Noisy tires. dangerous?

09 civic sedan 9k miles. My tires are noisy - slow groan no matter what type of pavement. I had them rotated at 4500 miles because those were noisy in the front. The noise went away for a while but it’s back. My question is, I have to make a 300mile trip soon. Are the tires going to blow up or just make noise?? The car tracks straight and no uneven wear. Thanks.

One weakness of the Civic is that it transmits road noise (and tire noise) into the cabin more readily than many other cars. Some tires get more noisy as they wear. So, you have a car that transmits the noise and tires that are noisy - not good.

The tires are safe, and will last a while. You either have to put up with the noise or buy some new tires. Tirerack.com rates tires and one rating is on noise. Your next set of tires should be selected to minimize noise over other factors such as wear, and traction.

Until you replace the current tires I’m afraid you’ll need earplugs or crank up the stereo a bit more.

Thanks for the reply. I will turn the radio up - I don’t mind. Just worried about possible blowout(s).

What is likely going on is irregular wear - which is caused by misalignment and aggravated by insufficient inflation pressure and insufficient rotation practices.

Get and alignment or the problem will get worse.

Does the pitch of the noise change when the steering wheel is turned off-center (i.e. changing lanes)? What I thought was noisy new tires on my 2000 Blazer turned out to be bad wheel bearings. Since the noise went away with the tire rotation, it’s probably the tires though.

From experience, I’ve noticed higher performance tires tend to be noisier than most. If the wear is regular and the tire pressure is maintained it should not be a problem.

Ed B.

Honda makes very good vehicles, but the universal complaint–even on their higher-priced Acura models–is a high level of road noise. Throw some worn tires into the mix and you wind up with the perfect storm for excessive road noise.

Now, the problem will be finding out why your tires got so badly worn in only 9k miles!

As CapriRacer stated, you need to have a 4-wheel alignment done. And, if you don’t own a tire pressure gauge, you need to get one and use it on a regular basis to be sure that the tires are properly inflated. You will find the correct inflation pressure listed on a label on the driver’s door jamb. Do NOT inflate the tires to the maximum pressure listed on the tire sidewall.

Most likely, it’s nothing to be worried about. Get the alignment checked and any unlikely drive train problems will be found. By and large, economy cars coupled with cheap OEM tires are just loud, especially on concrete highways.

When it comes time to replace your tires, if the sound is still bothering you, you should research quiet tires by reading up on luxury car forums. My car also has the same problem (not a Civic) and we wound up replacing our OEM tires with Toyo Versado LX’s, which are supposedly amongst the quietest tires out there. It was a night and day improvement over our OEM Goodyears.

Do the tires look oddly worn? Visit your dealer and ask if covered by 1yr warranty. Subaru usually includes an alignment the first year of ownership if needed. Yours may be well out causing the noise.

My question is did the tires start quiet and turn noisy?