No doubt been talked about before but please help me as l am new to the forum.

I previously had a Mk2 estate which suffered with bad road noise inside but l now own a Mk4 hatch and thought the road noise would be less.

Wrong!!!!!!!!!!!! it is very noisy.

It is currently running on Goodyear Efficiency tyres, can anyone recommend quieter tyres?

Also has anyone done any easy sound proofing that worked?

Thanks

John

 

The Search Function on this (and any other) Forum is so useful when used!!! 

 

 

 

 

They skimp on the soundproofing on the Octavia no matter the model. You need to go superb if you want quiet.

 

If you follow guides above you will be surprised how little there is. Mine is a lease car so all I can do is turn the stereo up

On 04/07/2024 at 17:58, Novascape said:

They skimp on the soundproofing on the Octavia no matter the model. You need to go superb if you want quiet.

 

If you follow guides above you will be surprised how little there is. Mine is a lease car so all I can do is turn the stereo up

Turning the stereo up will just damage your hearing quicker.

 

Honestly I think in 2024 there should be laws about the level of sound deadening that's acceptable. The Octavia is far from acceptable on rough surfaces.

10 hours ago, mccririck said:

Honestly I think in 2024 there should be laws about the level of sound deadening that's acceptable.

Tbh I think in 2024 we could have come to some standard in road construction. There are countries which manage to build brilliant roads which don't hold water and don't produce much noise. I see no reason why all surrounding countries would not adopt the same tech. Otherwise, no matter how much you spend on tires or sound deadening in the car, it is still the road what makes the difference.

Edited 8 July, 20241 yr by Edela

18 minutes ago, Edela said:

Tbh I think in 2024 we could have come to some standard in road construction. There are countries which manage to build brilliant roads which don't hold water and don't produce much noise. I see no reason why all surrounding countries would not adopt the same tech. Otherwise, no matter how much you spend on tires or sound deadening in the car, it is still the road what makes the difference.

I absolutely agree about road surfaces. I don't think tyres are the main issue at all btw its the level of soundproofing. But why does the UK have such noisy road surfaces? Why is it allowed? Arent these noisy surfaces also higher in friction and thus less environmentally friendly due to increased emissions?

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for decent road surfaces that's why l am trying "quieter" tyres and some sound proofing.

On the subject of road surfaces a resident in our area, Buckinghamshire, has just video recorded council contractors filling in pot holes. 

A gang of 3 blokes, one driving the vehicle while his 2 colleagues shovelled some asphalt off the back of the truck into the holes.

They then pushed it around with their feet and stamped on it. Highly professional and technical.

That is what our council tax pays for, some chance of getting roads resurfaced!

I think filling in potholes it isn't necessary to be too pedantic. It's a patch repair.

15 hours ago, mccririck said:

Turning the stereo up will just damage your hearing quicker.

 

Honestly I think in 2024 there should be laws about the level of sound deadening that's acceptable. The Octavia is far from acceptable on rough surfaces.

All good points - however, I just moved from a 12 year old diesel VW to a three year old petrol Scala and the decibel drop is such that it feels like I am driving an empty church building!!! 🤣

30 minutes ago, Happy_owner said:

All good points - however, I just moved from a 12 year old diesel VW to a three year old petrol Scala and the decibel drop is such that it feels like I am driving an empty church building!!! 🤣

Well the diesel Octavia I had before the IV had loads of engine noise. I actually wore noise cancelling headphones when driving on the motorway.

I imagine changing the tyres won't make much difference. If you search the make and model up you can find the tyre label for the decibel reading. I think the goodyears are around 68-69db which you don't get quieter than that. Seen the odd 67 but nothing lower.

1 minute ago, Blue8793841 said:

I imagine changing the tyres won't make much difference. If you search the make and model up you can find the tyre label for the decibel reading. I think the goodyears are around 68-69db which you don't get quieter than that. Seen the odd 67 but nothing lower.

Decibel rating on tyres is for external noise not cabin noise 

Of course but it's relative

2 minutes ago, Blue8793841 said:

Of course but it's relative

It's actually not.

