LOUD rear tyre noise - 4x4 + winter tyres + ST

[h-a-r-r-y]

hey everyone

OK last weekend I drove my ST300 Cupra down from Sweden to Netherlands and when I hit anything above 120+ km/h, I would get this humming sound coming from the rear of the car.

This noise would only get marginally louder and higher in pitch as I increased in speed. I know that I have my winter tyres on (Nokian Hakkapelitas for reference), but they were just worryingly loud.

No unsafe feeling behind the wheel, just the noise. Should I be concerned? Or could it be another sound?

 

[BoomerBoom]

I've had tyre noise like that which turned out to be the rears wearing in a saw tooth pattern around the inner shoulder, if you run your hand around the inner edge of the tread blocks you can feel the jagged tips in one direction, smooth in the other.

Winter tyres have deeper tread blocks so I'd guess it would be worse. If so then it's not unsafe, just annoying. If the tyres aren't directional then you can swap the rears over to even it out.

 

[RUM4MO]

I've only ever used Alpins and Alpin Pilots and the only time, or mainly the only time I'd hear more noise is when braking hard, and so that will be more noise at/from the fronts, @h-a-r-r-y, your winter tyres will be serious Nordic area winter tyres so maybe that is the issue indeed, what is the speed rating of these winter tyres, I thought these more serious Nordic conditions winter tyres had much lower speed rating than other area winter tyres - no?

Edit:- I'm guessing that they will be "T" rated so still used within their rated speed range, but maybe they do get noisy as the speed rises up.

 

[KernelOkey]

Have no sounds like that and done 200kph with my studded Conties. No experience tho with Hakkas non studded tires

 

[h-a-r-r-y]

I've had tyre noise like that which turned out to be the rears wearing in a saw tooth pattern around the inner shoulder, if you run your hand around the inner edge of the tread blocks you can feel the jagged tips in one direction, smooth in the other.

Hmm I will check it out!

your winter tyres will be serious Nordic area winter tyres so maybe that is the issue indeed, what is the speed rating of these winter tyres

They are M+S (Alpine) 210 km/h max.

Have no sounds like that and done 200kph with my studded Conties. No experience tho with Hakkas non studded tires

They're decent tires (don't love them, but they do the job).

Interestingly enough, I got back to Sweden last week, and around 120-130 on Swedish roads the sound wasn't there anymore. I think it's probably due to different road mixture? It was also dry when I was driving in Germany + NL and around 10 degrees which is about the limit of these kind of tyres.

 

[RUM4MO]

I've noticed that some areas in UK have at times had different road surfaces that do cause a lot of road noise, probably to improve water run off or wet grip, or maybe just new materials being trialed.