Excessive Tyre Noise

[guineapig]

Hello,

I picked up my new Octavia Ambiente 1.9 TDI 2 weeks ago and within the first couple of days noticed a lot of tyre noise - a constant scraping / grinding sound changing to a broken howling noise at higher speeds (not changing with the road noise).

My dealer replaced the of side front wheel bearing, which quietened it down somewhat, but didn't cure it completely. I took it back to them, but they couldn't find anything wrong with the car.

I'm now left thinking that it could be either the tyres (Dunlop Sport SP 01s) or is it possible for a new car to need the tracking and wheel alignment sorting out as it's the only thing left that I can think of.

Can anyone help with this one as it's starting to really annoy me (not to mention deafen me on A roads)

Thanks,

guineapig

[DGW]

My Dunlop SP Sport 2000 tyres are very noisy on some road surfaces.

[Nick P]

I've got an 05 plate 1.9TDI on factory fitted Bridgestones and the tyre noise is very bad. Interestingly I also had my front offside wheel bearing replaced which quietened things down a lot.

[Christian]

I currently drive a Renalt Megane and must say that I am impressed with how little tyre/ road noise there is in it. So while trying out potential new cars, and among them the Golf and the Octavia I must say that these have more tyre and road noise. With the 16" wheels it no problem, and the ones I tried had Brigdestone Potenza ER30 on them. I also tried an Octavia with 17" Pegasus and there was alot more noise coming from tyres/ road, I couldn`t believe how much difference there was. But as they say, sometimes 1" can make a hell of a difference

What kind of tires do people prefer? Seems that most Octavias get either Bridgestone or Dunlop, and from what I gather, none of them are great. I currently drive Continental sport contact and they are good.

[guineapig]

Did you have the tracking re-aligned? I only ask as this is my last port of call before I start complaining to Skoda customer services as my wifes 13 year old Polo is infinately quieter than my Octavia.

[guineapig]

I currently drive a Renalt Megane and must say that I am impressed with how little tyre/ road noise there is in it. So while trying out potential new cars' date=' and among them the Golf and the Octavia I must say that these have more tyre and road noise. With the 16" wheels it no problem, and the ones I tried had Brigdestone Potenza ER30 on them. I also tried an Octavia with 17" Pegasus and there was alot more noise coming from tyres/ road, I couldn`t believe how much difference there was. But as they say, sometimes 1" can make a hell of a difference

What kind of tires do people prefer? Seems that most Octavias get either Bridgestone or Dunlop, and from what I gather, none of them are great. I currently drive Continental sport contact and they are good.[/quote']

I used to have a Laguna II with 17"s on and ended up with Continentals on and that made the car really quiet, although the ride was still harsh. I would have thought that with 15"s on that the ride would be better - it is, but the noise is really appalling -definitely somethings not right with the Octavia - the car on the testv drive was quieter.

The Dunlops that are on the car at the minute are terrible - the demo car had Continentals or Pirellis I think.

[Nick P]

Yeah, they did the wheel alignment after replacing the bearing. I think they mentioned that they altered the geometry slightly too.

[guineapig]

Yeah, they did the wheel alignment after replacing the bearing. I think they mentioned that they altered the geometry slightly too.

D'oh! I don't think my dealer did anything like that...and as the car only had 400 miles on the clock when the fault was discovered, I wonder if it's worth me getting the alignment done just to check....

[Toneboy]

I have Dunlops on my Estate and found these tires to be very noisy and harsh riding on the UK roads and I even dropped 2 psi all round in an attempt to soften then ride and noise, which worked partially.

However, I drove some 10 days in Normandy and can honestly tell you that on the majority of the major roads, not just auto routes the road noise was so quiet that my wife asked me what the slight whirring noise was. It was the fan blower whirring away on low speed.

Your and my tire noise is down purely to the UK's crap road surfaces and the thumps and bangs the numerous pot hole and bumps.

Don't you feel great to live in Britain where your taxes are well spent for your benefit and comfort?

[Richard Jenkins]

Can't beat Michelins for ride comfort and lack of road noise.

Richard

[ednmra]

My Bridgestones aren't bad but there is a tremendous drop in noise when you go on to those new motorway surfaces - I think it is the stuff with the ground up old tyres in it. I doubt that they will ever put that on non-motorways.

[Taztastic]

I agree with Toneboy, having just come back from Finland were many cars are still fitted with studded tyres, British road surfaces are absolutely appalling in comparision. Although a friends Octavia with Dunlops does make an excessive amount of roar from the tyres (17"). My local dealer has a demo car with 18" wheels on a Elegance and it is very quiet, must find out what tyres that one has?

I am awaiting delivery of my car, hope it gets some quiet rubber...........

[guineapig]

Well, I've reduced the tyre pressure in the fron to 30 psi & 28psi at the rear and (touch as much wood as possible) the noise levels have been reduced (albeit slightly).

There's still a rough broken howling noise coming from the off side front, but judging by the way the rear tyres are warm only on 2/3rds of the surface and the front tyres are starting to get a bit feathered on the outside edges, would I be correct in thinking that the wheel alignment is out?

[guineapig]

***Update***

Ok, got the wheel alignment checked and it was spot on. Re-checked the tyres and found that they were down a bit (to add to that when the car was collected at the dealer i think they'd put enough air in for the 195/65 tyres as opposed to the 205's which I have and need less pressure) and still the noise persisted.

On way back home on a 150 mile journey last night, the howling started to become more prominent, so this morning took it into a dealer and...

Yes!!! It's not my imagination, there is a noise there and it is noticeable, but it's not loud enough to pinpoint where it's coming from and what could be causing it.

I can understand that as the acoustics in the new Octavia are a bit strange - I had my bag on the back seat (pasenger side) last night and an alarm went off on my PDA. Instead of hearing the sound from the back, it sounded like it was coming from just infront of me to the right. So in theory, the howling sound could be coming from anywhere at the minute.

Just got to pile the miles on and wait for it to get louder. Cheers for all the replies. I'll keep it updated when more happens.

guineapig