Car Tyres Decibel Ratings

[cumbriasteve]

Has anyone delved into this subject matter and come out the other end with a proven result.

My present Hankook tyres seem to transfer a lot of road noise into the cabin, of course it could also be lack of soundproofing or our road surfaces are not what they were due to budget cut maintenance etc.

My 'know it all' mate said get lower decibel rating tyres it will make a world of difference but a bit of research quickly proved this may not be the case, the decibels are measured externally on a drive by, this may be noticeable in the cabin but also may not be.

So Joe Bloggs and his scruffy dog walking on the pavement may appreciate them but he is not paying for them, I am.

Three to four decibels appear to be the difference between the low to high, that's a significant difference but I don't want to drive everywhere with my head out of the window just to hear the benefit of the extra cost.

Anyone actually bought tyres with this in mind and noticed a significant difference.

I will save some of our members some typing..... Turning up the radio is not the answer I am seeking.

 

[malcolm]

There are 2 routes for tyre noise into the cabin - airborne and structureborne. The structureborne is vibration induced in the tyre transmitted into the cabin and generally accounts for road rumble and is not reflected in the dB tyre ratings. Airborne is higher frequency (starts becoming louder than structureborne at the sort of frequency you notice on concrete roads). That will be affected by the dB tyre rating.

Generally European tyres are a whole lot better than eastern tyres for both types of noise and also other performance. Compared Hankooks to Continentals about 15 years ago and found about 5dB improvement with the Contis (which is a lot).

 

[voipio]

The tyre dB ratings are indeed for external road noise. Internal road noise depends on a number of factors, the tyre-related ones being tyre pressures, stiffness of the tyre sidewalls, and the tread depth, pattern and hardness of the tread compound.

Brand new road tyres are generally quieter, because the tread material is new and relatively soft but hardens over time, except for knobblies, which can be noisier when new.

 

[MattH]

Remember that Decibels is a logarithmic scale so 3db difference can be a lot.

 

[Migmac]

Never looked into it. Once had the misfortune of having Deestone tyres fitted to my works landy. The noise inside was terrible, you couldnt hear what the passenger was saying. I actually took to wearing earmuffs whilst driving the heap

 

[cumbriasteve]

Remember that Decibels is a logarithmic scale so 3db difference can be a lot.

Yeah equates to nearly double the noise on the drive by test apparently

 

[cumbriasteve]

I suspect the factory fitted Hankook may not be helping the situation, they are probably made down to a price and may even be made for the production line only, similar in appearance but not the same compound.

Will probably go with a good brand name when the time comes

 

[p0689109]

Was having two new tyres put on my lads car and noticed a large dia new car tyre with sound proofing stuck on the inner tread area for sound proofing. According to the tyre mechanics they don't stay stuck on for long though

 

[Wozzaaah]

I suspect the factory fitted Hankook may not be helping the situation, they are probably made down to a price and may even be made for the production line only, similar in appearance but not the same compound.

Will probably go with a good brand name when the time comes

Unless Hankook have the OE contract for the tyres for your car and the manufacturer has specified it, they wouldn’t be a different compound than any others of that size.
The specific tread compound used will also be used in many of their other sizes.

 

[PhillipM]

Dunlop Blueresponse are some of the quietest tyres I've used - to the point where I fitted them in place of some Michelins on the MX-5 and immediately noticed just how quiet the thing was all of a sudden. I've had them on the Jag and the 406 as well since and they're very quiet on all 3 cars.

 

[daedalusminos]

Remember that Decibels is a logarithmic scale so 3db difference can be a lot.

Except the response of the human ear is typically logarithmic so it's not perceived as twice as loud.

 

[malcolm]

Generally 6dB is considered a doubling of loudness but there are some caveats. Way back they asked people to rate sounds based on how loud they were and then made a scale that varies with frequency. Wiki has a page about it - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness We are quite good at hearing speech frequencies and ignoring the rest.

It's based on psychoacoustics (subjective stuff) which is dead interesting. If you hear a small bang just before a big bang then you don't even hear the small bang in the first place. Brain is a funny thing as you would have heard the small bang had the big one not happened.

I'm off topic. Tyres drone all the time so are dead easy. Better tyres or better car are the fix if the noise is bothersome.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Yeah equates to nearly double the noise on the drive by test apparently

Doppler effect?

 

[cumbriasteve]

Doppler effect?

No...Hyundai

 

[Kayos]

Never really looked into it, allthough since fitting remould all terrains I have the radio on much louder

 

[Shox Dr]

Road surface plays a big part in noise. I walk my dog along the runway, it runs along side the main rd, the difference between vehicles in marked. Performance cars with low profile tyes are by far the worst in all [weather] conditions.
All the noise pedestrians here is from the voids in the surface popping as the tyre rolls off it. Zee Germans have been testing a mix of tyre crumb and asphalt. The mix is porous, preventing the slapping, and allowing water to drain.

I’ve driven on this surface last yr in torrential rain. There was no road spray at all. Cabin noise greatly reduced. It was a strange feeling.

 

[Kayos]

Road surface plays a big part in noise. I walk my dog along the runway, it runs along side the main rd, the difference between vehicles in marked. Performance cars with low profile tyes are by far the worst in all [weather] conditions.
All the noise pedestrians here is from the voids in the surface popping as the tyre rolls off it. Zee Germans have been testing a mix of tyre crumb and asphalt. The mix is porous, preventing the slapping, and allowing water to drain.

I’ve driven on this surface last yr in torrential rain. There was no road spray at all. Cabin noise greatly reduced. It was a strange feeling.

German roads are very tough but not very grippy, our roads are nearly the same as when we all had cross ply tyres so all the grip came from the road

 

[gaz_moose]

Was having two new tyres put on my lads car and noticed a large dia new car tyre with sound proofing stuck on the inner tread area for sound proofing. According to the tyre mechanics they don't stay stuck on for long though

these were probably the Michelin run flats with the 'goo' stuck inside them. its not sound deadening its to seal punctures. but can go abit liquid if over heated.

im also in the market for some low noise tyres and have come to the conclusion that its too do with the tread pattern. a tyre with a pattern like an Avon ZZ3 with groves designed to push standing water outwards will be noisier than a 'stripe' treaded tyre like a continental or a Michelin.

 

[cumbriasteve]

Dunlop Blueresponse are some of the quietest tyres I've used - to the point where I fitted them in place of some Michelins on the MX-5 and immediately noticed just how quiet the thing was all of a sudden. I've had them on the Jag and the 406 as well since and they're very quiet on all 3 cars.

Just done a google and surprised how cheap they are.

Are they ok in lifespan, wet weather etc.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Avon ZZ3

Good tyres, and made in the UK afaik.