Road trips with new turbo- first one up in the mountains, just me, windows down, Beck turned up loud, didn't notice the tire noise. Second trip- 3 hrs on the higway with the wife and super loud tire whine/roar on concrete pavement. Asphalt is quiet. Hard to carry on conversation, can't hear radio on about half the trip to the beach even with windows up. It came with the Bridgestone tires. Anyone know if the PS2's or Conti's or Pirellis are quieter? Toyo is advertising quiet tech tires but doubt they have the right sizes. I have 700 miles on these tires. A friend will buy them or I can keep them for track tires (wish they were the Michelins). I would like to have some quieter road tires for road trips with the wife but maybe they are all real loud. Any ideas? I would be willing to give up a little performance for a quieter tire. I can live with them like they are but if I can find quieter tires, my wife will be more likely to want to go on road trips, B&B's and it could become our favorite little travel car. Thanks.

 

With PS2 you get performance and quiet. And comfortable all the way down to the wear bars.

 

The Bridgestones are a loud tire. I switched to PS2's

 

Turn up the radio.

 

Hello Tire Rack- looking for PS2's. Come to think of it, they were very quiet on the M5. Thanks guys.

 

Also try and lower the pressure to the lowest recommended. Not the fully loaded specs that's on the door jamb.

 

Texas 911- how do I find the lowest recom'd tire pressure? I only see the recommended on the door jam and book. And I thought it rode better on lower pressure (had to do that with my old 996 C4S cab it was so jarring) but had less noise at higher pressure. But I could be wrong. Thanks for the tip though.

 

PS2 aren't exactly quiet on concrete, I5 from the Canadian border to Seattle was quite rough concrete and the noise is actually quite unbearable, I never exactly try Bridgestone 050As on that sme stretch of highway, for that we will have to ask W211, his wears the Bridgestones and travels the same stretch many times. I have however traveled the same stretch on 050A in my CLS55, it was almost noiseless compared with the PS2 on the TT. Granted it's a Merc with better sound insulation but I can tell the noise difference when I roll down the windows and smoke, mostly hear the wind roar in my Merc. But I have to say, the PS2 does produce less noise than the 050A in my Merc on paved asphalt.

I guess the noise level has to do with how the tread design interact with the surface, on smoother surface the PS2 is quieter but on rough surface the 050A is better?

 

What about Pirelli Pzeros?? I have Pirellis on my cayenne turboS, and dont have much tire noise at all, but the Bridgestones on my 997 turbo are very loud on some road surfaces. Any thoughts on Pzeros??

 

Whoa- better put those tires on hold... I was going to order the PS2's based upon the above recommendations but maybe there is only a marginal improvement. Could the P zero's be better on rough concrete? I'm sure the PS2's are better than the Bridgestones but maybe not the quietest tire out there. I looked at the reviews on Tire Rack but they are universally good and they rate the same tires but on lots of different cars so it's impossible to tell from that.

 

Carcam - FWIW, I have an '04 996 C2. I have gone through 2 sets of P-Zeros. The grip is great, but they are loud tires and they wear out very quickly. I currently have PS2's and they are quieter than the P-Zeros and grip well on dry or wet conditions.

On rough concrete, almost all tires will be noisy. Every couple of months there are threads like this (tires) 996 Forum and many guys respond that they currently run PS2's.

 

Yeah, the 050As are pretty loud, but I think our issue is the car more than the tire.

The iPod kit helps, at least you can select the right music to cover up the noise.

 

Really, compared to my PS2 equipped C2S the Bridgestone TT is not any louder, quieter actually because my rears were pretty warn after a few DE's. The PS2's on my had phenomenal grip on the track for a street tire though. Haven't tracked the TT yet, as there aren't any DE's during the summer here in Houston. But am looking forward to it in Sept. Is this your first 997?

 

My solution was the AWE exhaust. No more discernible road noise

 

[QUOTE=W211]Yeah, the 050As are pretty loud, but I think our issue is the car more than the tire.

/QUOTE]

Exactly, it is not the tires it is the car. My TT on PS2s is much louder than my boxster on bridgestones (245/285), on the same roads. The TT is definitley not as sound proof as some other cars in regard to tire noise.
The fix is a nice exhaust swap.