New Tire Noise - Conti Premium Contact 6

Steven C · June 21, 2023

19 minutes ago, rayaans said:

E220d

Yes I have the same car on 17" wheels and it's not brilliant on cabin noise but quieter than the ES. I have been spoiled with the BMW which is far superior to both on road noise. The bigger the wheels the worse the road / cabin noise gets as the tyres head towards low profile. I have a Saab 9-5 on 16" wheels and that rides and sounds like a Rolls Royce inside. I test drove a Jag XF on 20" wheels and you could hardly have a conversation on certain roads surfaces. For me big wheels and tyres are not for me as I like a quiet cabin these days.😁

bashedpotatoes · June 24, 2023

Welp, as disappointing as this sounds, I managed to get back to the tyre shop and had some Debica Presto UHP2s fitted. Went for a short drive with a technician from there and the noise was still there, though a bit quieter. I'm guessing there's something else off, though it's quite annoying since the noise doesn't change in pitch, just volume and seems to subside at over 70-80km/h (or at least isn't that noticeable).

The tech did mention that the right rear rim is spinning a bit off axis. No up and down vibration, but a slight sideways motion, so I guess I'll try finding a shop to try straightening it out.

Thankfully, they were willing to take back the Debica batch without any extra cost.

June 24, 2023

On 6/21/2023 at 7:33 PM, Steven C said:

That maybe the reason. I have had E Classes since 2008 and the BMW up until a few weeks ago. You get what you pay for I guess and cabin sound insulation is not part of it. I chose the ES as I was sick of plugging in the 530e and it was claimed it has great soundproofing but not the case. The positives are that it was under the £40k road tax liabilty and the MPG reports were great.

Its always interesting how people have differing opinions on the same subject, I came from a Lexus IS and before a BMW 4 series petrol and a Mercedes C class diesel and can honestly say my ES is supremely quiet and serene, beauty is in the eye of the beholder so they say.
I don’t suppose you have a faulty door or window seal ?

June 24, 2023

Just to add I replaced my original Dunlops with Conti premium contact 6 about 10000 miles ago, been happy with both

bashedpotatoes · June 25, 2023

8 hours ago, Derant said:

Just to add I replaced my original Dunlops with Conti premium contact 6 about 10000 miles ago, been happy with both

What wheel setup are you running? I’ve got the 225 at the front and 255 at the rear on 18s. It might be some resonance noise that gets transmittedd into the cabin.

found some bmw forums mentioning a similar issue on large rims which was fixed by adding a damper to the control arms

June 25, 2023

1 hour ago, bashedpotatoes said:

What wheel setup are you running? I’ve got the 225 at the front and 255 at the rear on 18s. It might be some resonance noise that gets transmittedd into the cabin.

found some bmw forums mentioning a similar issue on large rims which was fixed by adding a damper to the control arms

235 45 18

Rabbers · June 25, 2023

I’ve been following this thread with interest but without quite understanding some of the complaints about noise. I’ve twice had an ES as a courtesy car, totalling some 6-700km on all kinds of roads, good and bad, fast and slow, and must say I’ve rarely driven a quieter car. I don’t remember what brand or brands the tyres (19” both times) were, but since the cars were practically new they would as likely as not been OEM Dunlops or Bridgestones, neither of which impressed me from an acoustic standpoint when I had them on RC and IS F Sport models. So go figure.

rayaans · June 25, 2023

On 6/24/2023 at 10:51 AM, bashedpotatoes said:

Welp, as disappointing as this sounds, I managed to get back to the tyre shop and had some Debica Presto UHP2s fitted. Went for a short drive with a technician from there and the noise was still there, though a bit quieter. I'm guessing there's something else off, though it's quite annoying since the noise doesn't change in pitch, just volume and seems to subside at over 70-80km/h (or at least isn't that noticeable).

The tech did mention that the right rear rim is spinning a bit off axis. No up and down vibration, but a slight sideways motion, so I guess I'll try finding a shop to try straightening it out.

Thankfully, they were willing to take back the Debica batch without any extra cost.

Id be checking the wheel - if its bent it can make a noise. Having said that, it shouldnt be spinning off axis. If its off axis, theres a balancing issue which would have made itself known by the amount of wheel weights on it.

Also, get the bearings checked. My RX recently had a faulty bearing and was making a humming noise worse at around 50-70mph which went away once the bearing was replaced.

bashedpotatoes · June 25, 2023

4 hours ago, rayaans said:

Id be checking the wheel - if its bent it can make a noise. Having said that, it shouldnt be spinning off axis. If its off axis, theres a balancing issue which would have made itself known by the amount of wheel weights on it.

Also, get the bearings checked. My RX recently had a faulty bearing and was making a humming noise worse at around 50-70mph which went away once the bearing was replaced.

My mistake, off-axis is probably not the best way to describe it, possibly quite incorrect. The tech mentioned that the wheel is balanced, but during the balancing of the wheel they noticed a slight sideway movement. Best way to describe it is looking at the picture attached - the wheel didn't move up and down while spinning, but a tad sideways.

Regarding the bearing: shouldn't the humming noise change pitch, as in get higher as the speed rises and the other way around if a bearing was involved? Mine's pretty much identical in noise to this, but at lower speeds.

