lowest road noise tire on the market

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I'm looking for some guidance from everyone in finding the "lowest road noise tire" available for one of my cars. The car: 2001 Chevy Cavalier Coupe base model with a four speed automatic transmission. I currently have Michelin Defender 195/70-14 tires on it and these tires have been great in snow, rain, dry and cornering but they have always been a loud "road noise" tire. The suspension is in good shape and alignment is within OEM specifications. I'm just looking for a good all season or touring type of tire that is "really quiet" for this small, light weight vehicle.
 
Man, that's a tough one. Your car, like many others, has a unitized body. Unitized body cars are inherently more noisy than the old body on frame car builds. I had a set of Cooper CS3 Touring on a 2006 Hyundai Tucson. They were pretty quiet tires and had good overall performance. The CS3 has been phased out for the Cooper Evolution Touring. The Evolution Touring is essentially the same tire as the CS3.
 
Originally Posted by xtell
I'm looking for some guidance from everyone in finding the "lowest road noise tire" available for one of my cars. The car: 2001 Chevy Cavalier Coupe base model with a four speed automatic transmission. I currently have Michelin Defender 195/70-14 tires on it and these tires have been great in snow, rain, dry and cornering but they have always been a loud "road noise" tire. The suspension is in good shape and alignment is within OEM specifications. I'm just looking for a good all season or touring type of tire that is "really quiet" for this small, light weight vehicle.

Quiet tires are a worthy goal, but consider your wheel bearings carefully.
 
I have the Good/Year Assurance Comfort Tread on all four for our 2001 Impala. I have never heard enough noise from them to cause me to even think of tire noise. I do run Blizzaks on all four for the winter, so I have no idea how the Good/Year Assurance Comfort Tread would perform in snow or on ice.
 
Thanks for the reply's so far. I've had this car since new and its still in good shape and not all rotted out. Aside from the Michelin"s currently on it, I've had Uniroyal Tiger Paw AWP and Goodyear Conquest tires on it. I'm just tired of hearing the tire noise especially when I'm on the highway for a length of time. My wife has General RT-43 tires on her Honda Fit and they give off a a high pitch sound on asphalt highways. I do have some Michelin LTX M/S2 tires on my work trucks and they are pretty low noise tires.Any advise on tread pattern to help me narrow down some choices?

Danno- Thank you for the reply. I checked the Pirelli site and they do not make a 195/70--14 tire.
 
HangFire

That is a good point. The drivers side bearing was grinding two years ago so I just changed both of them out with new bearings and as far as I can tell there is no play or any type of friction coming from the bearings
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
A 17 year old economy didn't have much sound insulation from the getgo. From what I have been told, Toyo's are about as quiet as they come.

That brings up a good point. Take a look at the car stereo enthusiast's pages, they rip out entire interiors and lay down this thick rubbery sound insulation stuff, mass loaded vinyl. On the outside you can spray on rubberized undercoating (make sure the undercarraige is thoroughly de-salted first!)

Another thing to consider is rubber suspension bushings. Hard, shrunken bushings will transmit more noise than fresh soft bushings. I'm not familiar with your particular car's suspension, I'm sure at least the front stabilizer has rubber end links and bushings, maybe the suspension has a big compliance bushing or the like.

Originally Posted by xtell
I do have some Michelin LTX M/S2 tires on my work trucks and they are pretty low noise tires.Any advise on tread pattern to help me narrow down some choices?

Generally, straight treads with some asymmetry to the tread blocks and sipes are quieter. But... what matters as much is the R&D and quality materials. What you need is a tire where the tread pattern is chosen by the engineering, not the marketing department.
 
Originally Posted by xtell
I do have some Michelin LTX M/S2 tires on my work trucks and they are pretty low noise tires.


Those Michelin's are really quiet. I put a set on my wife's 4Runner a few months ago. Really made the road noise almost nonexistent. It drives like a totally different vehicle.
 
Kumho Solus TA11, Michelin Defender T+H, and Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus are what CR has as the 3 quietest all-seasons they've tested. We have Xice2's on the Outback with the same CR top noise rating and they are quieter than the OEM bridgestone dueler all-season tires.
It would be good to look at the tires in your size though, I have found with the smaller tires that they may use the same tread spacing as the larger sizes which can get blocky on a smaller diameter.
 
Girlfriend bought Sunfire Solarus tires at Wally World. Made in Mississippi by Cooper but priced like Chinese. Twenty+ bucks a piece under my Walmart only General Exclaim HPX and seem quieter. Told her to pull the trigger because tariffs were on the horizon--this was last week. I'm sure the price will increase to match the competition but at least replacement tires should be available. I like my Exclaims better than any WM only tire, but if I can save almost a hundred bucks by buying these when replacement time comes, I'll be tempted.

I have a '17 Soul, she has a '17 Optima. Same size: 215 55 R 17.
 
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I have Cooper cs5 ultra tires and they are pretty quiet to me. Put maybe 40k on them and they haven't gotten louder
 
Originally Posted by Danno
Pirelli P7+ on our 2010 Mazda 3 are good on being low noise.


How long do they last?
 
The tire noise depends on road surface.
I still remember when crossing RI/CT border on I-95 (southbound) on my winter Michelin XIce Xi3 that it sounded as if car developed acute wheel bearing syndrome.

I wish I were more help but you may be looking for something impossible to achieve with 18 year old car.

KrzyÅ›
 
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