My 2008 Honda Accord 4 cyclinder has considerable road noise when driving. Even when the windows are closed you have to turn the radio volume up to hear it. When a window is parially open good luck. Can the road noise be reduced any way? Would undercoating help?
Road noise comes from the tire tread on the pavement is typically propogating through the suspension components and/or out the wheelwell and/or through the wheelwell liners. You car is still pretty new, so it’s not liekly to be coming through due to worn neoprene doorgasket or dried up bushings or anything of that sort.
The best solution is to check www.tirerack.com and www.1010tires.com for consumer feedback and find a quieter tire. And by the way, if your tires are worn more than 80% or so toward the wear bars they’re going to be noisier anyway.
Unfortunately, Hondas (and even their upscale brothers, Acuras) are known for having more road noise than most competitors. The next time that you buy a new car, I think that you will need to take an extended test-drive–including some high-speed driving–in order to assess the level of road noise in cars that you are considering.
Mountainbike has given you some good advice regarding tires, but the Honda’s relative lack of soundproofing may still prove to be problematic. You might want to consider lining the inside of the doors with acoustic material, and perhaps even installing it underneath the seats in order to compensate for what Honda left out of their design.
The acoustic mats to which I refer can be bought from places like Crutchfield. If you don’t want to have to do the installation yourself, you could go to an aftermarket auto sound installation shop and have them do the job for you.
Honda’s of your vintage are notorious for road noise. Especially at high way speeds.
Tires and wheel combination are a big contributer to this.
You can experiment with different tire and wheel combinations,but most people can’t afford this costly experiment.
Another ‘fly in the ointment’ is,the car,tires,and wheels were all designed to work together.
Yes, i own a late model honda Accord
Thanks for the tips you posted. I will contact the e-mail addresses you mentioned. If you have any other thoughts, please don’t hesitate to send them.
Again, thanks for the input.
My wife also has an Accord, a 6 cylinder V6 while my 2008 has the 190 hsp 4 cylinder. Both cars have poor sound installation. I will try to looking into the tire options and also accoustic sound shops. Your input is appreciated.
Hondas are famous for allowing a lot of road noise into the car. The only solution is to get quieter tires.
Ditto on my wife’s previous, daughter’s and son’s Accords. DONOT consider any undercoating that isn’t factory installed. You run the risk of trapping moisture, plugging drain holes and increasing your chances of rust, mildew etc.
Accords have lots of pluses, this is a negative and why it’s extremely important to test drive a car it exact conditions you plan on using it.
They do have excellent sound systems and along with potentially quieter summer only tires instead of all seasons, then rotating to winter, you may get some relief.
PS…my son’s trunk mounted sub does wonders drowning out any extraneous noise, even the screams of passengers from the ear pain.