Road noise in fr-s
 

Can I get away from road noise in my frs if I change from a low profile tire (215/45/17) to a (205/50/17) touring tire?

Road noise in my frs
 

Should I switch to a touring tire instead of a low profile tire?

You're confusing tire design with tire size. You can have low profile touring tires.

You would be better served to buy a tire that gives you the handling performance you're looking for and then putting sound deadening inside the car. These are noisy cars with very little sound deadening. Any tire will have road noise, some worse than others. You can't get away from it, only minimize how much of it gets inside the cabin.

Taller profile could improve comfort but road noise associated with tires is pretty much a function of tread pattern. The two attributes are relatively independent. It's probably true, though, that "touring" tires tend to be quieter. Tire Rack can provide info on which tires are noisier. Their chat function puts you in touch with people who can help.

As the previous post suggests, you may want to consider whether the noise you are objecting too is related to tires at all.

Stock tires are LRR. So, you are not really going to get quieter. Low rolling resistance tires are the most efficient. Which is why toyota puts them on the prius.

Add sound deadening mat, turn up the stereo, or get some studded tires. Then take them off, it will sound quiet in comparison. Just saying that it is fairly quiet stock. The car is 88db. My s2000 was 96db stock...

Low rolling resistance tires are extremely noisy!!! It is easy to spend 80 a tire and get more grip and very quiet. The lrr tires are like using plastic wheels.

This is a sports car, not a GT car. The sound deadening material is minimal. In fact I like to hear the small rocks or even rain hitting the wheel arc area.

Correct. I blocked off the intake noise generator which helps. With the Supercharger this juvenile device is discarded entirely. Now pushing in the clutch to coast at 70 mph literally makes no difference to the sound level.

These cars have very little sound deadening from the factory. Noisiest car this side of a Cayman in which the stock engine noise level can actually reach pain threshold!

Road noise=racecar

Exactly. On my very first test drive I got maybe 100 yards down the road and was hooked.

I'm old enough to know that Subaru has deliberately and successfully tried to recapture the pure mechanical excitement of driving. The big difference from the old days? Complete anvil like reliability compared to those old sportscars.

I owned an Alfa Romeo GTV6, 2.5 l V6 putting out a then impressive 150 hp. This BRZ is the spiritual successor to cars like that. The BRZ would run circles around any of those old cars. And never break down while doing so.

What is that?

Trying to avoid roadnoise in a sportscar is like trying to avoid calories at McDonalds.


You don't.

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If you want quiet, get a touring tire in the stock size. It will be quieter, at the expense of performance elsewhere.

Tha car's appendix. One of the most ridiculous things ever on a car.

Almost all the noise is road noise which of course originates with the tires. However, touring tires quiet enough to reduce road noise will be pretty disappointing handling wise. I would not do this.

Topped by BMW and others who produce "better" engine noises for the cabin through the car's stereo system. Their turbo engines don't make the right noises for the marketing department. I agree, just ridiculous. Ironically, journalists all complain that the engine rounds terrible. It sounds great if you just take the dumb sound generator off the engine.

At least the Subaru contraption just amplifies real intake noise. Kinda like a muscle car with the air cleaner lid reversed doncha know. Hear that powerrrrrr

The OP's complaint is road noise. Your solution is to not reduce road noise?

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...Speed+Rated%29


About an 80% (Subjective to my hearing)reduction in road noise over the stock ones but still with a ultra high performance tire that is truly amazing. I will never buy another type of tire again.

NEVER. NEVER EVER AGAIN!

never.....

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"]Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up - YouTube[/ame]

oh yeah....... I pictured Tcoat singing this to his tires.

Yup. Only solution is to strip out interior panelling, glue in some dynamat or similar and make the metal panels heavier so they will be quieter. There is no other solution. Softer tires just ruin the car.

I have these also. I wouldn't call them quiet exactly. Pirelli P Zero all season plus would be quieter yet.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests...y.jsp?ttid=216

Available from the same link, just connect to the comparison test.

Dig a little deeper and you find out how Pirelli bests Michelin and the previous gold standard Continental DWS.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests...r.jsp?ttid=216

Don't choose the Pirelli s for snow!

Quietest I have ever had on a car but have never tried the Pirellis. How long have you had yours on? How they holding up? I based the whole purchase on the fact that all the reviews were great (with the normal few guys that hate everything thrown in) and have to agree that they are a very good tire.


Looks like most reviewers do not agree with which is quieter.

Great suggestion. Changing tires is clearly a less effective solution than gutting the car and adding 200 pounds of sound insulation.

If you are adding 200 pounds, you are doing it wrong. I am amazed at how many people misunderstand dynamat and the like... small applications are as effective as full coverage without all the weight. You are trying to dampen the resonant frequencies of the metal, not cover it or make it heavier. Light weight fibrous insulation does a much better job at absorbing sound than dynamat once you have controlled resonance.

