Leaf sounds like riding on mud tires

I bought a 2012 Leaf from another state without seeing it or driving it first because it was a Certified Pre Owned, so I thought I would be safe. It has new tires on it, but when going 20 mph + it makes road noise kinda like a pickup truck with aggressive mud tires. I have driven 13 Leaf for work that doesn't sound like that, so I'm pretty sure something isn't right. Anyone else ever have noise like that, or have any suggestions? The dealer is not going to take responsibility and do anything to help out - I was just told that I didn't take then up on the service contract they tried to sell me - it's a CPO!
Could I put the front of the car on jack stands and try to accelerate with the tires in the air to try to rule out tire noise?
Thanks

what brand, type, size tires does the CPO have?

Not uncommon for used cars to have crummy tires put on them just so it looks good with new rubber.

I'm quite positive this is what tire is on it (not by the car right now). It looks like they are rated decent.
Continental ContiProContact
http://m.tirerack.com/tires/TireDetailsServlet?tireMake=Continental&tireModel=ContiProContact&partnum=055HR6CPCV2&autoMake=Nissan&autoYear=2012&autoModel=Leaf&autoModClar=SL

Continentals are very quiet tires. If you have noise it is more likely a wheel bearing or something in the half shafts, etc. I would inspect the tires and go from there.

I second the above post regarding possible bad wheel bearings. A couple of Leafers had this problem: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=460673#p460673

If it's a CPO, you get 7 years / 100,000 miles warranty coverage.

Nissan also offers 0% financing on all CPO LEAFs.

Take it to a dealer and have them fix it. It's probably a bad wheel bearing.

Bad wheel bearings usually get louder when you corner, and quieter when you drive in a straight line. See if that is the case here.

I jacked the car up last night and did not notice any play in any of the wheels, and could only hear some brake disk/dust cover rub when spinning. I then jacked the front two wheels up and put it in drive to have the wheels spin - this didn't work the greatest because of stability control, which I figured would happen. I still didn't hear any weird noise, besides a woh woh under water sound which was behind the regular 12v battery area, which I'm pretty sure is not the noise I am hearing while I am driving. I made a short video on the way to work to try to capture the sound. It didn't seem to come out the greatest, so you may need to turn it up and listen carefully to hear anything..?

https://youtu.be/N8O6qgWWtn4

How many miles on your tires? If they were installed 5,000 miles before the lease expired, they are due for rotation. If they are brand new and pressure is OK (recommend 40 to 44 psi), then you have a mechanical issue. The original Ecopias and replacement Michelin MXM4s on the 2011 both got progressively noisy as the miles accumulated and then became quiet after rotating. The original Michelins on the 2015 also get noisy and then quiet after rotating. If you need to rotate the tires, use a cross forward or cross back pattern so two of the tires rotate in the opposite direction (not just straight front to back as recommended in the owner manual).

Gerry

If the is car shaking, it would probably be bad bearings. Bad bearings also change tone when steering, so the sound could go in and out, up and down, etc.

Going by the video, I don't see any shaking or hear it. I do hear the tire noise that off-road tires make and a very linear tone between speeding up and slowing down, so my bet is on the tires itself. First check the air pressure, it sounds like tires that are extreme under-inflated and just dragging down the road. If the air pressure is good (cold tire pressure),

You already did a free wheel test it sounds like, so it must be something to do with the tires. When my tires were new, they were whisper quiet and only had a squeak when turning slow speeds in parking lots, but nothing like what I hear in your video.

Do you feel anything when driving or is it a smooth ride but with the weird road noise?

The tires only have a few hundred miles on them. I should check the pressure, but I would think if they were low enough to cause that noise, then they would look low.

The Leaf drives fine though - No vibration through steering wheel or shaking, and the noise doesn't get worse while cornering one direction or the other.

I read that Leaf Spy Pro has something about registering if you rotate the tires. What happens if I rotate the tires without Leaf Spy Pro?

Thanks for the input - Feel free to offer more suggestions - I'll keep everyone updated.

