Odd vibration and noise at 40mph

Hey Guys, so driving around in my 99 legacy gt wagon 5mt I notice a loud rumbling noise and matching vibration coming from the rear end of the car somewhere. It seems to be more biased to the passenger side but I can't be sure. Strange since it only happens between 40-45 mph and then it goes away.

 

Things I have tried:

Rotating tires

Making sure tires have equal pressure (36psi)

Checked for play in wheel bearings

Checked for loose suspension bolts

Checked for tire rub on frame/body/suspension parts

Has recent 4 wheel alignment and wheel balance

 

My prime suspect is the tires themselves, Goodyear eagle gt's. I have read a lot of complaints about these tires being unusually noisy. The tires have about 10,000 miles on them.

 

Any ideas? What else should I check? Thanks!

You mention rotating the tires but did you balance them as well?

 

Edit: Oops. I see you balanced the tires.

I've had wheel bearings go that never showed signs of play. Sometimes you can't really tell until you pull the axle nut. Right rear seems to be the common wheel bearing that goes on subarus.

sounds similar to an issue i had a week ago with a tire that had a large rock puncture that broke some of the steel bands in the tire making it stick out more in the damaged area than the rest of the tire causing a vibration at 55 MPH (in my case). I had the same tires on my cobalt ss/sc and never noticed any noise or vibrations only they lasted about 15,000 miles though.

Update:

 

Drove my family to dinner tonight, the noise seems to be almost gone with more weight in the car??

Right rear seems to be the common wheel bearing that goes on subarus.

 

Actually all of the wheel bearings are common on second gen Legacys. LOL.

But yes wheel bearings on these cars rarely become loose when they're bad UNLESS they were driven on a lot after they started making noise.

I am gonna guess it's a tire or bent rim. The LGT wheels bend pretty easy. I would get all four tires off the ground and start the car and put it in drive. On its own it should be able to get to 20 mph so a friend might be needed to get them to spin faster. While the tires are spinning watch them closely for abnormalities in both the wheels and tires.

I own a 99 LGT and two of my wheels have bends in them and right around 55 mph I get a nice vibration. Even with both of them in the rear I feel the shimmy in the steering wheel.

Btw you have too much air in your tires. It's supposed to be 32psi front and 30psi rear. I also had some Goodyear eagle GTs on a set of Scion TC wheels on my old 96 legacy and they were crappy tires. Loud and sucked in the rain. If its the tires ditch Goodyears and get Hankooks.