Quiet Motorway tyres needed!

[Noisydog]

Hello,

I need to replace all 4 tyres because the road noise at 70mph is dreadful!
I've tried turning the stereo up, but then I get a headache.

My current 225/45/17 tyres fitted are:
Primewell PZ900
Autoguard SA802

Im considering fitting either:
Goodyear Efficientgrip Performance Noise class 1 (69db)
http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Goodyear/Efficie...
Or
Dunlop Sportmaxx RT Noise class 1 (67db)
http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Dunlop/SportMaxx...

Does anyone have any experience of how quiet either of these tyres are, of can you recommend something that’s very quiet for motorway use?

Thanks in Advance.

[Otispunkmeyer]

I bought some Dunlop Bluresponse things and they did make a good difference to the old bridgestones I had. So I imagine the Dunlops will be a good choice. However, the ones I have seem to use a very soft/squishy rubber so I was worried they'd be worn down quickly, but so far they are holding up well.

[Monkeylegend]

A lot depends on the road surface. I have Conti's on mine rated at 71db and they are almost silent on some surfaces and very noisy on others.

Could be an urban myth but I am sure I read somewhere that they made road surfaces louder where they want to reduce traffic speed. It is easier to drive faster on a quieter surface.

Both your choices should be ok based on their decibel rating.

[E38Ross]

If the decibel ratings are there not sure what else there is to know when it's directly related to road noise

As a guess, I reckon the 67dB ones will be quieter

[Monkeylegend]

E38Ross said:

If the decibel ratings are there not sure what else there is to know when it's directly related to road noise

As a guess, I reckon the 67dB ones will be quieter

Depends if they are metric or imperial decibels

[Jaguar steve]

These are drive by measurements. I have read some manufacturers are deliberatly designing tyres to deflect noise into the wheel arch to obtain better figures from a drive past - fktiffino how but if that is the case then the figures for a quiet tyre may actually mean it's noisier in the cabin than a tyre with worse figures.

As far as I know its only just possible for the human ear to actually discern the difference between a 3dB change in sound level anyway and if that is true it looks like all tyres will seem equally as noisy under the same conditions. Lots of tyre reviews suggest tyres all get noisier as they wear too so buying the quietest you can find may not mean it's going to stay that way.

No actual science in this, or recommendations for a tyre either - just what I've come across looking for quiet tyres for the Barge.

Black Circles, My Tyres and Pneues online all have customer reviews.

[anonymous-user]

I'd imagine pretty much anything decent would be quieter than what you've got now, but for what it's worth Conti PremiumContact are very quiet and I've used them on cars with "problem" tyre noise before now with good results.

The EU tyre tests might be fairly useless but they do at least give some sort of data - try sticking your tyre size into www.mytyres.co.uk as they let you sort the tyres by noise level.

[E38Ross]

Monkeylegend said:

E38Ross said:

If the decibel ratings are there not sure what else there is to know when it's directly related to road noise

As a guess, I reckon the 67dB ones will be quieter

Depends if they are metric or imperial decibels

Well considering tyre ratings are uniform across the board I'd say that's an irrelevant comment, smart arse

[Noisydog]

Has anyone on here tried the Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta ?
http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Vr...-Sessanta.h...

I've heard some people say they seem pretty quiet.

[ManOpener]

I've recently (yesterday) fitted a pair of Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2s to the rear of my Leon, absolutely astonished how quiet they have been so far compared to the Pilot Sport 3s I had on before.

[E38Ross]

ManOpener said:

I've recently (yesterday) fitted a pair of Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2s to the rear of my Leon, absolutely astonished how quiet they have been so far compared to the Pilot Sport 3s I had on before.

I'm running these all round on my car, they're bloody brilliant tyres. £750 for a set for me though!

[Janesy B]

I don't know what they are like compared to other tyres but I went from a pair of kleber no idea whats (they were on the car honest) to a pair of Conti PC5s on the front of my Focus and noise was reduced a lot even on noisier surfaces.

Ignore the EU ratings, they're bks.

Edited by Janesy B on Thursday 26th September 13:50

[ManOpener]

E38Ross said:

I'm running these all round on my car, they're bloody brilliant tyres. £750 for a set for me though!

I bartered with my usual garage and ended up getting them for £90 a corner in 225/45 R17. Can't find them for less than £110 online. Interestingly like-for-like replacing the PS3s would have been £690 with tracking.

[andy-ski]

Goodyear and Dunlop are the same company now.
I've had 4x Efficient Grip Performance fitted to my Alfa and they are nice and quiet a all speeds without resonating like some tyres seem to. Done 6k miles in as many weeks and I'm happy.

[Noisydog]

Well I guess I'll be choosing either:

Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2's
or
Goodyear Efficientgrip Performance as they both seem to get excellent reviews and a quiet tyre.

Anyone had any experience of the Dunlop Sportmaxx RT?

Thanks for your replies.

[Monkeylegend]

Jaguar steve said:

These are drive by measurements. I have read some manufacturers are deliberatly designing tyres to deflect noise into the wheel arch to obtain better figures from a drive past

I think the Merc W211? CSL suffered quite badly from this.

[mcdjl]

Noisydog said:

Well I guess I'll be choosing either:

Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2's
or
Goodyear Efficientgrip Performance as they both seem to get excellent reviews and a quiet tyre.

Anyone had any experience of the Dunlop Sportmaxx RT?

Thanks for your replies.

I've just got a pair of the sportmaxx on the front, much better than the marrangonis they replaced all round. I can't actually tell if they're quieter or if i'm imagining it as i know they should be from the db rating.

[EarlOfHazard]

Falken 453s are nice and quiet on the motorway, but as they' a sports tyre, they may wear down quite quickly..

[jkh112]

Jaguar steve said:

As far as I know its only just possible for the human ear to actually discern the difference between a 3dB change in sound level anyway

I think that an increase of 3dB would mean a doubling of the sound pressure, so it should be easily detectable by a human ear.

[Jaguar steve]

jkh112 said:

Jaguar steve said:

As far as I know its only just possible for the human ear to actually discern the difference between a 3dB change in sound level anyway

I think that an increase of 3dB would mean a doubling of the sound pressure, so it should be easily detectable by a human ear.

IIRC it's a bit more complicated than that. There's various weighting methods for measuring sound level - dB A is one - that compenstate for how the ear perceives sound pressure. I can't remember exactly how it all works but I don't think it's a linear progression so it could well be you're right about a actual doubling of measured sound pressure but I'm pretty sure a 3dB increase or decrease is only just audible to the human ear.

If you are right then a 67 dB tyre will he a hell of a lot quiter than say a 74 dB one, which is well worth knowing. If I'm right there's fk all difference and it's not worth bothering with