Road noise is unbearable

[paulr]

My Vibe is a 2003. 130hp. I had to replace original tires at 20000 miles because I thought my head would explode from the noise. My second set (Cooper) has about 30000 miles on them and for the last 12000 miles they have made the same noise. I can't afford to replace these tires every 12 or 15 thousand miles, although that is what it seems to take to keep them quiet.Is there a tire that is cheap enough to replace often and still quiet or something at any price that will stay quiet?I know that this car has some road noise but, normally is is not too bad. BUT, when these tires go I feel like driving off a cliff. Any suggestions?(No directions to steep cliffs please I already have those picked out )hahahaThanks

[joatmon]

welcome to genvibe!I have some bridgestone turanzas, had them put on about 35K miles ago and there is still lots of tread left. I think they are fairly quiet, especially compared to the tires on the little 4x4 pickup I was driving for the last couple of weeks, but I'm no tire expert.

[kostby]

Are you having the tires rotated and rebalanced every 5-7,000 miles? If you don't rotate (and re-balance) regularly, front-wheel-drive cars like the Vibe tend to get irregular wear patterns on the REAR tires that can make a LOT of noise.

[paulr]

yes, we rotate and balance the tires. We even had the rubberized coating put inside the wheel wells and it didn't lower the noise one bit.I like the car very much and yet this is a terrible problem. Thinking about just buying cheap tires and replacing often and then when the vehicle is paid for, trade it.

[sylvainber]

the key word is cheap tires...you have to pay for the better compounds and tread design.if you don't need touring performance from your tires, check out the goodyear assurance comfortread. they are better than the stock eagle rs/a and were designed for a quiet ride on luxury sedans. they cost more but the treadlife is very long (~80K mi)another option is to have the car undercoated. I had mine done when i purchased the car. i was told (anyone from the GM world can corroborate?) that gm undercoats their luxury brands to help quiet road noise. i have noticed that my vibe is quieter than the loaner i was given last time warranty service was performed on my car.my next tires will be goodyear assurance tripletread. i want more grip and long treadlife. i met a guy at the tireshop who had them on his accord v6 (for over a year) and he said he loved them (for handling, traction and quietness)sylvain

[pmh013]

I had the Continental OEM's on my 2003. I replaced them with a decent quality Pirelli, and haven't had nearly the road noise I had with the Conti's.

[tnpartsguy]

Hi, let me jump in the fray here....Goodyear Assurance ComforTred has 80K mileage warranty. Goodyear Assurance Triple Tread has 80K mileage warrantyBridgestone Potenza G009 (My personal choice on my Vibe) has a 50K mileage warranty.Bridestone Turanza LS-T has a 80K mileage warranty.Michelin Hydroedge has a 90K mileage warranty.Kumho 716 HP4 has a 50K mileage warranty.Kumho Solus KH16 has a 60K mileage warranty.Do yourself a favor when buying tires; research the product before you buy. Tirerack.com has a place on their website where you can see customers ratings, as well as test ratings. The one rating I weigh heaviest is the "Would you buy this tire again"Cheap is usually bad in tires. Yes, I am biased, because I sell tires, but at this store the profit made on tires doesn't cover the time it takes me to do the paperwork. Seriously, Gm has a very good tire program in place now, and shopping your dealer for price once you know what tires you want is a VERY good idea.

[tangerine]

There's one solution... Spend $1,000 and get your car a full body Hush Mat install. When I had that it was like riding in a lexus. Damn near soundproof. I could shut the windows and you couldn't hardly hear my subs going off inside except for the roof rippling because thats the one spot i didn't get a chance to get to before the accident.

[sloth]

Have you had the alignment checked? If not I would get that done. If your out of alignment you could be getting uneven tire wear and more noice.

[Atomb]

Quote, originally posted by sloth »Have you had the alignment checked? If not I would get that done. If your out of alignment you could be getting uneven tire wear and more noice.i think sloth hit it with this comment.i had similar issues and the resultant road noise was brutal. found out alignment was off..solved the noise once new tires were put on too!