Got Hearing Aids; Hey My Car Makes Noises I Wasn't Aware Of!

When we are young we do many Young-N-Dumb (it's one word) things .

One of those many for me was not wearing proper ear protection. I rode motorcycles for several years without wearing ear plugs until some friends told to wear them. I worked in the shop banging on things without ear muffs and I'm sure loads of other ill advised things.

Today I got hearing aids; holy cow what a revelation. I was able to hear most conversations fine but anytime there was background noise it then became difficult.

There is a range that is particularly effected and that's now back

I can actually hear the turn signal flasher in my car and when I got in and slotted it in gear I could actually here a faint little click as first gear engaged. This is just amazing.

I posted this for any of you who've noticed hearing loss and might be reluctant; it's like regaining sight. 

I'm afraid I'll be in the same boat sooner or later–I listened to music too loud on the bus back in middle school. (The bus was loud and the headphones were crummy–and yes, I've since learned my lesson.)

I'm glad that things are working out for you.

On a less serious note, does this mean that when your car makes a concerning noise, you can just turn down your hearing aids and act like the noise isn't there?

In reply to Colin Wood :

That is the plan......turn off the hearing aids the instant I hear a rod knock.

Kind of the opposite from the old saying where if you hear a noise, just turn up the radio.  

I'm in the same boat when it comes to conversations in noisy areas, people sound like Charlie Brown's teacher.  I've been putting off doing anything about it for now.

stuart in mn said:

Kind of the opposite from the old saying where if you hear a noise, just turn up the radio.  

I'm in the same boat when it comes to conversations in noisy areas, people sound like Charlie Brown's teacher.  I've been putting off doing anything about it for now.

 

Go get them...........it's really amazing what you're missing.

I get an annual physical and as part of that I started getting my hearing checked. There was some very minor loss but 3 years ago it was noticiable. This past December the doctor cleared me to getting hearing aids.

Again I am so surprised by what I was missing.

Wife mumbles and I argue and she says my hearing is bad.  Who sat in the third row at a Van Halen concert in 1979 and now can't hear?  Not me lady.

Costco has free hearing tests.  I went to prove my hearing is fine and it was/is.  My wife won't go not wanting to know?  Huh?

Need good tweeters or headphones to be accurate.

https://onlinetonegenerator.com/hearingtest.html: Online Tone Generator

And here I thought it was because she was mumbling, not my hearing.....  

We always have the closed captions on the TV now......I've discovered all sorts of things being said that I didn't understand before!

Same story as original poster. I shopped all over and asked everyone who would talk to me and came to the conclusion Costco was my jam. At least 3 times the money bought no where near that in value elsewhere IMO. That was from an audiologist's office and Truhearing, a company my insurance has some agreement with. 

I get them next week. Getting old is cool in some ways, but this isn't one of them. I coulda bought car parts!

In reply to carbidetooth :

My insurance paid 100% of the cost.

They are indeed crazy expensive but worth it.

I'm nearly 45 and played in a band when Shure wireless in ears we're only 2 channel in the early 200's. I almost always played with one ear out...I'm pretty sure my hearing is smoked. I have to cup a hand behind my ear and lean forward to hear a conversation clearly in a restaurant. Is this similar to what you were experiencing? 

In reply to MiniDave :

My wife and I prefer to keep closed captioning so much that if it's been turned off, we joke with each other that we "can't read our show." 

What!?

Too much '70s rock turned up to 11 and metal fabrication for me. I've lost most of the higher frequencies and also have problems with background noise

I'm not to the hearing aid point yet but I'll probably end up there eventually. 

My wife keeps telling me I'm deaf because I don't hear what she says. I keep telling her she knows that and should speak louder. She doesn't laugh nearly as much as I do. 

Toyman! said:

I'm not to the hearing aid point yet but I'll probably end up there eventually. 

 

 

Oh, I'll bet you are, but you won't know it until you did what Tom did. I know I didn't realize how bad bad was until I put my hearing aids in the first time.

