S40 1.8SE Tyre Noise

[MartinD]

Our recently bought 2002/52 36000mile S40 suffers from tyre noise, particularly from the rear. It sounds like a spin dryer on max spin - particularly from 30 to 60 mph. The tyres are Goodyear Eagle 205/50 16 with near new tread depth. All my previous volvos ran on Pirelli P6000 with no such odd noise. My main dealer has said it is road/tyre noise rather than other options like wheel bearings. Has anyone any ideas?

[timway]

Hmm well thats strange, because mine used to suffer from tyre noise at the rear when it had P6000's at the back, but when I switched to Goodyear Eagle F1's it was much quieter!

[MartinD]

Thanks - I'm quite tempted to stick a pair of p6000s on the rear to see if it makes any difference - if it doesnt Id then be in a stronger position to ask the dealer to investigate further and Id then use up the newish rears on the front in due course. Any more ideas out there?

[callyuk]

my farther in law had a simalar sound comming from his 1.8 s40 it turned out to be the rear caliper was siezed on might be worth a check

[MartinD]

Thanks - its just had a full service at a main dealer, so you would hope that would have been noted if so, however I will mention it when I'm next at the garage.

Hello, Yes it is really problem. You should check if uneven wear on those tires does not appear. It is possible that Your tire looks like saw (teethe). This phenomena appears when tire radial stiffness and suspension stiffness corresponds. This was very often on the GoodYear mounted on Vectras.
I have got the same on Debica (which is the previosus GoodYear tire).
Regards
Janusz

[MartinD]

Thanks

Anyone else got any ideas?

I have noticed there is some variation with road surface, however the noise is so relatively intrusive that it is hard to be specific.

Interesting that the previous owners wife remarked that her new series S40 'doesnt make that whirring noise' - which of course may be a different person's interpretation of what I called a spin dryer on max spin!

Cheers

[TonyM]

I had excessive tyre noise once on my V40 after the rear tyres wore unevenly (and bizarrely) because the rear wheels were out of alignment. New (round !) tyres sorted the problem.

It is possible that this has happened and, maybe the wheels have been aligned but the tyres are still not round or flat across the tread.

Its worth having all wheels aligned on a regular basis as these cars are prone to going out of alignment. My dealer did a 4-wheel alignment for me recently for £40.