OT: weird car noise

Hello

I am reaching out to anyone that knows about cars or lives with someone that knows about cars.

First I want to say my car is a 2009 Toyota Corolla...with maybe 30K miles.  So it's a fairly new car. 

Yesterday when I was driving home my car was making this sound that I immediately thought my tire was flat...but the flat tire light wasn't on but I still pulled into a parking lot to check it out.  All tires were fine.  Then I thought maybe there's a nail in one of the tires.  So I checked very carefully all tires and couldn't find any thing wrong with any of the tires.  I also checked to see if anything was hanging off the bottom of the car making the noise.  Still nothing.  

I take off out of the parking lot and the noise starts again...thump-thump-thump...it's not loud I can hear it clearly if my music is off but if the music is on you can barely hear it.  It sounds just like a flat tire or something that is in the tire...like a nail.  

I don't want to take it to a repair shop till I know what I might be looking at as far as repairs.  I don't really trust repair men (I have had some bad experiences).  

I am hoping someone here might be able to help.  If it's something major (which I doubt because the car isn't that old) I do still have my warranty...as long as it's something to do with the drive train.  
 

If you have recently had your tires rotated the tech may not have tightened the lug nuts good enough (this happened to me once). I would check that anyway.

the belts on the tire may be broke, the tire won't be flat but it is loud...mine are right now and I have just been to lazy to take it in.. or something maybe hitting the tire, was anything hanging?? My fiance is a mechanic but *surprise* he is in the garage tinkering at the moment. If I can get online while he is in the house I will share the post and see if he has any better ideas than I do..he's taught me well Oh if it is the belt, you will need new tires on either the front or back whichever it may be.

I had a Toyota once (great car, drove it about a zillion miles) anyhow.... I was still married at the time and my husband had changed a tire or something...idk, but when he put the I guess it would be a hubcap, it was just a decorative piece that snapped on to  cover the actual rim of the tire, anyhow, he left a small tool in there and every so often it would bang on the wheel and make a noise.  If you have had any tire work done recently might want to look at that.....I know it sounds silly...but that kind of a problem is the BEST kind....free to fix :) (well minus some elbow grease of course :)

Do you have a Les Schwab tire dealer where you live?  They will check it out for free and tell you what needs to be done.  they also fix flats for free.  I am guessing that any reputable tire store could access it for you for nothing 'cause they want to sell you tires.

I do also know that I have had 2 new cars whose tires were not the best quality and had to have repair at around 30K.

Good luck.

Shannon

This doesn't solve your problem but is a funny tale. I had a VW bug back in the day and you know they run for ever on air, never have problems. Well it started making this thump thump noise when I started to drive but after I got going it went away. Had a friend check it for me and when he took the hub cap off a lugnut was rattling around in there. It would make noise when I started but once centrifugal force took over it pushed it up tight to the hubcap and it stopped. I was sure it was something that was gonna cost a fortune, that I didn't have, to fix it.

This probably is not your issue, but the last time my mom had a strange noise in her car.. she had left a baking pan in the trunk and it had slid up to where she couldn't find it and it was rattling around.