Droning Tyre Syndrome

Author
Discussion

ToothbrushMan

Original Poster:

1,770 posts

125 months

Monday 10th March 2014
quotequote all
Anyone else had this?
What makes of tyre were they?

Last year I was convinced a rear wheel bearing was on its way out as it began making a droning noise above 30-40mph. Drove me mad. My garage said its one of the tyres, they see it a lot and so I didnt believe them as I had never heard of this before. Of course they were right and so I went back and had a new tyre put on....the noise stopped (well so far after only 2,000 miles). That was a new Toyo T1-R to replace the Toyo that was on there.

3 years prior Id had a full set of these Toyos new and had no noise issues until they wore out.

Now I am getting a similar but deeper noise from the front (maybe because its a FWD with all the weight on the fronts) but its mainly in the 60-70-80mph range. Its there building up speed but if you back off the throttle its quite boomy/drony and the noise drops with the the car natural loss of speed. You get below 60 and shes fine. I had the front tyres new in Dec 2012 and theyve done just 9,000 gentle miles. the centre 3/4 still look fine with some scrubbing on the edges. pressures are OK. no wheel vibes and no odd tyre wear patterns.

I have been chasing possible engine faults but today it struck me that maybe yet again the engine remains in fine fettle and it could be the Toyo tyres again. I admit they arent the most expensive boots on sale. I paid £68 per tyre and if it is these Toyos I think I will be coughing up for some more premium rubber - what should I avoid though because spending more is still no guarantee of a nice quiet tyre? these toyos have a Db rating of 71 but thats from new.

on the flip side what tyres can PHers gladly recommend as a decent all year rounders that will do at least 15,000 well treated miles and not make any noise or keep it to acceptable levels? Ive checked just about everything on the engine and cannot find a single thing that would explain the drone. My budget can probably push to around £120 per boot. Its an old car hence I dont want to spend silly money.

We arent being invaded by poor quality rip off tyres are we that carry genuine names that sound OK for the first few thousand miles then begin to whine/drone?

ian_touring

585 posts

205 months

Monday 10th March 2014
quotequote all
Er, turn the music up?
HTH

Meltham Terrier

322 posts

133 months

Monday 10th March 2014
quotequote all
I had an issue with the back tyres on my Saab going out of shape and making a similar type of noise.

I was told this May have been caused by towing .


ToothbrushMan

Original Poster:

1,770 posts

125 months

Monday 10th March 2014
quotequote all
ian_touring said:
Er, turn the music up?
HTH
No, it doesnt, not in the slightest.

Still at least we can move on now to the sensible replies from proper PHers.....

willmagrath

1,208 posts

146 months

Monday 10th March 2014
quotequote all
Ive got this, the tyre is warped apparently

cptsideways

13,546 posts

252 months

Monday 10th March 2014
quotequote all
Crap tyres I see this all the time, castelated they call it.

Very common on wound up 4wd transmissions too

heners54

286 posts

139 months

Monday 10th March 2014
quotequote all
I was told it is more the car than the tyres that causes it, happens on longer wheelbase cars more than smaller ones. Our signum flatspotted the rear tyres over time and lead to this noise, different tyres and it still happened.

rat840771

2,023 posts

165 months

Monday 10th March 2014
quotequote all
Had this on my passat B6. A known problem called sawtooth.

I removed the rear tyres as they had done 50k then put the fronts on the back and the problem was solved.

I think its caused by the set up and geometry of the car. I recall seeing irregular wear on the tread that looked like a 'saw' hence the name.


rat840771

2,023 posts

165 months

Monday 10th March 2014
quotequote all
Had this on my passat B6. A known problem called sawtooth.

I removed the rear tyres as they had done 50k then put the fronts on the back and the problem was solved.