So a tyre with a higher dB rating is going to be quieter in the cabin?

2 minutes ago, Blue8793841 said:

So a tyre with a higher dB rating is going to be quieter in the cabin?

You can't tell. Cabin noise is mostly noise transmitted through the tire into the chassis. External noise is not. Tyres which make a lot of external noise can actually be quieter inside.

So how would you find the quietest tyre for cabin noise?

2 minutes ago, Blue8793841 said:

So how would you find the quietest tyre for cabin noise?

Test them all on your car with a decibel meter inside.

I suppose you could glue some foam to the inside of a standard tyre

15 hours ago, Blue8793841 said:

I think the goodyears are around 68-69db which you don't get quieter than that.

I agree with mccririck. Factory fitted goodyears were the most noisy tires I ever got, despite having lower dB value than others. Basically tire noise and tire performance are always about combination of particular tires with particular car. Even the same tire models but in just a different size perform and sound differently on the same car model.

Edited 9 July, 20241 yr by Edela

@Bikerjon, 

What size wheels and tyres are fitted?

Do you know how many miles they have done?

How much tyre tread is there left on the tyres, front and rear?

Is there any evidence of 'saw-tooth' wear?

What tyre pressures do you run?

Is there any indication that a tyre(s) had punctures repaired with plugs?

When was the last wheel alignment?

All these factors can have a major effect on cabin road noise.

 

My experience with Michelin Primacy tyres fitted to my mk3 was that over the last 15k km of their life that the road noise became much worse (even on smooth tarmac), as did the ride, so much so I thought there were spring /damper issues.

Fitted Continentals (purely on best price at the time) and normal sound levels and as new ride characteristics were restored.

 

As discussed by others Skoda don't fit much (any?) sound-proof material, but I have been in worse cars. A hire Toyota Corolla hybrid that was absolutely awful on Australian coarse tarmac highways but silent on smooth tarmac and also surprisingly bad was a new Merc C Class on the North M25 concrete sections. The latter might have been due to higher expectations though.

20 hours ago, Blue8793841 said:

I think the goodyears are around 68-69db which you don't get quieter than that.

I also posted more than one year ago my own experience with the GoodYear that were factory fitted - they were awful in terms of cabin noise! I could have told whenever the asphalt texture/quality was changing along my trip, even if I would have drove with my eyes closed!
However, as soon as I changed the summer tire set to the winter one - based on Bridgestone Blizzak LM005, I had a totally different car! Quiet as a feather!
IIRC the noise rating on the summer GY is better than the one of the Blizzak, but in real life, on this particular car - it was the other way around.

 

2 minutes ago, SkOmk4 said:

I also posted more than one year ago my own experience with the GoodYear that were factory fitted - they were awful in terms of cabin noise! I could have told whenever the asphalt texture/quality was changing along my trip, even if I would have drove with my eyes closed!
However, as soon as I changed the summer tire set to the winter one - based on Bridgestone Blizzak LM005, I had a totally different car! Quiet as a feather!
IIRC the noise rating on the summer GY is better than the one of the Blizzak, but in real life, on this particular car - it was the other way around.

 

I find it hard to imagine that a change of tyres would eliminate the difference between loud and quite tarmac. I have Pirelli P7 on mine and can easily tell the difference and of course you could do it with your eyes closed it's so obvious.

I never said I had a set of tyres that made it impossible to notice the difference between loud and quiet tarmac, did I? 😁 
I only said that the Blizzak made a huge difference in terms of cabin noise, compared to the factory-fitted GYs. I could still hear the difference between loud and quiet, but both surfaces were less noisy than they were with the summer GY. I'm talking about the same roads, same driver, same car load and same tyre pressure to be more precise.

I wasn't methodical enough to make some cabin noise measurements, but I was not planning to convince others that there's a significant cabin noise difference between the two sets.

I put some soundproofing in boot and under back seat.That and some P Zero Pirellis made a big difference.