Noisy 20” Tyre - what to replace them with?

[AL NZ]

I bought an XC90 a year ago - for me the road noise was a deal breaker, but I was vetoed as the car is primarily for my wife and in all other respects ticked all our boxes. ( I’d have bought a CX9 at less than 2/3 the price).

Anyway, tyre wear is good, at least 5mm left at 30,000km. The tyres are Michelin Latitude Sport 3
I hate the road noise and I have been googling the net for the quietest 275/45 x 20 SUV tyre, with no real answers. I realize it may be the vehicle and not the tyres

I have an ancient Tribeca on Michelin Latitude Cross, similar name, totally different tyre, in 18” and absolutely awesome for an SUV that does a little bit of snow/gravel/wet fields . Unfortunately not available bigger than 18”. Quiet too !

Has anyone found a good all season replacement 20” for their XC90 which is quieter?
All advice appreciated

[Deman77]

You have a better tyre for noise unless you had a dud batch which cannot be ruled out. You can get the ones with foam inside to make it better still but if the road noise is unbearable then you must have other issues.

Check wheel balancing if noise is at high speed

Check suspension for issues.

Most importantly check that b pillar TJ has been applied - it makes a big difference. If they say car is old enough for it not to matter ask them to investigate it is done correctly as there were instances it wasn’t done right at the factory even after TJ.

[nu11eaf]

Please dont get me started on this one again, all I can say is the XC90 is a huge fail as far as road noise is concerned, had my air suspension checked and double checked, TJ carried out and tried different tyre pressures and tyres swapped to the contisilents and not a jot of difference. Avoid Continental tyres at all costs.
As OP says its the one big thing that lets this car down and 20" wheels seem to be worse than any other size.
On smooth new tarmac roads the car is really quiet but not many roads like that in the north of England, we get compacted chippings or coarse agregate tarmac which causes a lot of road noise and the XC90 just seem to amplify the noise.
I too would like to know which is the best tyre on the XC90 re noise level.

[AL NZ]

Thanks for the replies
Excuse my ignorance, but what is the TJ ?

PS I do know where the B pillar is however

[volvoid]

20" rimz innit bro bling like orwite.

how about 16" wheels with sensible tyres. Much more appropriate for an offroader that might have to venture up the occasional kerb or pothole.

[Philip Fisher]

Originally Posted by AL NZ

Thanks for the replies
Excuse my ignorance, but what is the TJ ?

PS I do know where the B pillar is however

Technical Journal. It is essentially a technical bulletin issued by Volvo to their dealers usually with instructions on how to modify something for cars in the market.

[Philip Fisher]

What about dropping to 19inch rims? Mine is perfectly quiet on 19s and Michelin tyres.

[nu11eaf]

You cant get an inscription with 19" wheels, they wont do it, I would have even gone down to 18" as on the MK 1 XC90 but you cant spec them on an inscription, you can only spec larger wheels.
Volvo should sort the problem out, the customer should not have to spend another £2k or more to make the car slightly better. It should be like a premium car they claim it to be straight from the factory.
But yes if I see any 19" wheels in same style for sale I will buy them for when my tyres wear out.
My last post on this as I have expressed my feeling on other posts about this issue.

[familymangreg]

Originally Posted by AL NZ

I bought an XC90 a year ago - for me the road noise was a deal breaker, but I was vetoed as the car is primarily for my wife and in all other respects ticked all our boxes. ( I’d have bought a CX9 at less than 2/3 the price).

Anyway, tyre wear is good, at least 5mm left at 30,000km. The tyres are Michelin Latitude Sport 3
I hate the road noise and I have been googling the net for the quietest 275/45 x 20 SUV tyre, with no real answers. I realize it may be the vehicle and not the tyres

I have an ancient Tribeca on Michelin Latitude Cross, similar name, totally different tyre, in 18” and absolutely awesome for an SUV that does a little bit of snow/gravel/wet fields . Unfortunately not available bigger than 18”. Quiet too !

Has anyone found a good all season replacement 20” for their XC90 which is quieter?
All advice appreciated

Hi,

I (and many others) have also taken issue with road noise. My car is a MY17 car on 20s and air. There is a huge post here on this subject. In summary since that thread started:

1. Volvo introduced a fix which allowed additional sound deadening to be added to the b-pilllar. I believe this became standard on later (MY18?) cars.

2. Volvo also started fitting ContiSilent tyres to cars, which have a foam insert stuck to the inside of the tyres which is supposed to absorb some of the sound from the Continental tyres.

My car was originally on the none silent version of the continentals, and didn't have the b-pillar fix.

I had the b-pillar fix carried out, which made a small difference.

Then my dealer and Volvo covered the cost of swapping my tyres to the new Conti Silents when they became available. Again the difference was noticeable, but not that significant.

The Conti Silents they fitted did 15k miles and I replaced them for Michelin Latitude Sport 3 Acoustic Technology. To me, this change made the greatest difference to road noise.

With all the above changes in place, its not the quietest car on the road, but I'm finding it more than acceptable.

We also had an MY18 loan car from the dealer for a day. Now it was a Momentum on 19s, so not a fair comparison in terms of road noise, but it definitely felt as if the car was all round better insulated, with less intrusion of general outside noise and engine noise (others on the forum have reported similar observations).

That's my experience to date. In the future, I would go for 20s again, but wouldn't accept a car with Conti's, and I'd also specify laminated windows.

:wq

[Lexman8]

Originally Posted by familymangreg

We also had an MY18 loan car from the dealer for a day. Now it was a Momentum on 19s, so not a fair comparison in terms of road noise, but it definitely felt as if the car was all round better insulated, with less intrusion of general outside noise and engine noise (others on the forum have reported similar observations).

Yep, I've found recent loan cars to be noticeably quieter than mine.

It looks like Volvo have made improvements but haven't documented it so as not to imply that there was anything 'wrong' with the early cars.