Kurt,
Actually, the noise gets *worse* with slight turns to the left or right, with the turn to the right making a bit more noise than a turn to the left. I know it's tough to describe a noise with words in posting to a discussion forum, but I've used the term "howl" in my initial posting. It sounds to my uneducated ear like really noisy tires, almost like what you hear from those huge 4x4s with off-road tires when they zoom by on the highway. Other Contour owners with these tires report that the Continentals are relatively quiet (especially compared to the Goodrich KDWs), so unless I've gotten four bad tires (highly unlikely), the problem has to be with the suspension.
Thanks so much for your opinions and I'll get the wheel off this weekend to see if I can feel any play in the hub. I'm also going to take the car into a tire place (not the one that mounted the tires) that I trust and see if they can diagnose what is going on.
Lee K