Alignment? ...although I would think it would have to be very far out to cause noisy scrubbing, but it's worth checking.
How many miles on the car?

27,xxx miles. I pumped the tires up to 42 psi and still have the same noise. I guess I will need with rotating them next since it seems like the noise is mostly from the front.

Too bad you could have not gotten your new tires from Discount Tire and not have to deal with the dealer when it comes to the tires. Discount tire always takes care their customers no matter the State. If you took it to 2871 S Veterans Pkwy (217) 546-3130 they will check out your tires for free and either eliminate them as a possibility or tell you what is wrong with the tire(s).

Registering the tires in Leaf Spy just tells the car (and Leaf Spy) which tire is in which location. The four pressures will still be displayed, but the positions may not match. The location display in Leaf Spy will show pressures in the locations corresponding to where the sensors were located when they were last registered. I doubt that tire shops or dealer service departments register tire positions after rotations so I suggest you follow the registration procedure after rotating your tires so that you know the display is correct. Running with 4 different pressures (under inflated) during the registration process may change the sound if it is related to the tires.

If rotating the tires does not change the sound, take it to a Leaf certified dealer. You said it is a Nissan CPO so it should be covered by warranty. The certifying dealer should have checked it thoroughly, but you might want to check fluid level and condition in the gear reducer (transaxle on a gas engine front wheel drive). The fluid is a special synthetic ATF so the gears might be noisy if someone put the wrong fluid in it. Check the CV joints and wheel bearings for heat after driving. Failing bearings may be warm to touch after driving. Mechanical issues might not show up when you run the drivetrain while on jack stands because there is no load on the components.

Gerry

Gerry I second your recommendations - excellent advice!!

Just remember Dealers are not tire experts - they sell them at highly inflated market prices and the technicians just don't do enough tire balancing and inspection as Discount Tire does - likely a 100 to 1 ratio of tire service traffic.

The large Nissan dealer I bought the Leaf from in Chicago runs a service department that is only 10% of the Honda Dealer down the road. 8 bays versus 24 bays. I have never seen the tire balancing machine at Nissan get used ever during only wait with the Leaf for tire rotation!! And they charged $25 to do it!! I did not say anything. With Discount Tire - its included in the original tire price including balancing at that time which Nissan did not perform to my knowledge.

All my cars once they get to a replacement status on wear with the crappy OEM tires - usually all "seconds" - I take them for true grade A tires just like the Continental low rolling resistance tires you already have. Grade A versus seconds is a larger quality difference than you might not originally think exist - It Does!

I just rotated tires - no difference. I scheduled to take it to Nissan tomorrow morning. Kinda ticked I will be out my $50 CPO deductable when the car was delivered to me this way!

My 2014 Leaf also have this noise in pass couple days. The tire was new purchase from Costco and had driven over 10,000+ mile. I called the dealer. They said the leaf warranty is 3 years/36,000. I am on 49,000 mile. For the diagnostic, they would charge me $135. I will check the pressure and rotate tire. I am very doubt is tire issue as it was driving fine but just happen the noise come on this couple days. I notice i may lose some horse power during my drive. It is still able drive but just the noise have me concern.

My ML 350 have similar noise issue but is high peak sound. It turn out that it was the power steering issue..

Please keep me post it on your finding. I will also consider bring it to dealer next week.

They scheduled me for this morning, but nothing happened. The service advisor said they couldn't work on it today because they don't have a Leaf specialist working on Saturday, and taking the hub off required disconnecting the battery (that doesn't sound accurate). So, I'm scheduled for Wednesday now - oh the world of car dealerships! :roll:

So watching / listening to the youtube clip it sounds exactly like what our Leaf sounds like with our Blizzack snow tires on. Once I put the summer tire back on it goes away. I can't image they are that noisy being non-snow tires, but at the same time the Leaf is so quiet with everything else the tires are much more noticeable. I haven't looked but if you look at tirerack.com they list the comparable "loudness" of each time. Maybe it is just a really loud tire?