Car tyres

norseman · 29 Oct 2019

Having a rear-wheel drive car (BMW 5 series) & with winter just around the corner I've had a complete set of Michelin cross-climate tyres fitted.
The reviews on these tyres is impressive & like all Michelins I sure they will wear well, but there appears to be one drawback … despite having a low noise rating of 69db they are noisier than the budget summer examples previously fitted that had a higher rating of 72db.
Has anyone else experienced ownership of these tyres?

Burnerman · 29 Oct 2019

An excellent choice, Mr. N......with any other choice of tyre you would be lucky to get out of your drive unless the Beemer was Xdrive.
Worry ye not about noise, I very much doubt if you would notice any difference.....the tyre of the future, I think.
John

norseman · 30 Oct 2019

Thank you for your approval Mr. B...

My only slight concern regarding the reviews (ie UTube) is that the tests were conducted using front-wheel-drive cars, but I guess time will tell.
nb : come to think of it snow has never stopped me from using rear-drive vehicles with standard tyres (cars/trucks/buses) over the decades I've been driving, so I must have been doing something right

JohnD · 30 Oct 2019

isn't the noise taken by drive-by? i.e. not measured inside the car?

edit

yes

here we are

"the tyre’s external noise level (expressed in decibels); not any tyre noise heard inside the vehicle"

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/eu-tyre-labelling-regulation-compliance-and-guidance

norseman · 31 Oct 2019

Thanks for that John, I didn't realise.
Never mind, there're on now & with the annual mileage we do (app. 6k) should last a long time

Burnerman · 31 Oct 2019

A useful post by JohnD I think.....but some tyres are noticably noisier than others.
Twice I’ve replaced wheel bearings because of the traditional drone

and it was the Maxxis tyres all along.
John

norseman · 1 Nov 2019

Burnerman said:
A useful post by JohnD I think.....but some tyres are noticably noisier than others.
Twice I’ve replaced wheel bearings because of the traditional drone and it was the Maxxis tyres all along. John

Funny you should day that, the possibility of it being a bearing (wheel or other) had occurred to me as the sound doesn't resemble a 'drone' it sounds a bit metallic, co-incidence though that it started after the tyres were fitted. Car booked into my local garage next week for them to check the bearings & the underside for anything making contact where it shouldn't when the car is being driven.

norseman · 7 Nov 2019

Well, the local (trusted) garage test-drove the car today & not being able (from his experience of many years) to identify the sound, checked out everthing underneath & was unable to find anything amiss.
So, as the sound started directly after the tyres were fitted I have to assume they are the cause.
Thanks for indulging me on this folks.

foxhole · 8 Nov 2019

Have you checked tyre pressure ,? has great affect on the noise .

Stivino · 8 Nov 2019

I had a 63 plate mondeo titaniumx 2.2d with the factory fitted tyres 235/40/19. I didn't realise the noise until I changed them. I put on budget tyres, they might have been Nexus but I can't remember now.
Anyway, the new budget tyres were so much quieter than the expensive ones that I took off.

Bargain Bucket · 8 Nov 2019

I was recently involved in some user testing of Continental cross climate vs their summer tyres. It was widely acknowledged that due to the nature of the construction of cross climates, they will always be noisier than most summer tyres.

norseman · 8 Nov 2019

foxhole said:
Have you checked tyre pressure ,? has great affect on the noise .

Thanks for that, but yes I do check pressures regularly.

norseman · 8 Nov 2019

Stivino said:
I had a 63 plate mondeo titaniumx 2.2d with the factory fitted tyres 235/40/19. I didn't realise the noise until I changed them. I put on budget tyres, they might have been Nexus but I can't remember now.
Anyway, the new budget tyres were so much quieter than the expensive ones that I took off.

Exactly my circumstances, Chinky summer to X climate

Thanks for your reply.

norseman · 8 Nov 2019

Bargain Bucket said:
I was recently involved in some user testing of Continental cross climate vs their summer tyres. It was widely acknowledged that due to the nature of the construction of cross climates, they will always be noisier than most summer tyres.

Your input is greatly appreciated, confirms that I'm not alone in noticing a difference & even at my age (56 years of driving) you're not too old to learn

At least I'll still be mobile this winter & you can't put a price (or decibels in this case) on safety.

mointainwalker · 10 Nov 2019

It being that time of year, there has just been someone asking advice on this on my local web-site ( 5,000' + ski-resort French Alps ). I was very surprised that the overwhelming weight of comments were that cross-climate tyres ( no makes specified ) were pretty useless and would soon see you kissing a tree.

I wouldn't take that as gospel because a lot of the commenters are not particularly informed about car-matters, but it seemed that some were commenting knowledgeably. Unfortunately I can't give you the option of what would be my obviously extremely sensible opinion because I fit Nokian winter-tyres which are truly excellent. Needed now because we had our first 10 cm of snow three days ago and it's been around freezing since then, and obviously the snow is persisting.

Car tyres

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