My V50 has suddenly start making (in my opinion) louder than normal rumbling noise. As it seems to change depending on the road surface my first thought was the tyres might be faulty. They are only about two and an half years old and done very little mileage. The tyres are Goodyear Efficient Grip. As the car is an automatic (Powershift) I cannot seem to turn the front wheels to see if there is any play from bearings etc.
Any assistance would be appreciated.

Spotty

 

If the noise changes with road surfaces, there's a very good chance it's just the tires. They do get a lot noisier as they wear down, and as they age. And if they're run-flat tires, they start out noisy, and get worse from there.

You might have to lift both front tires off the ground to rotate the wheels to check the bearings, though you can check for bearing play without rotating the wheels (just feel for any play when you grab the tire at 12 and 6 o'clock, and at 3 and 9 o'clock (keeping in mind that you might be able to deflect the steering a little on the latter).

 

Thanks, I did check for bearing wear and didn't find any so suspect it is 'only' the tyres. They are not run flat ones. The tyres have only had about 2500 miles on them. Of course, with covid the car has been standing idle for long periods.

Cheers

Spotty

 

Tires can flat-spot pretty quickly, and pretty "deeply" if the car sits for a long time, and that can cause a noise that could be interpreted as "rumbling" (since all four thumping at different times will be a whole lotta thumping)...