New Tires: WOW Much Quieter

[stratosurfer]

On my third set of tires: first were OEM’ Michelins, second were the superseding Energy’s from Michelin bought at Discount Tire after 75K we are on OEM’s. Now at 141K I opted for Pirelli’s as the second of Mickey’s had began to howl excessively. I attached the specs of the Pirelli’s from Discount Tire: WOW they are SO QUIET! On certain road surfaces the second set of Michelins were quite loud and on other road surfaces they were barely tolerable. On my monthly route driving 450 miles, at one point in San Antonio I notices the engine changing rpms so loudly as I was in heavy acceleration to merge into traffic I thought something could be wrong: I hadn’t notice engine noise like that. I realized the old tire howl had been masking that engine noise... Engine was doing it’s job as normal.

I highly recommend these Pirellis, and I’m staying away from Mickey’s for now. The OEM’s were great, but they did something to the superseding tire that made them quiet loud on certain road surfaces.

Also, Discount Tire has a 4 star rating on Noise, they Michelins that were pulled off at 5/32nds wear were a 4 Star on Noise ( the best rating at Discount Tire) and the Pirellis are 3.5 Stars, but they are 1/4 or even less noisy!

So excited I had to pass this along.

Also, I had to replace all the lug nuts. Discount charged $48 to get the swollen ones off, now I have solid SS ones it looks like.

Mark

Edited November 13, 2019 by stratosurfer

[icanhazc-max]

By "superceding" do you mean these? These are what I replaced my OEMs with as the price was right at the time I needed them. All specs looked equal aside from MAX PSI and an increase in load rating. They've been fine?

Edited November 13, 2019 by icanhazc-max

[fbov]

Michelin makes a P225/50R17 93V and a 225/50R17 94V tire. They both fit, but have different load ratings. You're fine going up in load rating.

Frank

[ptjones]

93V you can go upto 51 psi and they cost less and original OEM tire.  94V cost more and 44 psi is max psi.

 

Paul

[stratosurfer]

By "superceding" do you mean these? These are what I replaced my OEMs with as the price was right at the time I needed them. All specs looked equal aside from MAX PSI and an increase in load rating. They've been fine?

I was afraid this might be asked, I’ll have to call DT and ask if the one you linked to are what was put on after the OEM’s wore out. I would add that I believe they began their howling slowly over time. I’ve been driving on Mickey’s since the late 70’s and have enjoyed their longevity. This last set did not wear well and the noise was truly close to a bad wheel bearing. My friend who drove the car for a test ride thought it was a wheel bearing.

[SnowStorm]

My originals became quite noisy (someone asked if I had snow tires!) due,  I believe, to a lack or rotation.  My Michelin dealer says un-driven tires (front or back) are subject to cupping and associated noise if not rotated frequently enough.  My next two sets have been fine since I started getting them rotated every 5k miles or so (they do it free).  Use the pattern Ford shows in the manual since it rotates each tire to all four wheels.

[fbov]

... noise was truly close to a bad wheel bearing. 

 

My originals became quite noisy (someone asked if I had snow tires!) due,  I believe, to a lack or rotation.  

Mine are just shy of 40K miles, and howl like a wheel bearing! The snow tires are much quieter. Rotation likely the issue, as I had a sidewall blow-out on the RF, so I kept the deeper-tread tire on the front. Average tread depth is +/-0.1mm across the original three, but the unrotated RR tire is noisy. 

Have fun,

Frank

[ptjones]

It does make a difference rotating them often and I cross rotate so the tires go the opposite direction every time. Front tires wear about three times as fast as rears. I left my new rears on for 15k miles and they only lost 1/64th. I put the old rears on the front to wear out and they say to put your best tires on the back when the tires are getting down on tread. At 50 psi I don't the tires get as noisy.

 

Paul

[stratosurfer]

My originals became quite noisy (someone asked if I had snow tires!) due,  I believe, to a lack or rotation.  My Michelin dealer says un-driven tires (front or back) are subject to cupping and associated noise if not rotated frequently enough.  My next two sets have been fine since I started getting them rotated every 5k miles or so (they do it free).  Use the pattern Ford shows in the manual since it rotates each tire to all four wheels.

Now I’m second guessing whether Discount Tire follows Ford’s mandated pattern for rotations. I rotate fairly every 5k miles, every 60 days for me.

[SnowStorm]

Now I’m second guessing whether Discount Tire follows Ford’s mandated pattern for rotations. I rotate fairly every 5k miles, every 60 days for me.

There are unique numbers/letters on the tires so you can track them if you want.  I've done it some but not always - they're a bit of a pain to read.  IIRC my tire dealer said they normally just swap fronts with backs on same side so I have to always specify the Ford cross-over pattern - fronts to back, backs to front crossing.  They have to do it the same way each time or after two rotations the tires could end up back where they started.  I like the idea that each tire goes to all spots.

[ptjones]

I think it is important that you change the direction of rotation every time and going front to  back keeps the wear even. IMO  In adverse weather conditions you want the most thread in the back, that can be problematic for even tire wear. :headscratch:

 

Paul

[fbov]

... IMO  In adverse weather conditions you want the most tread in the back...

Not an issue in the "old days" when FWD was a British peculiarity, but try to explain it to someone who can only afford two snow tires. Until they end up in a ditch, that is. 

Frank