Splash Shield Noise caused by Worn Tires?

I have a 2023 TRD Pro owned since new. 25K miles in one year. Has OEM Nitto Terra Grapplers. Lots of hwy driving including a few long-distance road trips with fuller loads. Decent gravel mileage and some offroad but nothing crazy.

Long-story short: (1) tires had OK tread left but were no longer good (for me), and (2) the splash shield rattle magically went away after I got new tires. Perhaps it's just me, but I reckon that many who have the splash shield rattle really have tire-vibration issues.

After the last service and tire rotation, noticed some minor front-end vibration particularly upon braking and also around 50pmh. Almost like a rotor issue upon braking but could tell it was the tires. Wasn't bad at all (my wife didn't notice) but I'm pretty OCD. I would think most people wouldn't have noticed. Also around that time but perhaps before, also developed the dreaded splash shield rattle in the front wheel wells but more prominent on drivers side (very annoying and took a while to diagnose). Took it back to the dealer and turned out one of the tires was seriously out of balance and needed a lot of weights to get balanced. Dealer also said these types of tires tend to get out of shape and often don't last as advertised. I didn't have the vibration before rotation but he also said out-of-balance tires are not as noticeable in the rear. Did the balance and rotation with the worst wheels in the rear and was a little better but eventually felt the same as before. Splash shield rattle also still present. So then got two new tires thinking the other two (which were better balanced) had perhaps another 25k miles. These tires are rated for 50K miles and some here have gotten that much. A bit better but still had some vibration. Also, noticed when compared to the new tires, the tread on the original tires didn't look as good as i thought (probably had 5-10k miles max), where it would have made future tire rotation useless with the new ones. So, bit the bullet and bought the other two tires for a whole new set. Vibration all gone, drove like it did before, and the splash shield also disappeared. Happy camper again.

In the end, in my personal experience, I don't think i can get more than 25K miles out of Terra Grapplers with how we drive. OK tread left but the tire vibration/noise is too much. And I could be wrong, but I suspect that others who have splash shield rattle likely have tire issues. Just providing more data points!

 

What you described has happened to almost everyone who have had Terra's. Those tires are probably the worst tires ever.

 

Yea, fully aware of the reputation! But I never had any issues with these tires through 25K miles (including in the rain), but felt pressured to get these again as I needed new tires ASAP before a big trip and it's what the dealer had.

 

Your splash shield will move solely on air movement under the fender well. The OEM pins that hold them are not necessarily the tightest, there are other threads that mentioned this issue causing noise.
I initially placed a small amount of silicone at each pin under my splash shields until I upgraded to ARKSPLASHSHIELDS.
The tire issue may have increased your splash shield issue.

 

Thanks. Yes, the shields, which are like a fabric, are definitely quite loosely affixed, presumably from new, and I would imagine move a lot from the wind. I was just saying that I've never had the noise issue other than when having tire vibration issues. Literally stopped as soon as I replaced all four tires. I imagine that with all the play in the suspension, and even with all the usual wind buffeting, there was more vibration when driving that I would have noticed normally, causing the shield to rattle more.

 

I purchased my 2022 a couple months ago and it has those tires. No problems on the highways or backroads yet. I couldn't get a date or mileage of installation on these tires from the dealer - it was a trade-in. They do have about 11/32 remaining, so I wasn't planning on replacing them for a while. Do you know the tread depth when you were having this concern? Just curious for comparison.

 

Sorry, didn't measure them. And while the tread looked good enough when I was originally poking around (where I didn't even think to replace them), the wear became obvious when I was able to compare them to the new ones. The inner tread was more worn than the outside. Hard to tell, but I think I only had another 5-10K miles max left on those tires.