I can't complain because my Vibe has ran so quiet and smooth the past few months. But, lately I would say within the past 2-3 weeks it has developed this noise coming from the right rear of the car.It is not a knock but more like a whah,..... whah,..... whah,.... sound.It starts out slow when you are taking off and the faster you go it speeds up to. it is always in rhythm and the faster you go the faster it seems to go. It doesnt really get any louder at low or faster speeds it just speeds up in rotation the faster you are going. when you reach around 45-50 it is going so fast it just sounds like a low hummmmmmmmmmmmm sound. I have even tried putting on the brakes hard at high speeds and putting the car in nuetral while running 35-45 to see if it would stop but it doesnt effect it.Does anyone have an idea as to what is going on? I don't want to go to a shop with the attitude of " I don't know whats wrong just fix everything"..... thanks for the help you guys ROCK!!!!!!The car has around 84,000 miles most of which are highway????
The first thing I would do is rotate the tires, put the rear ones up front and the front ones onthe rear, and see if the noise follows the tire. While you have them off look for any uneven tire wear, or large objects lodged in the rubber. If it's not the tires, it could be a wheel bearing, which are uncommon, but some have had them go bad.When you have the car jacked up to rotate the tires, spin the wheel and see if you hear any sound on one rear wheel that isn't there on the other one.Also look at any of the plastic parts, wheel well liners, etc, make sure they are secure.have someone else drive it while you sit in the back, to see if the sound is really coming from that wheel.