When I see a car that has stripped the interior and done full coverage of dynamat or a similar product, I shake my head at the monetary waste, excess weight, and lack of fundamental understanding...

I'll just don my flame suit and leave the thread now...

The P Zero A/S plus is newer than the Michelin. In 2013 when I bought my Michelins the equivalent Pirelli was not so good. I drive about 10,000 miles a year split equally between summer and winter tires. Let us say I do not try to save my tires, smoke em regularly because after 5 years from the DOT stamp they're no good for grip anyhow.

No question the Michelin is the better tire in cold weather and nearly as capable as the Pirelli when used as a summer tire. Snow grip is pretty impressive for the Michelin when you consider how grippy it is in hot weather. Notice the tiny biting teeth in the tread grooves? They really work on snow if it's not too cold.

Let me defend the factory choice of the Primacy. A very light tire with good grip wet or dry. The Primacy suits the power level admirably. Doing all this again I'd modify the shocks and springs before I laid out good money on replacing the fairly good Primacy.

My point is that there is no solution. Subaru knows all about road noise. If they thought it could be reduced without spoiling the car they would have.

Fitting higher performance tires is a bit of a no brainer but increases road noise and uses more fuel. Sometimes the factory does know better.

You are of course correct. There are a few places where a bit more sound deadening would make a big difference. The footwells under the felt you refer to that the factory used, for example. The door skins. The rear parcel shelf and inside the rear fenders. I'm betting there's almost nothing on the underside of the roof and it is paper thin high strength steel. I would never add any weight up there regardless of noise. Dynamat works by changing the weight of the steel panel it gets stuck to. Felt works by creating interference waves inside the tiny air passages in the felt. Totally different process. Dynamat type stick on sound isolation is very heavy per unit of sound reduction. Factories use an asphalt pad essentially partly melted onto the panel to change the frequency with which it vibrates. Heavy and effective.

With my Supercharger I know for sure removing the underhood sound proofing makes no difference whatsoever.

UMMM I don't think you are talking the same tires as I am. The Pilot Sport AS3 PLUS just came out about a year ago so you didn't get this version in 2013. They are in no way comparable to their predecessors the AS3.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea...300203155.html

The only thing I found that put any AS performance tire (and many summer ones) was what you posted from Tire Rack. Every other site I checked put the Plus well above the Pirelli. Like I said though I do not have an opinion on the Pirelli since I have never owned them.

I didn't mind the stock tires at all other than they were noisy as hell and expensive as shit to replace. The only reason I replaced them now was they were getting to be dangerous to drive on. since they had so many highway miles on them.

So, fitting higher performance tires to gain traction is acceptable, but fitting lower performance tires to make it quieter isn't - even if noise is the primary complaint. LOL What a stunningly narrow view of the world.

That is even if assuming that higher performance tires have to be noisy. They don't.

Just for the sake of argument, let's say they do. Fitting quieter tires would thus improve the car from the owner's perspective, not ruin it.

Anything you want to do is ok by me. These cars don't need any improvement to be enjoyable.

High traction tires are a bad idea unless you also fit forced induction. I'm coming around to the idea that the factory chose very good tires in the Primacy. Unless you have a lot more power fitting grippy tires spoils the car somewhat. I still enjoy driving my BRZ on winter tires, even with 260 hp. I'd fit better shocks before better tires, if doing this again.

Trying to reduce the road noise is pointless and impossible to achieve by any reasonable method, or I would have done so by now. The road noise is appalling, but then the engine noise in a Cayman is inexcusably loud. I can tolerate the road noise in preference to Porsche engine noise. Cars used to be quite noisy. The BRZ is much quieter than say a 1966 Triumph GT6 which it otherwise closely resembles.

Well, no because the car would still be too noisy and the quieter tires would handle very poorly with the stiff springs and shocks the stock car comes with. So no improvement along the lines intended and making the car otherwise a lot worse.

Certainly, any owner could do this but it would be a mistake. Even the quietest available tires would be very noisy. The Primacy is already a quiet tire.

Since you want to argue.

Another outstanding piece of advice. I need to write this stuff down...

I found that the underpanels reduced road noise a bit at highway speeds. But I don't have rear seats so results may vary.

I am on RSR Super Down lowering springs, stock power, and now have the gripper and much, much, MUCH quieter tires. Other than having to work a little harder at breaking the rear end loose do not feel for one second that the handling has been made worse. In fact I really like the improvement in handling a have in my daily driving scenarios. The noise is easily reduced by well more than 50% and I am now hearing rattles and clicks I have never heard in the 3 years I have driven it. I spend a minimum of 14 hours a week driving it with 98% of that time at high speeds on the highway so am pretty sure I know that it is much quieter now then it was on the stock tires (we won't even bring the noise the snows made into the debate). This assertion that the car can not be made quieter with different tires is not realistic.

Not true at all. Many threads here, even with dB measurements says otherwise. For a few kgs of weight you can make the car significantly more quiet.

If quietness is a priority probably best to choose a different car.