REALLY noisy winter tires (?!!)

Nuje · Nov 12, 2017

My dad turned in his 2009 Jetta but kept the snow tires he had and gave them to me to use on our 2015 Golf.

Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2, just above the wear bars, on Core Racing 16" rims.

And DAMN - they're noisy. Like, my wife (who likes to crank Prince tunes) even noticed. And rough-riding - like you can feel something, even at in-town speeds (like 20mph, you can tell there's something whack with the wheels).

So - can this just be the tires? Bent rims maybe? Is there a way to tell if rims are bent (these things look pretty light-weight).

dubStrom · Nov 13, 2017

bent?

Lift each wheel with a jack and spin it. A wobble will be pretty obvious if there is a bent wheel. A wheelwright (bicycle or spoker motorcycle wheels) might suggest trueing "arms" to detect slight "out of round". You can makeshift this by setting a srewdriver/rod on a stool by the wheel, nearly touching the rim near the tire bead. This will make slight deformities very obvious, though some cheaper wheels may have casting defects (variable thicker, thinner rim width at the bead).

740GLE · Nov 13, 2017

do the rims need hubcentric rings to adapt to our Center Bores? If they are missing you won't be able to get the rim 100% centered and will have a wobble.

Not sure if that'd impact the noise you're hearing though

The Tortoise · Nov 13, 2017

Nokian Hakkepeliitta R2, just above the wear bars

Being at the wear bars could account for the noise.

What do you mean by "rough riding"?

Harsh on impacts or vibration in the wheel/car?

740GLE · Nov 13, 2017

Also there should be winter "wear bars" and end of life "wear bars". Our Hakka 8 snows have a snow flake imprinted in the tread and a series of numbers next to it, 80, 60, 40, as the tire wears the higher numbers start disappearing, once the snow flake is gone you don't have a winter tire, you have a all season with marginal tread life left. You may be past the winter life of the tire and have a nice set of all seasons on your hands.

The did this too on their all seasons, enTyre 2.0s, except its a water droplet vs a snow flake

turbobrick240 · Nov 13, 2017

Do any of the tires have uneven tread wear, aka scalloping? It's usually caused by tired shocks/struts. That will give vibration and noise.

Nuje · Nov 13, 2017

dubStrom: Thanks for that idea! I have a truing stand for my bicycle wheels but didn't even think of rigging up the same concept for car rims.

740GLE:
The rims do need the hub-centric rings, and I ensured that those are in place (they're close to 8mm thick, so pretty obvious if it's not in place.)

And thanks for the tip on the "winter wear bars" vs. regular. There does seem to be a reasonable amount of tread depth left (for a typical all-season tire), apart from the wear bars, so that might be what I'm looking at.

turbobrick240: Hadn't noticed any scalloping, but then again, I didn't take a close look.

Tortoise: The rough riding is that you can pretty much *feel* the noise - vibration, etc.

I was thinking it might be a wheel bearing, but given that the sound / feel doesn't change going around corners, and that it came on only when I put the winter tires on...I'm thinking it's not that.

Nuje · Nov 13, 2017

And cupping it is:

Inner edge of both rear tires is really uneven.

According to the tire guy, typically happens when tires don't get any "drive" and are always "dragging" (as in the rear tires on your typical FWD car).
First I've ever heard of that one; thought it was more typically bad suspension components or unbalanced wheel.

mheat · Nov 14, 2017

My 09 JSW came new with Pirelli Carving snow tires.
Noisiest pieces of crap.
Every winter I would put them on and spend 5 months listening for weird sounds, trying to figure out if my driveshaft was going, wheel bearings, etc.
Every spring I'd switch back to Michelin all seasons, and the noise would disappear.
I just put Michelin X-Ice's from Costco on my new '15 GSW, and life is good.

20IndigoBlue02 · Nov 14, 2017

Nuje said:
dubStrom: Thanks for that idea! I have a truing stand for my bicycle wheels but didn't even think of rigging up the same concept for car rims.

740GLE:
The rims do need the hub-centric rings, and I ensured that those are in place (they're close to 8mm thick, so pretty obvious if it's not in place.)

And thanks for the tip on the "winter wear bars" vs. regular. There does seem to be a reasonable amount of tread depth left (for a typical all-season tire), apart from the wear bars, so that might be what I'm looking at.

turbobrick240: Hadn't noticed any scalloping, but then again, I didn't take a close look.

Tortoise: The rough riding is that you can pretty much *feel* the noise - vibration, etc.

I was thinking it might be a wheel bearing, but given that the sound / feel doesn't change going around corners, and that it came on only when I put the winter tires on...I'm thinking it's not that.

Nokians have what they call DSI, so in the center tread block area, you should see numbers, 4,6,8 which refer to remaining depth in millimeters. And a snowflake. Once that snowflake is no longer visible, it's done for winter performance.

Nuje · Nov 14, 2017

Cool feature - thanks for the info!

laminated · Nov 14, 2017

i had hakkas on for one trip, heavy and noisy, shop allowed a return, so took goodyears

REALLY noisy winter tires (?!!)

Nuje

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