Tire Noise?
 

My car arrived last night, and I picked it up today. I've got about 100 miles on it, and I'm generally positive.

BUT...the tire noise is horrendous. I wouldn't be able to carry on a conversation with a passenger without slightly raising my voice at 70MPH. And it's all tire noise; if I clutch it, the noise persists (actually the engine's much quieter than I expected for a $28K car).

Is this...'normal'? I've not read many other complaints about this.

I realize a lot of it's based on comparison to what one is accustomed...but this is louder than my Corvette (on 325/30 rear and 275/35 front runflats), and louder than my daughter's Mazda2 (which is kind of a tin can).

Let me clarify - I'm asking if a large amount of tire noise at highway speeds is normal. I'm not asking for lectures such as "it's lightweight, you can't expect sound deadening", or the like. If it's normal, it's normal, and why isn't really important.

If it's not normal, then I gotta figure out why.

Let's start off with: What kind of tires was your car equipped with?

The only ones available - the Primacy HPs.

Don't know if BRZs got them, but some FR-S come with Bridgestone all-seasons.

Yes, a lot of road/tire noise is perfectly normal. I am also suprised how loud the BRZ is on some surfaces, even at lower speeds. Switched to Michelin Super Sports, still just as much noise.

The tire noise is absolutely awful. That is the first thing I noticed on my drive back from the dealership. Easy fix. News wheels and tires.

-Acree

I think the road noise has a lot to do with the profile of the tire.

What tires did you choose? I don't have a lot of experience with current performance tires; I've got Bridgestone RE050s on the Corvette, and they're a little quieter than the Michelin PS2s it came with (although both are acceptably quiet, especially for runflats).

Reading reviews at Tire Rack, it seems as though for every person who says "this tire is quiet", there's someone else who says it's too loud...

The stock Bridgestones and Michelin PSS I've had on mine. Road surface dependant but overall they both make a LOT of road noise.

@Jayde is correct and I too am not sure about BRZ stock tire. As of recently, I believe almost all Canadian FR-Ss and most of the FR-Ss sold in the colder climates of the US are equipped with all-season Bridgestone tires.

It has been known for low rolling resistance tires to be relatively louder than your typical stock econo tires as the rubber on these tires are much more compact. In addition to the compactness of the rubber is the fact that new tread will always be relatively louder than worn tread. Finally, based on your profile you live in a northern state so maybe the salt that is left over from the salt trucks due to the winter conditions is adding to road noise. I live in Central Florida and these tires have not gotten so loud to the point of being abrasive to my eardrums, however when I was driving on the downtown Atlanta highway it did get fairly loud but never to an abrasive point.

I found some information from Tire Kingdom that sheds some light on low rolling resistance tires. I hope this helps.

http://www.tirekingdom.com/tires/Tir...ce-Education.j

My experience (and just about every review on the Tire Rack site agrees) is that tires are most quiet when new, which contradicts that article. I've never had tires get quieter with age.

I can't count the number of times I've bought new tires and been amazed at the drop in noise...when I'm replacing like with like!

I don't know what tires come on the FR-S, or in Canada...but in the USA, BRZs seem only to come with HPs.

I don't even know that it is the tires. The magazine reviews don't complain about noise - C&D even complimented the car on noise levels.

I'm wondering if alignment might be a problem, or something else of which that I haven't yet thought.

Email Don @ www.sounddeadenershowdown.com and he can help you quiet down the car. :thumbsup:

I put Hankook Ventus V12's on my car, they are much quieter than stock.

Yes.

This was one of the first things I noticed about this car; I alerted my wife to it before she first drove it. The intrusion of road+tire noise into the passenger compartment is markedly greater than any car we've ever owned.

Wait until you run over a small stone that then gets kicked up into the wheel well or wherever; the sound is alarming! "What was THAT?!," my wife cried out in alarm.

If you replace the tires, thinking that to be the solution, I'd be interested in hearing your opinion of the difference between your new tires and the OEM Primacy tires.

I will be surprised if different tires result in a meaningful improvement.