Tyre Noise

Geraint Thomas

Active Member
Jun 24, 2019
204
33
Is the mk3 leon fr 1.4 bad for tyre noise? Recently I've noticed that at anything above 55mph and the cars noisy. Tonight I dipped the clutch as I was going along to see if the noise got any better, incase its transmission related but no difference. The car has the 18 inch wheels fitted. Thank you.
 

BigJase88

Jase
Apr 20, 2008
3,767
1,069
I've got the factory Potenza on and can't complain too much.
The factory potenza’s although lacking in any kind of grip are a very quiet tyre.

i changed to goodyear eagle f1’s the new 5 series and give better grip but did increase road noise, was a trade-off.
 
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SteveGSXR600K1

Active Member
May 6, 2017
573
187
I thought I had the start of a rear wheel bearing issue. I changed the factory Potenza rear tyres to PS4s the other day and noticed that noise has gone. Very pleased!
 

Geraint Thomas

Active Member
Jun 24, 2019
204
33
These tyres were on the car when I got it. They aren't very old. I was wondering if the tyres would make that much noise. Sounds like a wheel bearing noise, not sure if that's what a noisy tyre would sound like.
 

BigJase88

Jase
Apr 20, 2008
3,767
1,069
These tyres were on the car when I got it. They aren't very old. I was wondering if the tyres would make that much noise. Sounds like a wheel bearing noise, not sure if that's what a noisy tyre would sound like.
Cheap budget tyres make awful noises, get yourself a nice mid range tyre and the difference will be night and day, do not have to break the bank something like a yokohama , toyo , kumho , maxxis will suffice. car dealerships put the cheapest crappest tyres on to sell cars, I have seen performance cars sitting in dealerships with wingwongtingtong tyres on and I just walk away shaking my head everytime, believe it or not the tyre is the only thing that connects the car to the road
 
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SRGTD

Active Member
May 26, 2014
2,388
1,279
@Geraint Thomas; Tyre noise does tend to increase as the tread wears down - generally, irrespective of brand. Some types of tyre wear can sound like worn wheel bearings - I had this on a mk5 Golf where the rear tyres suffered from stepped / sawtooth wear on the inner edge - not uncommon on cars with independent rear suspension - and it did sound like wheel bearing failure.

However, I would always steer clear of budget ditchfinders, and if I bought a car that had a set of these fitted, I’d change them for something better.

As @BigJase88 has said, you may need to rely on your tyres to save your life at some point. I’d go as far as to say that IMO tyres are one of the most important but most overlooked (by many) safety features of a car - you’re relying on those four small contact patches of rubber between you and the road for safe, predictable handling and grip, and there’s a greater chance that these characteristics will be missing from cheap ditch finder tyres.
 

KXL

KXL
Dec 15, 2016
1,581
197
London, UK
Prestivo pv-s109
I've actually never heard of these tyre before, as the other say, the tyres are the only thing that can save your life...more prominent in the wet, so basically if the car in front of you (on good tyres) brake hard, and you brake, despite leaving sufficient distance, it is likely you will hit them, at least judging by tyre tests and their wet braking distances between premium and budget.
http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2019-Auto-Bild-Summer-Tyre-Test.htm
Have a look here, even the differnce between the 'best' and the worst (midrange) tyres is 5 meters wet braking. I can't imagine the best and the budgets!
 

ChrisM75

Active Member
May 10, 2019
423
182
I've actually never heard of these tyre before, as the other say, the tyres are the only thing that can save your life...more prominent in the wet, so basically if the car in front of you (on good tyres) brake hard, and you brake, despite leaving sufficient distance, it is likely you will hit them, at least judging by tyre tests and their wet braking distances between premium and budget.
http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2019-Auto-Bild-Summer-Tyre-Test.htm
Have a look here, even the differnce between the 'best' and the worst (midrange) tyres is 5 meters wet braking. I can't imagine the best and the budgets!
Auto express did a test and the best to worst was horrendous. So bad were the worst (a Wanli) that a wanli car following the best tyre equipped car with a 2 second gap at 50mph would hit the best car up the back at 30mph if they both hit the brakes at the same time.

Its proof that the new tyre labelling scheme is utterly worthless since there is nothing about the budget makes labelling that implies terrible performance.
 

Rockbox

Active Member
Apr 6, 2018
162
52
The other thing that you could try is find a road with two types of road surface if the noise changes as you go from one surface to another it's the tyres if it stays the same it's a bearing.
 

Rooster

Active Member
Oct 27, 2018
1,188
326
Yorkshire
The noise is most probably coming from the inner tread blocks of the rear tyres, which will have some feathered wear due to the camber and toe in, run your hand over the tread blocks and you might find it smooth going one way, and rough going the other, the only fix unfortunately is tyre replacement. Lots of Main Dealers (not only Seat) have mistaken this noise for wheel bearing noise which has cost them dearly!
 

Mr Pig

Active Member
Jun 17, 2015
2,614
906
Car dealerships put the cheapest crappest tyres on to sell cars...

True. The FR I bought a while ago had low tread and when I pointed this out the dealer, a Seat dealer, said he'd put four new tyres on the car. I asked him what kind of tyres? Yip, cheap ones. I said I wouldn't run a car with tyres like that on it and asked for money off the car insead, which he agreed to.

And yes, cheap tyres can be very noisy. Big wheels make any road noise worse so it matters more.
 

SRGTD

Active Member
May 26, 2014
2,388
1,279
The noise is most probably coming from the inner tread blocks of the rear tyres, which will have some feathered wear due to the camber and toe in, run your hand over the tread blocks and you might find it smooth going one way, and rough going the other, the only fix unfortunately is tyre replacement. Lots of Main Dealers (not only Seat) have mistaken this noise for wheel bearing noise which has cost them dearly!
I had this on the rear tyres a mk5 Golf and yes, it sounded just like a bad wheel bearing. You could see and feel the stepped / sawtooth profile of the inner tread blocks on the tyres. More common on cars with independent rear suspension, but not exclusive to independent rear suspension set up.
 
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Mr Pig

Active Member
Jun 17, 2015
2,614
906
I had this on the rear tyres a mk5 Golf and yes, it sounded just like a bad wheel bearing.

I bought a Golf with two different cheap back tyres and what I thought was bad wheel bearings. Noise vanished when new tyres were fitted.
 
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Rookiereece

Active Member
Jun 6, 2019
55
6
I put on a Set of Pirelli Pzeros a few days ago and despite the wheels being an inch larger the difference in both comfort and tyre noise is huge, I certainly wont cheap out on tyres ever again :footysup:
 
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