Hey, guys!
I’m not seeking advice . . . I’m just curious
what is the noisiest set of P-series non-winter, non-off-road tires you’ve ever owned?
That obviously rules out LT-series, slicks, studded, winter, off-road, ice, etc.
In other words, the noisiest set of “normal” tires for, say, a sedan or minivan
I obviously have no ideas how you’ll answer, but I have a hunch Firestone and/or Bridgestone will come up quite a few times 
I have had Michelin, Firestone, Goodyear, Cooper, Dunlop, Duralon, and probably some other brands. I have never noticed a difference in noise level. The one brand that was noisy in the rain was Atlas tires that I bought at a Standard Oil station for my 1965 Rambler. These were only noisy on wet pavement. This was in the bias ply days and Ramblers and Atlas tires no longer exist. I will note that the Atlas tires did have good traction on wet pavement.
I’ve personally owned MIchelin, Goodyear, Dunlop, Uniroyal, Firestone and Bridgestone, as well as a few off-brands in the distant past
By far the noisiest were the Firestones
Michelin has been a good all-around performer, IMO. And the longest lasting. No noise complaints there.
The Uniroyals . . . tiger paw, FWIW . . . were just fine. Tracked fine, no noise problems, long lasting. Not a performance tire, but they actually tracked better than some more expensive tires I’ve had
I’ve had 2 sets of tires over the years that were very noisy. One is a brand I cannot remember and the other was a set of Michelins on my SAAB.
I can’t complain about Bridgestones. I’ve used them on my Subaru and on the second set with my Lincoln and no issues.
The worst set I’ve ever had for wear was a set of Generals on my Subaru at one time. Less than 20k miles and all 4 were worn clean out.
Many of the old bias ply tires were noisy. Truck tires on highways 60 years ago were whinning loud enough to hear a mile away and anyone with the nerve to drive a pickup at 60 mph had no need to turn on the radio. Many passenger car tires were relatively quiet back then but compared to todays radials they were loud when turning, even when driving slowly. Of course road surfaces may have worsened the tire noise. Highways were either concrete with a rough aggregate surface or slag over tar which was even rougher. From the early 1970s tires were either bias belted or radial and none that I ever owned seemed noticeably loud. Plus cars these days are much more highly insulated for sound and we all seem to drive with the windows up most of the time.
I had a set of Seiberling tires many years ago that sang on just about every road surface. They did not last very long either. I think Firestone bought them out
I can’t remember the brand, but at least the noisiest tires tend to wear out the fastest, so you get rid of them sooner, and don’t buy them again.
To tell the truth I really can’t recall if I had noisy tires or not. Most of my cars of my youth had more wind noise than anything that would drown out tire noise. I used to buy retreads from Sears for my VW. Then the Firestone recaps for my 59 Pontiac. I bought Sieberlings then for my Dodge because a friend had a tire store, then Target tires that I think were Goodrich for my Olds. Then pretty much settled on Goodyear. Now I have Generals and Michelin. Mostly I’ve noticed that the more wear a tire gets, the noisier it seems to be, so the last 30K or so can have some road noise.
Well, the set of Firestones I’m talking about were noisey almost from day one. And they still had a LOT of tread, so that wasn’t the issue. Maybe age was a factor. They were almost 5 years old, when I replaced them, but as I said, they had been noisey for most of their life
EVERY set of Michelins I’ve owned were quiet, even when they were close to the wear bars
Even the Uniroyals were quiet, right before I replaced them, due to normal wear. And those weren’t expensive
Had bf godefich tires, Michelin before and mochelin after, That is a hard question, because every few years the tire models and name change. My speellchheeeek is not wirkwing srrorry
Interesting thing is the noisiest tires for me were a set of Michelin’s I had on a Kia. It might had been sitting on the shelf for quite a while, because they came with the car (used) and rotted pretty fast.
While I didn’t own these tires, because I spent a lot of time in my friend’s Rav-4, I became very familiar with the noise level of Goodyear Triple-Tred Assurance tires once they had been used for 25k miles or so, and the noise level was such that carrying-on a conversation was difficult unless everyone spoke REALLY loudly.