I think its caused by the set up and geometry of the car. I recall seeing irregular wear on the tread that looked like a 'saw' hence the name.


s p a c e m a n

10,777 posts

148 months

Monday 10th March 2014
quotequote all
I had a pair of continentals on the back of my old audi that made a sound like a wheel bearing had gone, drove me slightly insane trying to find out what the noise was.

lescombes

968 posts

210 months

Monday 10th March 2014
quotequote all
Had this issue on my Bongo 4wd Camper.... on Directional Tyres...when changed for Asymetric pattern... silence

nottyash

4,670 posts

195 months

Monday 10th March 2014
quotequote all
The Maxxi MAZ1 can be bad on some cars, as can others with the V pattern tread.
Good tyres though.

V8forweekends

2,481 posts

124 months

Monday 10th March 2014
quotequote all
Had it with (bloody expensive) Pirellis on my 2005 Jag XJ TDVi. I'd had pretty much everything in the suspension replaced and aligned, too. They wore in a really odd way and became noisy.

Had it with a single tyre on the rear of this manky A3 I've got too - but it was some cheapo hedgefinder that was due for replacement anyway. Now on Continentals all round and very quiet.

ToothbrushMan

Original Poster:

1,770 posts

125 months

Tuesday 11th March 2014
quotequote all
heners54 said:
I was told it is more the car than the tyres that causes it, happens on longer wheelbase cars more than smaller ones. Our signum flatspotted the rear tyres over time and lead to this noise, different tyres and it still happened.
I am inclined to agree with you because after lots of googling and internet searching I cant really find any one particular make of tyre thats prone to this droning than the next one. Every car is different, different driving wheels, ride heights, stiffness, front/rear/all wheel drive, age, driver style etc.

I will be swapping my front and rear wheels today and go for a quick drive to see if this narrows down the noise to tyres. I have a hunch it will be them.
Car was sat for 6 weeks last year but I made a point of rotating the wheels 180 degrees every week-i dare say this period of inactivity may have been either the catalyst for the wear issues or at least speeded it up.

Seems 60-70mph is about the only common factor in terms of the speed the noise seems to set in badly with most complainants.

Pappagallo

755 posts

153 months

Tuesday 11th March 2014
quotequote all
I bought a set of used OEM wheels and the front tyres on them were terrible for this. They were Dunlops. I told my brother about it and he said he'd had the same problem with Dunlop tyres in the past.

I would recommend Kumho as a good value alternative.


jon-

16,509 posts

216 months

Tuesday 11th March 2014
quotequote all
Directional (like the Toyo) tyres are very prone to this. Uniroyal moved away from directional with the Rainsport 3 in part due to noise via irregular wear:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeYo3oGrcKQ&li...

Frances The Mute

1,816 posts

241 months

Tuesday 11th March 2014
quotequote all
cptsideways said:
Crap tyres I see this all the time, castelated they call it.

Very common on wound up 4wd transmissions too
It's nothing to do with the tyres. It's how the tyres are presented to the road by vehicle geometry which generates an uneven, circumferential wear pattern.

There are other factors such as road camber which can affect it, but it's largely as a result of too much positive toe-in.
Early Renault Scenics used to suffer this a lot in particular as their rear axle geometry was set up to maintain stability at motorway speeds but a lot of FWD cars of this type are set up similarly.

V8RX7

26,863 posts

263 months

Tuesday 11th March 2014
quotequote all
Local mechanics swear this was always a Jap car issue but now affects other makes.

Usually solved by rotating the tyres.


ManOpener

12,467 posts

169 months

Tuesday 11th March 2014
quotequote all
What car are we talking about here? There are a few that are known for rear tyre drone when the rear alignment is out, the Mk5 era Golf and all those based on it (Leon, Octavia, A3 etc).

Godalmighty83

417 posts

254 months

Tuesday 11th March 2014
quotequote all
We get a lot of people come in for wheel alignments due to this, alignment wont cause stepping on the tyres, it can cause offset wear but that wear would be consistent to it's area of the tyres and all the alignment in the world wont help.

Usual culprit is weak shock absorbers.