Volvo S90 Road noise through tyres

[OldEngineer]

Originally Posted by Capt109

Same issue here with a V90 Cross Country MY21, purchased in Sept 20, I changed from a MY17. The increase in noise was very noticeable between the two cars. I changed the tyres from the Michelins fitted as standard, to the Pirelli Noise cancellation tyres, which may a 3db difference.

I could not stand the noise levels so traded the car at 7 months old, for a MY21 Audi A8

Using an app on my phone, on the same road @ 60mph, Volvo V90 83db, Our other car a 19 Seat Alhambra 63db, Audi A8 54db.

When I was looking into the issue I test drove a S90 T8 78db, MY21 V90 CC 75db. So I can only say they must be either reducing the thickness of the metal, or reducing the insulation or both. It’s a big shame as the rest of the car was excellent

There is no way the Audi is doing 54db at 60mph. The Audi also uses the hifi to generate noise to 'cancel' the real road noise so perhaps your 'Phone App' is confused. To help 'quantify', 50db is 25% of 70db.

We usually define 75db for an average car at 60mph. It's very difficult to get under 70db and I doubt any measurement beating this.

A much more significant factor is the age of the tyres. You will quite often find people saying that they have removed a premium (fully worn) tyre and replaced with a cheap (brand new) Chinese tyre and concluding the new tyre must be better! My fronts (still relatively quiet) at 4mm will be replaced next week for the same Pirelli Zeros with foam inserts.

[Wizzpop]

Originally Posted by OldEngineer

There is no way the Audi is doing 54db at 60mph. The Audi also uses the hifi to generate noise to 'cancel' the real road noise so perhaps your 'Phone App' is confused. To help 'quantify', 50db is 25% of 70db.

I would hope that anyone doing a noise measurement of tyre noise in a car would have turned off the radio and any other sound source. There are also several other sound sources in a moving car, including engine and transmission noise, wind noise, as well as tyre noise.

[OldEngineer]

Test on mine today (before new front tyres). Conditions...

V90 Momentum
3 year old tarmac and level
Dry surface
Measuring at ear level
Pirelli Zero Foam filled tyres (6mm Rear and 4mm Front) 245/45 18
Forced into 8th Gear.

60 MPH gives 70.6db

[Bigwelshdave]

Did you get a recommendation? I have a 2017 S90 on 19” Pirelli Zeros ((Audi fitment-came with the car) which are due for change. I find them really noisy, so much so, I thought I may have a wheel bearing gone! Does anyone have any advice on good quality quiet tyres

[poopbunny]

I'll weigh in on an S90 I own and a S80 P3 I still own and an ex owner of a S80 P2 and Mercedes W220.

With the P2 I went crazy and Dynamat nearly the whole car. I got a very good lesson in law of diminishing returns. It did help but not as much as I had hoped.

I started doing the same on the Mercedes but found there was not much I could do to a S Class that wasn't already done at the factory.

From what I learned in the S Class and P2, here are my recommendations.
- add MLV on the external wheel liner
- add Dynamat or similar on the floor and wheel well
- same for boot/ trunk.
- imagine a straight line between your ear and the contact point of the tyre on the road, you want as much mass as possible between these two points, other than that, it's reflection and LDR to cover those.
- doors do very little other than noise from passing traffic.

And from owning the S90 I replaced the factory Pirelli with Michelin PS 4. The PS4 is a performance yet quiet thread pattern. Then I added foam. The foam was 50mm thick and the width was to the very edge of the tyre. Glued this to a few points on the inside of the tyre. This made a big difference. The wheel would need balancing at least twice. The centrifugal force of the wheel balancing device is not high enough to settle the foam first time.

[neilgorin]

My experience is that the Volvos I have had all were much noiser when new with the original Michelin or Pirelli tyres that they left the factory with but quieter with everything that followed.

Best tyres I've had were a budget all-season tyre from a brand called Imperial - very quiet yet outstanding grip and wear rates.

Absolute worse for both grip, noise and wear were the original Pirelli on the same car (a 19 V60).