RippleChip

Over the past few weeks the front passenger side tire area has been making a lot of noise. It gets louder with speed so I took it in to have the car looked at.

The car is just over a year old, but I put winter tires and rims on for about 4 months. So the current set of Pirelli P6000 have around 30K kms. The dealer told me it was the tire under normal wear and that is why the noise is present. I can't believe with that many kms the tire would be that bad, at 70km/h it overpowers the stereo on a normal setting. And its only the one tire, does this not sound like there is more to it, or is it really a tire that is that bad?

JeffPGH

Did they check the wheel bearings?

4kq

What does the tire look like? If the alignment is off they can sound terrible in 5,000 k.

IMHO, the majority of Pirelli tires blow.

ex-quattro PETE

maybe it is not the tire, but something else.

Now, the P6000s, with their treadwear rating of below 200 don't last too long to begin with. Most people don't get more than 20K miles out of them, and by the time they hit 10K miles, most complain of howling noise. However, the fact that you only hear the noise from one corner of the car seems to be pointing to something else.

RippleChip

They said they put it on the hoist and checked everything, control arms and wheel bearings are fine

RippleChip

I noticed a bit more cabin noise as the miles increased, but this howling sound is real strong. I fear it might be slightly out of alignment and as a result wore poorly and is that bad, although anytime I checked there was no visible issues with wear. But I bent a rim on this corner a few months ago, and had the dealer swap it off and check all the components. I asked for an alignment, but now wouldn't be surprised if they looked, said its fine and skipped the alignment. I've been told a few times they will only do the alignment if they notice a problem while driving, which I think is crap.

ex-quattro PETE

This helps (not guarantees) even out the wear.

The OEM wheels you have are part of the sports package = high performance. Most high performance summer tires don't last much longer, even if rotated properly. 20-25K miles is about an average useful life. The P6000s are on the lower end of this spectrum. Driving habits play a role in this as well.

If treadlife is an important factor, you may want to look into less performance oriented tires. Apparently the new Michelin Pilot Sport A/S is a great all-season tire that still offers very good performance/handling. It has a treadwear rating of 400 (approx. double that of the P6000), but it is expensive.