I have been a vw-airkooled all my life, since everything is simple and straightforward. I need to buy my wife a car and she does not want to drive airkooled cars, so im stuck to next best thing which is japanese cars that i know nothing about and dont have any slightest idea of how to maintain it. Totally newbie in this part, so please be kind.
Because of this forum, I bought my wife a 1994 Corolla Automatic with 175k miles on it. I believe it is a 7th gen, and from what i have read here, is pretty much a low maintenance car, and very easy to work with car.
Everything looks straight with the car except for some fender bender on the front passenger side.
See, everything is new to me.... So i dont know if the humm i am hearing is normal or not....
Symptoms:
1) when you hit around 25mph, the humm (not high pitch) will start and become louder and louder specially when you hit 40's... anything after that will be overcome by other noice such as tires, car, etc.
2) the sound/humm starts with low and the tone goes up with the speed. and it goes down when the speed goes down.
3) (dont believe its a transmission) I dont believe that the sound co-incide with the car shifting. Its more on the speed of the car. Maybe bearing????
4) its not really that loud that you will fear it for your life but kind of an annoying sound. The stereo can easily mask it, but without the stereo, you can definitely tell that the sound is there.
5) the sound does not go out even if i press the brake (maybe its the brake pads) when stopping.
6) and its not a rythmic/repetitive sound like a tire rubbing or something....
7) only when the car moves. tried it when car is stationary and in neutral and rev the car.
anyone have experience with this? wish i could record it, but im not sure it will get it right...
What brand tires? Keep in mind, these are not the quietest cars...
You are correct. It could be the tires. But to answer your question, its not a branded tire but they are all (4 of them) new as in less than 100 mile new. It still have colors on it.
Now if only i can isolate it... i guess i have to borrow a set of 4 wheels and tires to factor it out.
when you remove them it makes a humMMMM sound on acceleration
But i think it does not goes with the acceleration... whether you accelerate or not or even deccelerating, the sound is consistent with the speed of the car and not the speed of the rpm...
so i think trife has a point. Maybe its the tires.
but guys, keep it coming.... many heads are better than one.
Your description sounds like a bearing, but it could be in the hubs or even the transmission. Sometimes the sound stays and sometimes it goes away. You can try replacing parts until you find it or wait until the whine turns to grind. Or sometimes it just goes away.
You could jack up the front of the car (both wheels off the ground), start the car, put it in gear and try to replicate the sound. If it goes away, then you have a couple of options:
1. It is coming from the rear.
2. It may be dependent on the angle which the drive shafts operate in. You could support the lower control arms to bring the suspension to roughly the same level as if the wheels were on the ground.
3. The sound may be load related, which really would point towards either tires or bearings. As for the tires, you could play a bit with the tire pressure and listen if the sound changes.
If the sound does not go away with the wheels off the ground, just try to locate it and go from there.
You have a very good suggestions. I will try those this weekend.
I will just make sure that my hand brakes are on so we dont have accidental runaway in my garage???
oh btw, its not the tires. i replaced it from my other car and still the same.
thank you all guys,
will report back as soon as tested Ganda's recommendation.
humming, mosty wheel bearings, try to drive on different areas,
This is my first guess also, I just need other people's observations on theirs... from my limited knowledge, Im under the assumption that if the bearing is bad, you can hear it when your slowly turning your car in either direction. But if this is also another symptom of a bad bearing, then this is new to me...
well, a bearing going out is usually more noticeable when turning at faster speeds...not slow speeds. You can sometimes hear it since it's under more strain when cornering at faster speeds. And depending on which side is going out, you might only hear it in left turns or right turns
I would think that turning at slow speed is more likely to reveal a problem with the CV joints, mostly klicking sounds.
I remember a worn bearing on a 1980 VW Jetta but it made a bit oscillating sound. Pitch of the sound was going up and down a little. "Wowowowowo" sort of thing The speed of the pitch changes was correlated to the speed of the vehicle.
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Corolla 93 1.6l 89Kw DIY mods 
The speed of the pitch changes was correlated to the speed of the vehicle.
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