Road Noise or Tire Noise?

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MZ5black

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2014 Mazda5 Sport Auto
The new-to-me '14 MZ5 Sport w/ 30K miles has brand new Goodride SP06 tires in the front. Not a very popular name but tires have good ratings online. The rears are Toyo A20's. They have different date codes as far as I can tell. Also, one A20 appears to be brand new judging by both appearance and tread depth whereas the other one is at about 60-70% tread. I'm guessing that the dealer, CarMax, replaced two original tires (Toyo A20's?) with Goodrides, left one original Toyo A20 but then put one new Toyo A20 on. Odd.

So now about the noise. The higher the speed the louder is the noise from the rear. Almost kind of like worn wheel bearing but not exactly. My guess is it's the tires. Aren't Toyo A20 noisy and overall a pretty bad tire? Or are these cars just noisy period (which I realize is subjective and depends on what driver is used to)? Any thoughts would be helpful and appreciated.
 
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The car is noisy unless you add sound insulation.
Rotate tires front to back and see if the location of the noise changes.
 
Vasy said:
The car is noisy unless you add sound insulation.
Rotate tires front to back and see if the location of the noise changes.
Click to expand...

My mechanic said that the oldest tire -- left rear Toyo -- is cupping and that's what's most likely causing the noise. Although it appears that these tires are quite noisy and low quality in general. Wil need to contact the dealer...
 
Double check the health of your rear shocks before you put any money into tires. The rear shocks on these cars can wear out shockingly fast (especially when they are beat upon as rentals) and a worn set of rear shocks is the most likely culprit for cupped tires. You probably also want to get your front struts and bushings looked at, as Carmax is hardly above hiding suspension woes with a fresh set of tires.
 
CarMax service manager agreed that the tire is cupped and, although it is not out of their spec, he agreed to replace it... with another Toyo A20 tire. Suspension parts etc appear to be in good shape according to my tech and this gentleman. Now, IMO a cupped tire needs to be gone no matter what. Can't believe it's within their spec. I am asking him to get rid of both Toyo tires and install something higher quality or preferably replace the fronts ("Goodride") also so that I have matching tires all over. He proposed that I pay for half of the cost if all four tires are replaced. Choices are Kelly Edge, Fuzion Touring and Kumho Sense KR26. Will cost me between $130 and $150 out of pocket for two and then CarMax will cover two. An alignment will be done also. So I'm thinking...
 
What the dealer will do is put two new Kelly Edge tires on the back and do a four-wheel alignment. Was told the alignment will be done using Mazda factory specs. Also, all suspension parts check out according to the service manager.
 
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I had 30K on my OEM Tires -loud

Then I went to Hankook Ventus for 15k miles -quieter than Toyo and handled fantastic

Now I have Michelin Premacy-gave up some handling, but so quiet. Almost like my Lexus cars in the garage (not quite, but very close), given how the loud/cheap the car is essentially
 
I may have had the TOyo A18, I don't recall now.

My Hankooks were toast, yes. Then again Toyo R888 on my others cars are getting 3500-5500 mile a set, so anything over 10K makes me happy


That said, the Michelin Primacy will last me the life of the car, for my purpose.
 
I've had Kelly Explorer Plus all season tires on 2009 Hyundai Sonata for 47k+ miles now. Had nails removed and now one of the belts appears to have broken but overall it's been good tire with at least half of tread still remaining. Two other cars had Goodyear-brand tires that held up very well for 40k+ miles also -- never changed them. (New owners inherited them.)

P.S. I don't drive aggressively and rarely go off-road so that is probably a factor.
 
I don't go offroad, I track (not with the Mazda 5)

Our last set of Michelin Premacy lasted 85K miles.
 
MZ5black said:
That's very impressive!
Click to expand...

I had very good luck with them also. Took a noticeable amount of noise and harshness out of the Mazda5, and wet traction was great also. I can not vouch for the entire longevity however, as when I sold the van they appeared to be about 1/2 gone with 28k on them. (Which was pretty much twice what I got out of 2 other diff branded sets.)
 
Well, I hope that tires on my '14 MZ5 will last a while. It seems like sub-30k miles is not unusual in terms of tire lifespan on MZ5 which is not ideal from my perspective. I'd like to see at least 40-50k.
 
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New tires (Kelly Edge) are on and the old Toyos are gone. The Goodride pair moved from front to rear (don't know why). What a difference! Noise levels are down and overall ride quality is better. Hope this rubber will last and wear well.
 
I consider myself anal when it comes to this sort of thing, and I know that money may be an issue, but I would not drive a car with mismatched tires any longer than I ABSOLUTELY HAD TO. When the snow flies this winter you have no idea what that car is going to do in poor traction conditions. If the Goodrides aren't as capable as the Kellys your van is going to want to spin at the drop of a hat, if the inverse is true, you won't be able to steer when the roads are covered in snow/ice. For your sake, please consider getting four tires that are the same as soon as you can.
 
Secondtyme said:
I consider myself anal when it comes to this sort of thing, and I know that money may be an issue, but I would not drive a car with mismatched tires any longer than I ABSOLUTELY HAD TO. When the snow flies this winter you have no idea what that car is going to do in poor traction conditions. If the Goodrides aren't as capable as the Kellys your van is going to want to spin at the drop of a hat, if the inverse is true, you won't be able to steer when the roads are covered in snow/ice. For your sake, please consider getting four tires that are the same as soon as you can.
Click to expand...

Noted - thanks for the advice.
 
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