W204 tyre road noise

[Janski55]

Hi all

I run a 2015 W204 C220 Coupe with 75k miles (had since 6.5k) which still drives absolutely great.

The only thing which spoils the driving experience is the excessive road noise on most surfaces.

The car is fitted with standard 17 inch alloys and I realized that I've created a bit of an "own goal" because I've had fitted buget Nexen N-fera SU1 tyres.

I'm now willing to bite the bullet and splash out for a decent set of tyres.

What are most peoples opinion on what tyres give the lowest possible road noise ?

Thanks

Janski

Edited by Janski55 on Saturday 1st October 14:10

Edited by Janski55 on Monday 3rd October 12:45

[Tony1963]

Opinion doesn’t really come into it. For a few years now, tyres have had a noise rating. Go to an online tyre seller’s website, enter your car’s details, and then check out the differences in noise. Do that with a few websites and you’ll be as well armed as anyone for your particular car, and you can compare to the tyres fitted now.

However, those noise levels are for new tyres, as far as I know, so maybe once down to 4mm things might be different.

[trevalvole]

Tony1963 said:

Opinion doesn’t really come into it. For a few years now, tyres have had a noise rating. Go to an online tyre seller’s website, enter your car’s details, and then check out the differences in noise. Do that with a few websites and you’ll be as well armed as anyone for your particular car, and you can compare to the tyres fitted now.

However, those noise levels are for new tyres, as far as I know, so maybe once down to 4mm things might be different.

The noise rating on tyre labels is the external, pass-by noise, with microphones at 7.5m from the track centreline, not internal noise in a car. I suspect there will be some differences, as the tyre label test is measuring sound travelling through the air, whereas most of the noise reaching the interior of a car will have passed through metal (axles, body etc.), rubber (tyre sidewalls, bushings etc.) and soundproofing etc and these will transmit some frequencies better than others.

[Cousin Dupree]

I have those Nexen tyres on my old S class.
Comparing them with what has been fitted before I would say they are a bit noisier than Michelins, slightly noisier than Dunlops, quieter than Continentals and Avons. They ride almost as well as the Dunlops, which have been the best so far, and have decent wet grip.
As posted above, the noise ratings don't really give an accurate idea of what they'll sound like from inside the car.

[Ian-27xza]

My experience of using the noise ratings from tyre reviews has been super helpful.

Just remember that decibel rating is logarithmic - there's a big difference between 71dB and 73dB.....

[Janski55]

Thanks for all the replies, they gave food for thought.

I'm actually going to do a 'U' turn and stick with the Nexen's which appear to be a very good budget tyre.

What clinched it for me was yesterday my car went in for the good old Chinese passenger airbag recall. I got a 21 plate A200AMG for the day while the work was being done. While driving it there was almost identical road noise, maybe not so loud, but it sounded the same. So that's probably just me being paranoid over a non-issue. I still find it strange driving a car where you can hardly hear the engine (diesel) and the main noise is the tyres !

MB's health check on my car showed the tyres varying between 3.1 and 4.5mm tread depth so they are basically half worn. It makes sense to put a new set on before winter kicks in and a new set should reduce the road noise.

Checking on my service history the rears were changed last year but I have done 25k miles since then. Prior to that both front and rear were changed in 2019 (a further 17k miles back) so I've not done too bad - especially since I live in a town that is full of roundabouts and speed bumps.

Cheers

Janski