) but did not pick up any change in the noise so hopefully is not the bearings. Will be fitting new tyres next week and see if that helps.
Wasn't the tyres unfortunately. Will ring the automobile club technical department for their advice.
The level on the transmisssion dipstick was hard to see but I added 600ml (20 oz) before I could see an increase to the hot full level (the engine was hot). Then went for a family trip of 250km but droning noise was still present.
Just to clarify, the noise is fairly low pitch like a growl. You can barely hear it at 40 kph it gets higher in pitch (still low freq) and volume at 80 kph but fades in relative volume at 100kph.
I don't think it is the wheel bearings (FWD) but maybe there is some bearings inboard of the driveshafts.
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