I felt kind of guilty, as I had been the one to suggest those tires in the first place. My friend had wanted better winter traction than the vehicle’s OEM Bridgestones provided, and because those Goodyears were one of the very few all-season tires that bore the “mountainpeak/snowflake” emblem denoting a genuine winter tire, I thought that those Triple Treds would be a good choice for him. They did provide good winter traction, but they had a harsher ride than the OEM tires and they cut his gas mileage to a significant extent. However, they still seemed like an acceptable choice until they began “singing” at speeds over 40 mph or so.
By the time that he had accumulated ~25k miles, the noise became close to unbearable, and that factor–combined with an obvious reduction in winter traction–led him to ditch those tires while they still had 5/32 tread remaining.
Firesone FR series (FR480 and FR680) have been the noisiest for me. The FR680 tires that were OEM were so loud, they masked the bad rear wheel bearing the car came with. The replacement Bridgestone Turanza tires were the quietest. Michelin MXV4 tires have also been very quiet, other Michelins,not so much. BFG is sort of in the middle in my experience.
I’d say the Nitto tires I currently have on my Mustang are the noisiest dry tires I’ve even owned. The are labeled “extreme performance summer” tires. That means they stick like glue to a road or racetrack - and they do - which is why I bought them. They are wearing out pretty darn fast but track days will do that. Compromises.
My wife’s Saab didn’t like the OEM Michelins either, @ok4450. They got very noisy at the rear as they got closer to a rotation. Once rotated to the front, they were OK for a while. As they aged, they got noisy faster.
The noisiest I’ve ever encountered were Generals, I believe, that were OEM on my Dad’s 81 Buick X-car. With 98,000 miles, 10 years old and NEVER rotated from the rear axle. He just kept buying new front tires every 35K or so… You couldn’t hold a conversation in the car at 35 mph they were so loud. It wasn’t the brand so much as the fact they were hard as rocks being 10 years old.
I know you excluded winter tires but - Firestone Winterforce, just awful for noise, from day 1, but pretty good traction, Michelin Alpins, quiet and grippy as heck!
That’s funny . . .
I’ve currently got a set of Goodyear Triple-Tred Assurance on my Camry. They came on the car when I bought it used a few years ago.
Mine are not noisey at all, but the sun and ozone has taken its toll, and I’m going to have them replaced with some Michelins later this year. Premier or Defender. Probably Premier, because I don’t think Defender comes in H-rated.
I don’t particularly favor directional tires, but these have been okay. They’ve worn very evenly, unlike some others.
Normally, I’d mount and balance them myself. However, it would look very questionable if I did that during my 1/2 hour lunch break. First of all, not quite enough time . . . if you want to do a proper job and balance them the correct way. Second, there’s a very real possibility somebody would raise questions, perhaps even speculating I stole them from our tire warehouse, which the mechanics have access to.
Michelin MXV4 was often the OEM tires for Benz. I don’t know if they still are.
I never encountered any noise, either, when driving the cars equipped with those, when I was still at the dealership, even on cars that had a worn and/or old set.
I agree, that has been my experience with Michelins as well. I have a coworker who is set on michelins for the same reason. I had one coworker that saved 100 bucks by going with yokahamas, now that they got 15k miles on them they are getting noisy, He has named them yokahammers.
Nosiest tires I have ever had would have to be Bridgestone Potenzas. They were good at first, but after 10k miles they got nosier and noisier.
The second which is a close tie is the Dunlop run flats we had on our sienna van. Those things were decent until about 20k miles, then they got so loud by 30k miles it was time for them to go.
As VDCdriver noted, the nosiest tires I’ve owned were also the Goodyear Triple-Tred Assurance tires. The noise got to the point where passengers had to keep asking each other to repeat what they were saying.
Considering I have the exact same set, and mine aren’t noisey . . . makes me wonder if the others weren’t well-balanced
Poorly balanced tires can become choppy, at which point tire noise is a certainty