Reminds me of a story when the Audi LMP1 drivers first tested the really quiet diesel car. They pitted saying the car was making strange noises but it was the tires and suspension they had never heard over the engine before.

Anytime I was as an audiologist and explained my symptoms, they put me in a sound booth and tested my hearing.  100%.  They why do I get ear pain in my left ear in loud situations and need to sit on the right side of someone to hear the conversation in loud situations.  

Reading above it sounds like I may need to go again.  I'm only 46 but been playing with loud racecars since college. 

In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :

It really doesn't bother me if I can't hear someone speaking. The odds are high I didn't want to hear what they had to say in the first place.

It's a win/win for me. 

My buddy got his at Costco too, it's been interesting watching him get them dialed in - you use your phone to set all sorts of parameters, and you can set several different "scenes" like quiet conversation, driving or loud areas like a football game or race.

The other interesting thing is they act like a little Bluetooth speaker, in that he can receive phone calls thru his - so you only hear his side of a conversation, but he can clearly hear what someone is saying on the phone, regardless of the outside noise.

Likewise, if he's watching a YouTube video or a movie on his phone, he can hear the sound, but no one else does - pretty fun stuff. Super expensive and of course they have to be recharged......

My issue is even the silicone plugs I wear at the track or if I'm doing a long drive in my classic Mini tend to hurt after an hour or so, I don't know if I could wear a hearing aid for even that long. Not real anxious to find out yet.

I also tell my wife to speak up, she knows I have hearing loss......

Datsun240ZGuy said:

Wife mumbles and I argue and she says my hearing is bad.  Who sat in the third row at a Van Halen concert in 1979 and now can't hear?  Not me lady.

Costco has free hearing tests.  I went to prove my hearing is fine and it was/is.  My wife won't go not wanting to know?  Huh?

It's kinda funny, the misunderstandings and puzzlement - until it's not. My wife is pretending that her hearing loss is not an issue, but it very much is and is affecting our relationship. It's to the point that I don't discuss things because it's a battle of misunderstandings. Perhaps worse is that she subconsciously covers it up by guessing what's being said. This has led to embarrassing conversations with people, where we'll be asked a question, and my wife will say "yes" and I'll say "no." Watching a movie is less enjoyable because she can't follow the dialog, so gets bored and starts talking about her day, assuming that I'm listening 100% to her now. She'll also ask about what's going on in the movie when it was just explained by the characters themselves.

I have suggested that we both get our hearing tested, but she doesn't think she needs to. I would joke that our dog understands me better than her, but it's well past being funny...

When I drove both Kimini and Midlana, I always used foam ear plugs. Kimini was loud mostly due to the engine, and Midlana was loud because of... everything. The wind whipping around the sides of the flat windshield was like someone constantly pummeling me with a pillow, then add on traffic noise, tire noise, and engine noise.

Oh, and when I'm working in my shop, I'll put in the Apple noise-canceling earbuds when doing something noisy. They aren't really intended for that but work pretty well. 

I will be getting them soon. A water pump explosion was the straw that broke the camels back years ago and now my right ear is very compromised.

We never used hearing protection of any kind. Tuning race engines in a metal building at WOT was exciting and exhilarating. Little did we know.

Even as a kid on the farm we shot rifles with out hearing protection.   

Protect your ears kids unless you want to be that older person that keeps asking others to repeat things to you. 

I've been a lot better about wearing my ear muffs when grinding or doing anything loud in the shop the last few years.

MiniDave said:

I've been a lot better about wearing my ear muffs when grinding or doing anything loud in the shop the last few years.

Same here.  I always keep a set hanging on the snowblower for when it gets used, so I've gotten in the habit of just grabbing them whenever I'm doing anything else noisy in the garage. 

My wife has been hard-of-hearing since age 4 (fever-related hearing loss).

We use sign language in loud places, because her hearing is so shot that hearing aids are a band-aid. 

Protect your ears, folks. It's worth looking dorky. 

In reply to MiniDave :

What do you call "super expensive"? Mine were from a local audiologist office and were $5K.......if Costco units are good and significantly cheaper I may go there when the time comes.