Road Noise

[flaco]

A number of years ago I bought this 99 LS400 with 54,000 miles. The main attractions were of course the smooth ride and lack of road noise. Today, @ 100,000 miles I still have a smooth ride but the road noise seems to have increased a lot. It is the tires against pavement type noise. What could cause this? Do I need better tires or shocks or what? Not an emergency but any insight would be appreciated. Thanks

[1990LS400]

Tires usually become noisier as they age. Look for tires that have an especially low noise rating such as the ratings on the Tire Rack website. The "gold standard" for a quiet all season tire seems to be the Michelin Primacy MXV4. That's what I have on my car (except in Winter) and they are quieter than the other several models of summer and all season tires I've used on my 2000 LS400 over the past 102,000 miles / 8 years. Also get H-rated tires (130 mph) and not the V-rated tires (149 mph) that original on your car - supposedly can be a little quieter and may last longer.

And maybe you are getting more sensitive to the road noise from your LS. The 98-00 LS400 was a quiet car in its day but more modern and sometimes inexpensive cars are about as quiet. If you are spending much time in other, new cars, your LS may not seem as quiet in comparison as it once did.

[Micah.Berry]

Intersecting note on spending time in new cars. As a function of my job, I sound a good deal of time in rental cars-some of them are pretty nice. For intance, the new Taurus Limited was a very quiet and smooth riding car when I rented it. My 99 is just as smooth or smoother than the nicer rental cars, but the road noise is more than what I experience from the rental cars. My thought is the tires, and once the current ones wear out, I'll stick the Primacys on.

Thanks,

Micah

[jaswood]

A number of years ago I bought this 99 LS400 with 54,000 miles. The main attractions were of course the smooth ride and lack of road noise. Today, @ 100,000 miles I still have a smooth ride but the road noise seems to have increased a lot. It is the tires against pavement type noise. What could cause this? Do I need better tires or shocks or what? Not an emergency but any insight would be appreciated. Thanks

Tires, with age and miles, get noisier and NOISIER, especially it seems to me, beyong 8,000 to 10,000 miles.

I have found that BridgeStone Turanza "SUMMER ONLY" tires have the lowest noise factor overall.

It also doesn't hurt to remove the tires/wheels, pressure wash the ENTIRE interior of the wheelwell and then once FULLY dry discharge an entire can (NAPA, 3M) of rubberised undercoating into/onto each wheelwell, 2 coats. Also, keeping the window and door rubber seals "live" will help a lot, silicon spray or clear silicon or teflon grease is best.