ChuckinTucson

I bought a set of four Yokiohama S Drives when I purchased my car with 26,000 miles on it. It now has 44,000 miles (so have 18,000 miles on them), and I'm getting a roaring noise. It is more noticable when you're driving the car or sitting in the back seat, it least noticable from the right passenger seat. I also notice the noise a lot more between 1-20 mph, not as much above 20 mph.

I look it to the dealership this morning to have them check it out. They said it would take awhile before they could get to it and offered me a loaner car at no charge.

Got a call a little wihle ago saying that my problem is the tires. My question is, should these tires which have gotten pretty decent 4 out of 5 star ratings be making such noticable noise with just 18,000 miles on them?

tommy

IMHO, for an ultra high performance tire, people would take noise into consideration, basically allowing on their ratings for some noise.

I had the Yoko Advan Neova AD07 on my car, and they were toast after a little over 10 k, and very loud; I'm not surprised about your tires' performance.

johnand

+1. Plus, the suspension design of our cars makes them really susceptible to tire noise, especially around 20-25mph.

The S drives are an UHPS (Ultra High Performance Summer) tire with a 300 treadwear rating. I wouldn't expect you to get much more than your current 18K out of the rear tires. Most tires in the UHPS category tend to get noisier the closer they get to end of life.

If they are not already shot, you could try swapping them side to side to help a little with noise. Since those are directional tires, that requires them to be dismounted and remounted. But, as Tommy pointed out, noise is an unfortunate reality to running high performance tires.

benzito911

hmmm i just picked up a set of S drives - (highly recommended by a friend who owns a tire shop and got a invite to test a few tires on a test track.. blah blah blah blah )

he said they were the best - great grip.. so i bought them even tho i dont drive fast/agressive LOL

any ways.. it does feel a bit more stiff and maybe a bit more noise but nothing that bothers me. car feels much better than my old falkens.

maybe you should stop driving off the road.

dmatre

Check to see if the outer & inner edges of the tire are feathered. If so, this is the source of your noise. These cars are prone to feather the edges - which can create such a ruckus that you think a wheel bearing has gone bad.

Changing from BFG KDW-2s to Michelin PE2s made a huge difference, and the ability to rotate the PE2s side-to-side elimates the feathering that comes from running continuously in a single direction.

ChuckinTucson

As usual, this board comes through again. Thank you all for your replies.

I'm not a fast/aggressive driver, so don't need these ultra high performance tires. While my car was in the dealership, they discovered the water pump was leaking so they're putting a new one on. In the meantime, they gave me a new C300 Sport as a loaner which has Michigan Pilot MXM4s, which are supremely quiet and have a good balance between smooth ride and handling. I think that's going to be my tire of choice. I've never had bad luck with Michigans in the past.

These Yokos have been getting more and more noisy as they wear, and it does sound like a wheel bearing is going out. Ah well, it's only money. Now where did I put that money-growing tree?