What could this sound coming from my car be?

[DJames93]

My car makes a slight humming/droning sound at 35-40mph. I had my passenger record a clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaTeDSZBWpM

Take a listen. Initially, I am doing 40mph, and ease off to 30mph between 8 and 12 seconds in to demonstrate the difference in sound, speeding up again at 15 seconds where you can hear it increase. It is relative to road speed and not engine speed or gears. 50 mph and above, I don't really notice it.

Any ideas what this may be and if I should be concerned? Could it just be tyres?

It's doesn't sound obnoxious, very rough, or as though something is broken, but I'm curious. Not sure if it is wheel bearings or simply tyre noise? steering does not seem to effect the sound.

[Saleen836]

Sounds just like road noise to me from the tyres

[GreenV8S]

That does sound like tyre noise. They can be quite noisy sometimes, and it can depend on the road surface and the tyre block pattern, tread depth, temperature and so on.

[ReverendCounter]

I think it can be caused by the sidewalls of the tyres as well. I seem to recall some manufacturers had to update their tyres due to this some years back, not sure of there was a change in legislation or something which meant they were now above the threshold.

[andygo]

Is it a Golf? My wife had this a few years ago on her company Golf TDi.

For some reason the rear tyres were feathered - eg the tread was oddly worn. When she took it to the local VW garage, the mechanis came out and said, 'it'll be your back tyres'. He was right, even though it sounded a bit like a wheel bearing. Worth having a look.

[p4cks]

I knew this would be a mk7 GTI before evening watching the video - mine did exactly the same!

Mine had the larger alloys (19" I think) which exacerbates the problem and it drove me mad... certainly sounds like a wheel bearing but likely that the rear tyres need replacing and needs them adjusting.

[DJames93]

p4cks said:

I knew this would be a mk7 GTI before evening watching the video - mine did exactly the same!

Mine had the larger alloys (19" I think) which exacerbates the problem and it drove me mad... certainly sounds like a wheel bearing but likely that the rear tyres need replacing and needs them adjusting.

This is a Polo GTI mate (mk5, 2016) but I imagine they share some of the same OEM kit. I do think it might just be tyres though, I'll be upgrading them to some premium kit eventually. Something tells me that a bearing would be much more noticeable in terms of the sound.