What would cause a strange noise in a car, above 30 mph that sounds like a combination rattle and buzz?

Get it into a shop for brake check, maybe the pads are wearing down to the audible sound strip.

@Tropical_Willie No, the brakes were just done a while ago. This wasn’t a chirp, it was a constant rattle and it got louder if I accelerated. But it wasn’t rpm related. I coasted and had the engine up to 4000 rpms and no noise. It started at 32 mph.

Is the vehicle FWD wheel drive or AWD?

it maybe a bad CV joint.

Back the vehicle up with the windows open and see if you hear a scraping noise. Turn the wheel back and forth too.

@Tropical_Willie It’s all AWD. Good idea. I’ll check that. It’s definately driveline related.

rattlesnake and bumblebee? sorry I couldn’t resist.

@Daisygurl To late in the year for either, @Adirondackwannabe is in upstate New York.

I know it is. just thought it was funny. trying to be upbeat tonight.

I liked both answers. I can use some upbeat. :) Thanks both of you.

How many miles on the vehicle ? ? Had a Subaru that I had to put a new half axle or CV joint on every three or four years, I had it for 13 years.

It’s a 2003. Never had a problem before. I’ll go underneath it.

A piece of plastic body trim loose?

Look for a torn boot on the CV joint or an oily area above the CV joint. And @woodcutter has a good idea.

Okay, both good answers

Tires may need to be rebalanced. It could be that one or more of little lead balance weights came off your tires and that could make a big difference the faster that you drive. You can drive around town slowly OK with such imbalanced tires but you had better not try to drive on the freeway like that.

A tire shop will balance your tires at a low cost.

@gondwanalon I will look tomorrow. Great idea.

Check out the connections on the flexible spray shields under the engine compartment and around the front wheel wells. It sounds like one might be coming loose and either rubbing against the tire or even folding under the car and rubbing on the road. I had that happen once (more quickly than you’ve described), and while I was puzzling over “what is that weird sound coming from under the car all of a sudden?” one of the wheels rolled over it, ripped it off and it was in my rear view mirror. “Oh, that’s what it was.”

Check the CV joint and the tire balance.

My car started doing that, and I had to replace the center support bearing.

This is precisely why I have a good sound system in my car. When this happens, I crank up the volume so I can’t hear the noise.

It could be the motor mount. I hope it isn’t. It isn’t a cheap fix.

At the end you say, “then it went away.” Does that mean the sound stopped occurring as you increased to even higher speeds? Or that it completely stopped and didn’t return the next time you were at that 34+ MPH range or ever since?

When I’ve had imbalanced wheels, I could feel the vibration through the steering wheel. When my CV joints went bad, the sound was worse when going around a curve and the wheel was bearing more weight – I also felt the vibration, and it was more pronounced at lower speeds. Admittedly, neither of those problems has occurred in a couple decades, so maybe design changes have resulted in different symptoms, but it seems such a vibration would occur consistently and worsen until it is fixed – it wouldn’t intermittently go away.

If you did not noticing any changes in how the vehicle performs, it could be as simple as some uneven wear on the tire, if you’ve had to brake hard a few times or hit a curb, for example, but that would also be consistent. If the sound is mow gone completely, you might have picked up some road debris that is rubbing against something, or a stone in the tire tread. Or, as others have noted, it could be caused by something way more serious.

Looks like you’ll have to get a good look underneath to get a better idea. Good luck, and please report back on what is found to be the culprit!

The noise just disappeared, so I’m guessing it was some debris that got stuck in the brakes or wheels somewhere. The handling never changed and the noise didn’t change with turns. It must have come loose and got out of where it was making the noise.