Droning Tyre Syndrome

Author
Discussion

ToothbrushMan

Original Poster:

1,770 posts

126 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?

ToothbrushMan

Original Poster:

1,770 posts

126 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.....

ToothbrushMan

Original Poster:

1,770 posts

126 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.