Road noise from tires?

[phillyquattro]

Just a quick sanity check. I swapped my OEM sport package wheels with Hankook Ventus Nobles for some 18x9 AG M220s with Conti Extreme Contact DWS tires a few months ago. Road noise has been significantly louder since making the change. At highway speeds it's louder than my full exhaust. Both my usual mechanic and the shop that did my alignment said it's due to the tires. Sound increases/decreases with engine speed and at speed I can throw the car in neutral and the sound continues just as loud.

So my question: is there anything else that it could potentially be that I'm not thinking of or either shop might not have thought of?

I've read mixed reviews on the Conti's with plenty of people saying they're loud and plenty of people saying they're much quieter than their previous tires (which makes me wonder just how loud those were).

[blbroo]

I have had both sets of those tires and the DWS are quieter.

[BrewDude]

Are the tires the correct load rating? I inadvertently purchased DWS with the wrong load rating and they sound as if I have a bad wheel bearing.

Lesson learned.

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[phillyquattro]

Are the tires the correct load rating? I inadvertently purchased DWS with the wrong load rating and they sound as if I have a bad wheel bearing.

Lesson learned.

Hmm, I honestly don't know. I went with AG's suggestion as for size which was 245/45/18. How do I go about checking if it's the correct load rating?

[KrustyA4]

I have about 2k miles on a new set of DWS 06's and they are the most quiet sport tire I have driven on.

[blbroo]

Hmm, I honestly don't know. I went with AG's suggestion as for size which was 245/45/18. How do I go about checking if it's the correct load rating?

If you are running 18's, that sidewall is too tall. Should be 245/40.

Should be more digits on the tire after the size. Share those here.

[CloseEncounters]

I also went from Hankooks to the Conti DWS's and I've found the DWS's to be one of the most quiet tires I've run. Tires are know to become louder once the temps cool in the 'winter' states but I see you're in San Fran. As the previous poster states you may have a sidewall issue I have never gone lower than 40's. You could try bumping your Tire pressures up a few psi's to see if that helps.

[BrewDude]

Hmm, I honestly don't know. I went with AG's suggestion as for size which was 245/45/18. How do I go about checking if it's the correct load rating?

Check the sticker in the door jamb. In my case for the allroad the load/speed rating is here



Notice the 98Y? In my case I chose 94Y tires which are almost 200 lbs less than what's rated for the car. Pretty sure I've overloaded and stretched the steel cords inside the tires which may account for the horrible road noise that sounds like a wheel bearing going bad. Went back to my OEM rims and tires and no more noise.

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[phillyquattro]

Thanks for all the info and responses. I made a typo earlier, my tire side wall is actually 40, not 45. My bad. The full details are 245/40/18 ZR 97Y M/S (pic below). Based on the door jam sticker I need 245/40/R18 93Y...so it should be good from a load stand point. Could it be because there is a stretch to the tire? I thought it could potentially be the bearing but ruled that out based on A) the noise started as soon as I put these wheels/tires on B) it's been 5-6 months with no noticeable change to the noise level or type. I would assume a blown bearing would start to sound worse and at some point fail.

[b6onboost]

I was wondering if the fact that you're stretching a 245 on a 9in rim would be noisier vs. stock. Don't have 1st hand experience since I've always put as much tire as I could on my wheels.

Another thing to consider is offset. Are you flush or poking with the new wheels? I remember I had more road noise when it spaced my wheels out, but I don't recall it being that noticeable.

[phillyquattro]

I was wondering if the fact that you're stretching a 245 on a 9in rim would be noisier vs. stock. Don't have 1st hand experience since I've always put as much tire as I could on my wheels.

Another thing to consider is offset. Are you flush or poking with the new wheels? I remember I had more road noise when it spaced my wheels out, but I don't recall it being that noticeable.

Yea I don't have any previous experience with a stretched tire to compare against. Running 3mm spacers in the front, 5mm in the rear. Needed the 3mm to clear the brakes. Not really poking, pretty much dead flush.

[olikoli]

If your alignment was off before you did it, your tires could have worn the wrong way, and this now could be causing the noise. I've had a set of tires on my A6 that were cupping due to the wrong alignment and they were getting very noisy before I realized what was happening. I took the car to the garage to have it corrected, but this did not fix the noise because the tires were already damaged.

I've just replaced a set of very noisy Michelins with DWS, and the drop in noise is mind boggling. DWS is one of the quietest tires I have ever owned.

[phillyquattro]

If your alignment was off before you did it, your tires could have worn the wrong way, and this now could be causing the noise. I've had a set of tires on my A6 that were cupping due to the wrong alignment and they were getting very noisy before I realized what was happening. I took the car to the garage to have it corrected, but this did not fix the noise because the tires were already damaged.

I've just replaced a set of very noisy Michelins with DWS, and the drop in noise is mind boggling. DWS is one of the quietest tires I have ever owned.

Hmm, I had an alignment done within a few weeks of putting the new wheels on. That being said I did take quite a few road trips during that gap of time so it's possible they got damaged during that time. Though I would have assumed the alignment shop, or one of the other shops that have seen the cars since, would have mentioned the tires are damaged.

[macscac]

conti dws are the quietest tire ive put miles on so far...
the pirelli's that come stock on an a4/s4 suck balls... they get road noise due to tire chopping at about 8-9k on them.
its a terrible tire. I wish Audi would stop putting them on their cars..

[phillyquattro]

conti dws are the quietest tire ive put miles on so far...
the pirelli's that come stock on an a4/s4 suck balls... they get road noise due to tire chopping at about 8-9k on them.
its a terrible tire. I wish Audi would stop putting them on their cars..

Agreed about the Pirelli's, they're garbage. Seems like everyone that's responded and has experience with DWSs' says they're quiet so I'm pretty much out of ideas on what could be making them so loud. May I'll just need to have them looked at again for a sanity check to make sure it's nothing beyond that.

[Triplejnj]

I need to replace my OE Pirelli's and have been pricing out options for the DWS. Does anyone know the difference between the DWS and DWS06?

[blbroo]

I need to replace my OE Pirelli's and have been pricing out options for the DWS. Does anyone know the difference between the DWS and DWS06?

06 is new version

These are two of the top three results when I searched DWS vs DWS 06 on google.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=199

http://www.continentaltire.com/conte...E2%84%A2-dws06

[Triplejnj]

Thanks for the info blbroo. Tirerack has the original DWS on closeout for $25 less per tire than the DWS06. Any opinions on if the new version is worth $100 more?

[blbroo]

Thanks for the info blbroo. Tirerack has the original DWS on closeout for $25 less per tire than the DWS06. Any opinions on if the new version is worth $100 more?

No idea. I've ran the old version and they were great. If I were you, I'd read online comparisons of the two.