I have a 1 month old Impala Premier with a lot of tire noise, it has 20 inch wheels, the OEM tires are P245/40R20 Bridgestone RE 97AS 95V M&S. Will I see an noticeable reduction in tire noise by changing tires to Summer tires. No Mud or Snow or cold weather here in Mountain View California
Maybeā¦ Maybe not. Noise does not necessarily follow M&S or Summer designations.
Surf on over to TireRack.com and see if you can find the tire you have on the car now. Look up its ratings which includes noise. Usually a 1 to 10 rating. Now look for new tires with a lower noise rating. If you canāt improve the rating by at least 2 points, donāt bother switching, it wonāt help that much.
When I look at the Tire Rack survey results for your tire, theyāre not very good overall. Although I canāt say if this would help with the noise issue or not, Iād seriously consider switching to the Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus just because it performs so much better in every category, including comfort. (Incidentally, I happen to have this tire on my car and Iām happy with it.) Although you donāt have snow where you live, sticking with an all-season tire would let you head to the mountains when it might snow.
I donāt mean to derail this topic, but I think this low-profile trend has gone too far when a Chevy Impala has 40-series tires!
I agree 100%. I wonder if the OP switched to normal tires, with a wheel change, would the noise decrease? That is, are low profile tires noisier because of the reduced sidewall?
Thatās a good question. It looks like this car also came with 245/45-19 tires, so maybe the OP could find someone who wanted to switch wheels.
As far as snow, unless California has changed the laws, when I lived there even four wheel drive vehicles were required to put on chains on secondary mountain roads!
As others have already saidā¦maybe yes or maybe no.
Itās also possible that the problem is the road itself. Iāve driven on roads where the noise was so high I wondered what was wrong with the tires - only to find the noise greatly reduced a few miles later.
Iād be willing to bet the owners manual in that Impala says āNo Tire Chainsā for those big tires!
I just got back from a week in CA, drove from Monterey to San Jose yesterday, and the road surfaces were very noisy. Of course, the low profile tires on the Mustang GT we rented didnāt help, but that sounds like the same problem the OP is having. Smaller wheels and 50 or better series tires might help.
I agree with the others, āsummerā tires are not necessarily quieter, it depends on the tread design. Iād spend a lot of time on tire rackās web site.
I agree tirerack is a worthy company with a helpful website. I use them, and also Consumer Reports. Every November they publish their most recent tire test results - info also available in some of their other publications and on line, although on-line may be for subscribers only.
You donāt like these wheels?
Iām not fond of them, either I used to drive by this place going to work, and this car was usually on the lot.
I could be wrong, but I think M+S tires is all that is available nowadays. Different brands and models of tires have different noise levels. Iām sure you can find some product reviews on the internet regarding tires. In all my years of driving experience, I noticed that tires get noisier as the treads wear down. So, maybe any new tire will be quieter than what you have now.
The vehicle is only 1 month old so tire wear canāt be much.
Tire rack and others have great info that may help you. My experience having switched summer only tires off of two sporty cars and onto a sedan is the opposite. Summer-only seem louder in general. āTouring tiresā seem to be the quietest (all-season, non-performance.)
jmcarc, summer-only performance tires are still around and pretty popular on many sporty cars.