I'll probably get around to checking bearings as well. Also, what kind of mileage was the RX on when the bearing failed?

rayaans · June 25, 2023

27 minutes ago, bashedpotatoes said:

My mistake, off-axis is probably not the best way to describe it, possibly quite incorrect. The tech mentioned that the wheel is balanced, but during the balancing of the wheel they noticed a slight sideway movement. Best way to describe it is looking at the picture attached - the wheel didn't move up and down while spinning, but a tad sideways.

Regarding the bearing: shouldn't the humming noise change pitch, as in get higher as the speed rises and the other way around if a bearing was involved? Mine's pretty much identical in noise to this, but at lower speeds.

I'll probably get around to checking bearings as well. Also, what kind of mileage was the RX on when the bearing failed?

Bearing went at around 50k so quite premature.

That was quite a similiar noise in the link to what I experienced to be honest. TBH the noise was worst at around 30-40 and then settled down between 50-60 and over 69 it was quite bad too

BTW, bearing can cause sideways movement...

This video is quite good at explaining it

wharfhouse · June 25, 2023

I had my front wheel bearings changed at 80k miles on my IS 300h. Noticed a humming noise on the front nearside. I could make this better or worse by loading and unloading the wheel by steering left or right sharply. I took a Lexus tech out in the car to demonstrate and he agreed and stripped it down and it was the wheel bearing. They also then checked the other side and said that was also starting to go and so changed that one too. Both were done under the extended warranty I had with Lexus.

bashedpotatoes · June 27, 2023

On 6/26/2023 at 1:39 AM, wharfhouse said:

I had my front wheel bearings changed at 80k miles on my IS 300h. Noticed a humming noise on the front nearside. I could make this better or worse by loading and unloading the wheel by steering left or right sharply. I took a Lexus tech out in the car to demonstrate and he agreed and stripped it down and it was the wheel bearing. They also then checked the other side and said that was also starting to go and so changed that one too. Both were done under the extended warranty I had with Lexus.

That's how I was trying to troubleshoot whether or not it's a bearing, but in my case I can't seem to notice any kind of difference during steering. Will have another visit to the shop for fitting the winter wheels to see if they are as quiet as I remember or not.

wharfhouse · June 27, 2023

8 minutes ago, bashedpotatoes said:

That's how I was trying to troubleshoot whether or not it's a bearing, but in my case I can't seem to notice any kind of difference during steering. Will have another visit to the shop for fitting the winter wheels to see if they are as quiet as I remember or not.

Yes, that method doesn't always work - better on front wheels but not so much on rears. On a different car had a rear wheel bearing fail and went through a lot of attempts to troubleshoot the noise myself and couldn't decide what was causing it - took it the garage and they diagnosed rear wheel bearing, replaced it and all was well.

bashedpotatoes · July 15, 2023

Suppose i'll have to live with it. Swapped the contis out for a set of dunlop sport maxx rt2 and while the comfort is improved, the humming noise is still there. Pretty much identical to this on certain kinds of pavement.

Before swapping I took it to the dealers and had another tech take a gander at it. He said he couldn't identify anything out of spec: bearings, suspension components, joints, diff, nothing. Even got the car running to about 50kph on the elevator and they couldn't hear anything despite knowing precisely what noise to keep an ear out for.

Guessing it's just cavity noise of low profile tyres and since I wasn't able to find anything with foam insulation on the inside of the tyre, I'll suck this one up and just crank up the music. Shame about the rest car being so quiet.

Mr_Groundhog · July 17, 2023

On 6/21/2023 at 8:17 PM, Steven C said:

Yes I have the same car on 17" wheels and it's not brilliant on cabin noise but quieter than the ES. I have been spoiled with the BMW which is far superior to both on road noise. The bigger the wheels the worse the road / cabin noise gets as the tyres head towards low profile. I have a Saab 9-5 on 16" wheels and that rides and sounds like a Rolls Royce inside. I test drove a Jag XF on 20" wheels and you could hardly have a conversation on certain roads surfaces. For me big wheels and tyres are not for me as I like a quiet cabin these days.😁

There is a stupid arms race these days, when it comes to wheel sizes and low profiles. Not too long ago a 16" wheel with a 195 or a 215 was considered very sporty and worn only by GTIs and the like

You see small/medium cars wearing ridiculously fat and large wheels, far exceeding their capabilities, just for the sake of "looking sporty". Three-cylinder 1.0 engines with a 215 and even 235 tyre and 18' size ....stupid. As it is, I feel the 225/45/17 I have on mine are way more than enough. Fitting 18s or even 19s makes no sense to me. Even less so with the apalling quality of the roads.

Digifant · July 17, 2023

3 hours ago, Mr_Groundhog said:

There is a stupid arms race these days, when it comes to wheel sizes and low profiles. Not too long ago a 16" wheel with a 195 or a 215 was considered very sporty and worn only by GTIs and the like

You see small/medium cars wearing ridiculously fat and large wheels, far exceeding their capabilities, just for the sake of "looking sporty". Three-cylinder 1.0 engines with a 215 and even 235 tyre and 18' size ....stupid. As it is, I feel the 225/45/17 I have on mine are way more than enough. Fitting 18s or even 19s makes no sense to me. Even less so with the apalling quality of the roads.

It's fair enough if you are talking about top range of every car's model. But about smallest wheels that fits, size increased because of need in bigger brakes. Speeds, weights + handling and safety standards increased. You can put R16 on IS300h, but IS350 R17 are smallest that fits.