garberfc

Once in a while, on very smooth sections of road, at certain speeds (~25 mph) I hear quite a bit of, what I think is, tire noise. I have relatively new Pilot Alpin PA4 tires inflated to 38/35. I don't see any unusual wear on them. The sound seems to come from the drivers side front.

It's a humming sound. It sounds loud to me, but I'm guessing it's just the cabin containing and bouncing the sound around. Maybe I should record the sound.

Does anyone have any idea what is causing it, or had similar experiences?

Dan99

Tire tread interacting with the road surface. I get a similar thing from Michelin PS4 summer tires, but did not get it with the oem Continentals SportContact6 tires over the same stretch of road. I also have Michelin PA4 tires for winter and they don't make the same noise in the same places as the PS4 tires. Just have your local highway dept smooth out that stretch of road for you and it should go away.

vexige

I have the same winter tires, same humming noise. Guess, it's expected from a winter tire, due to tread pattern.

Lord XL

I have the same winter tire. They're just noisier than the ContiSport. First time on a long trip with them I actually stopped the car on the side of the road because I thought there was something wrong due to the noise. Some people crap on the ContiSport but I think they're good quiet Summer tires.

synergize

They have Conti-Silent...and it works!

mhoran89

Was going to say due to depth, block, and sipe design of winter tire tread. Very common. If you are still hearing weird things come spring when you go back to all-seasons/summer then let us know. Cheers!

Lord XL

Yes. I saw that in the RS5 thread. If continental made a similar winter tire when I purchased my micheline's I would have gone that route.

Nikon1

@garberfc —I bought a set of them at the end of December last year —but in an 18” size — and have heard no noises from them, yet. I do mostly local driving but have done a couple of 2 hour highway trips and it’s the same thing, no noise.

— John

garberfc

Thanks for all the responses and reassurances. I'll let you all know if anything changes...

dpcompt

I wish they had an All Season version. I don't need dedicated winter tires, but I have to drive over the Sierras from Lodi,CA to Reno in the Winter and Summer tires won't work.