Apart from replacing four near-new tyres, are there any suggestions for reducing the amount of tyre roar I experience on coarse road surfaces? I know I could pull out the seats and carpet and install foils, but I really don't want to go that far. I had thought about removing the cardboard-like wheel well liners and putting some form of sound absorber into the wheel wells. I'm not looking for an expensive, elaborate or difficult solution, just something relatively easy to take the edge off the noise.

 

Maybe try lowering the tire pressure just a tiny bit by a couple PSIs.

 

The easiest and likely most cost effective means would be to get a nice set of Michelins. Love the tires on ours.

 

What kind of tires do you have? And I thought the new wheel well liners were supposed to dampen road noise. You might want to try putting some noise blocking material like dynamat in the cargo area floor. Cost should be minimal. That will probably help.

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

Bridgestone Duellers - standard equipment here in Oz. I'll no doubt replace them with Michelin or similar when they're worn, but I don't want to throw away a perfectly good set of tyres to reduce the noise.

Well maybe, but they seem pretty flimsy to me, and I doubt they achieve anything at all, other than keeping mud off the metal.

I might try that. Though most of the noise seems to be coming from the front. I might remove the liners and install Dynamat in there (then put the liners back on). Is Dynamat suitable for a semi-exposed external part of the car?

 

Tried that - no perceptible difference, but thanks for the suggestion.

 

I thought the Bridgestone tires were pretty quiet ... could there be something wrong with one or more of your tires? I have also noticed that the RX can be very noisy on some road surfaces. If that is your problem, you might want to drive a different route to avoid the bad road surface. At any rate, the cheapest, easiest fix is to get a new set of tires. Maybe you can get a small credit for your used tires.

 

check your PSI!

 

I've checked all the tyres - nothing visibly wrong. It's definitely a matter of road surface, though. On my daily commute I go over sections of near-new open-graded asphalt which is almost silent. On other sections where the asphalt is much older I get the roar. I think I'll just have to put up with it until I've had some more life out of my tyres.

 

Yep! Regularly.

 

No tire will be immune from road noise. With not note, Dueler that came as OEM was fairly quiet but my current Primacy MXV4 is absolutely the quietest tire I have used but it to aren’t immune from road noise and it varies depending on surface. Best bet is to properly rotate and add additional “air”. Not all Mich are “quiet” so do your homework for your next set.

 

Interesting, I thought the Duellers were decently rated. Maybe not the best but certainly not the worst. I don't have any experience with Dynamat so unfortunately I can't help you on the question about applying it in a semi-exposed area. I assume you're talking about the wheel well. It's worth a shot if you can do it. The only benefit I can see from the new liner material is not hearing the rocks when they hit it. It's just a great big dirt magnet to me.

Another solution to the road noise, turn up the stereo. That'll drown it out for sure, LOL! Seriously I hope you can find something to help. Good luck.