I was chatting with a CSR on Tire Rack, as my cheap Chinese tires that came brand new with the car are finally wearing down. They are noisy as hell and I want them gone.

So I did a little research and found that the quietest tire is the Continental with the "Contiquiet" foam on the inside, which unfortunately is unavailable in the 245 45 R19 size.

My research showed that summer tires are quieter. Or that All season are quieter. The internet can't seem to make up its mind.

My takeaway is that summer tires available in Europe that aren't focused on performance might be the quietest available. But we can't get them in the USA.

Can anyone point at a source that may have the answer?

 

You may as well also ask which battery or engine oil is best. You'll get different opinions all day long. But, I hope someone will provide an answer you like.

 

@swfla first time I read I thought you said "You may as well also ask which battery oil is best." XD.. I've read 1 too many emails today.

 

I have Good Year Eagle RSA on mine and they are great. And that size 245/45/19 is what mine has also. They are not cheap though. But that size is kind of the culprit too. I had a friend with me on a short road trip cruising 75mph and my car is so quiet he made the comment that it was like sitting in his living room.
Well I never thought of it that way but there you go. They are also good in the rain as well.

 

Michelins seem to be the consensus on the best tire, for the most part. As always, there will be a variety of preferences. Michelins are known to be quiet and smooth. I run them on my ES. People laugh at me, but I buy used from ChampTires online; usually can get a 10% off code. I just picked up some 9/32nds (they come 9/32nds new), Michelin LTX Primacys for my wife's GX. 2 or 3 have plugs/patches that were done correctly.. Less than $600 shipped to my door. New would've set me back around $1200--and they're almost new.

Some will argue that used tires are "unsafe" or what not. They inspect and test the tires before they sell them. What happens if you buy new, pull out of the tire shop, and run over a bed of nails? Unless you buy replacement, no questions asked, road hazard, you'll be patching/plugging 4 tires as long as it's not near the edge of the tread. I've purchased tires like this for almost 20 years without a problem.

Everyone has a preference and many won't like mine, but it's an option.

 

mannye - I'm not sure how you've determined that summer tires are quieter. Could be true. I have my doubts though. If it is based on ratings, those ratings (on TireRack) are "relevant." I'm not sure I can explain it well.

Let's say a summer tire gets a 9.4 rating for comfort / noise. And then a Grand Touring tire gets a rating of 9.2 for noise. I don't believe this means that the summer tire is more quiet. The way I understand it is that the 9.4 is a relevant rating compared to other summer tires. The same for the Grand Touring tire. The 9.2 is a relative rating compared to other Grand Touring tires. I would think it possible that the 9.4 rated summer tire might be plain ole noisy compared to a 9.2 rated Grand Touring tire. But that likely the 9.4 rated Summer tire is the quietest Summer tire of all Summer tires. I hope that made sense.

Back to the quietest tires, I personally would tend to stick to a Ground Touring tire for ultimate quietness. Years ago, I put on Pirelli Cinturatos, that were the best rated then, and may still be. They started out really quiet. They're not horrible now. They're pretty much wore out now though, and they are not good now. Perhaps I wear my tires down more than most before I change them. However, I've not had a Michelin tire change so drastically as it wears as these Pirellis have. They're not horrible, but I will not buy them again. As far as the ultimate quiet tire, you might want to check out the comfort / quiet ratings on the Bridgestone Quiettracks. Ultimately if I were going to buy right now, I'd probably buy the Michelin Primacy Tour A/S. They are rated 8.9 for noise (same as the Quiettracks), versus 9.0 for the Pirelli Cinturatos. But my feeling is that once these tires get to 50% wear or greater, the Michelin will be the better tire from 50% down to the nub (0%). I guess what I'm saying is, I am assuming the ratings are likely based on the tires when they are new. And that long term, I believe the Michelins to be superior to the Pirellis.

 

Pirelli Cinturatos is what I used to run on LS400, they were damn dead quiet. I have Michelin Cross climate 2 on the LS460, they make noise at low speeds (sub 40).

 

@7milesout can you tell me the use of "Beat-Sonic Navigation / DVD Bypass Module BB4618". I bumped across it when I was looking for grom vline alternative. Does the beatsonic system has any use case in 2023? I think the nav is way outdated, does it allow you to play videos or screen mirror something.

 

On the 460's, when the car starts in motion, many of the touch screen features gray-out and become non-useable. When that happens, touch the Beat-Sonic button and all the features go back to active. Very handy. There's one minor drawback. It makes the vehicle think it is standing still to accomplish this, so the Nav just stops where it was when you pushed the button. So you lose the navigation as long as the button is pushed. However, once I'm done pushing buttons on the screen, I turn off the Beat-Sonic and after about 30 seconds, the nav system figures out where the vehicle actually is. Of course in this day and age, the nav system is very outdated, so I could really not gave a fat crap about this drawback. I'd much rather have the features work. I can let my passengers watch a DVD movie while driving with this feature.

I don't know what it may or may not do with a 2023 (assuming you're talking about the LS 500).

 

I'm using 245/45/ZR19/XL Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4. I like these tires. Pretty quiet and comfortable ride, stable at high speed. I believe these are OEM tires for this car but I might be wrong here.

 

The foam is really just for taming some specific problem resonances. Think of the sound a basketball makes when it bounces.
If it came down to foam, or no foam version of the same tire..always go with the foam, but the difference is often very very small.

Agreed about GT tires. That's really the main point of them. Several of us are on P7 AS Plus 3 and like them. Smaller wheels would also help.
Too bad there isn't more scientific testing of NVH on the reviewer end.

If noise weren't a factor, PS4 all day. I also really like Cross Climate 2 tires for winter driving.

 

There are a lot of quiet tires. Bridgestone and Michelin tires are two of the best tire brands for our cars. When it comes to run flat tires Michelin makes a quieter tire but one will sacrifice miles when needed to replace. Although I did not like the Bridgestone run flats at first i have a 100 reasons why they are the best run flats and might be the best tire for our heavy ls500s. They do get quieter on nice highways, they hold air, don't look flat, great sidewall with a great edge that protects from curb rash on wheels, can handle pot holes, long lasting not worn out at 20,000 miles, can handle whatever you throw at it, highway debri, glass on city streets, etc. Yes, there are alot of quieter tires, these take a licking and keep on rolling. Hope this helps.

 

Where I live we experience four seasons and the winters tend to be pretty harsh (Eastern WA State). This year is the first time I've put a set of Michelin Cross Climate 2's on and I would definitely recommend them to anyone as a true "all-weather" tire. The noise isn't too bad either, but if winter weather is not a concern I would also recommend the Pirelli P7 Cinturato's as others have stated. Used a set as my summer tires (Blizzaks for winter) before this and they are extremely quiet and comfortable. Got 3 summers out of them but I must be pretty hard on tires as I never get the "expected" life out of any of them.

 

On my other car the Cross Climate 2s hum a little below 40 mph (not annoyingly though), or when giving the beans you hear the squish of the rubber. Otherwise fairly quiet. Are they similar on the LS?

 

Typically the more tire groves the noisier they will be, but the premium brands like Michelin stagger the tread patterns on their All Season tires so they have a noise canceling effect. Most likely the tires your going to find with foam in them will be vehicle specific (Tesla) so the internals of the tire might be different to promote even wear on a specific vehicle, so if you put them on your LS they may not handle the same. What was your debate with Tire Rack?