Tires to reduce road noise

welcome! what's on your car now? michelin energy saver a/s are supposed to be excellent.

 

The Bridgestone Ecopia EP20 that come stock on 2015 Prius are fairly quiet especially for low rolling resistance tires geared towards fuel economy. I know what you mean, they tend to be loud. I replaced my EP20 with some cheap $50 tires and they made a big difference in lower noise, smoother comfort and better handling. Fuel economy suffered, though from ~45 to low 40's.

 

^ I love the EP20's, have bought them for a vehicle with 15" a couple of times, and likely will again, but I would not call them a quiet tire. Not that I care, they're ok.

They're not bad, new, but when worn down to 6/32" or less, get moderately noisy. I can recall one year, I'd just swapped back from our snow tires to the EP20's, starting out, and then pulling over to have a look: they were noisy enough that I thought something was wrong (there wasn't).

Which brings one thing to mind: any tire will be quieter when new. This leads to a lot of testimonials from owners along the lines of "My old tires were getting really noisy. I've just purchased (such-and-such brand) tires, and what a difference, much quieter."

 

I switched to Prius 17" wheels and went with Pirelli Cinturato P7 Plus all season. MPG hit was minimal (I went from OEM 15" Yokohama Avids) but road noise reduction was Maximal! These tires are way better than I could have hoped for. I wish they made them in the 195/65 15 size. They've added a bunch of sizes, or a least the list on TireRack had gotten longer under the P7 while doing tire research. I can't say enough about the way they perform. Quiet, directional, smooth, and responsive. Tested on the highway in Florida thunderstorms... found they were very good in the wet. I was a little worried about the MPG hit for a while, but it took a couple of thousand miles to break them in. MPG dropped to upper 40s from lower to mid 50s. Eventually came back up and ranged in the more normal 52-54mpg during the latter part of Summer as we piled more mile on the tires. We have almost 10,000 miles on them now, with no noticeable wear yet.

Just checked TireRack and no P7 in the 195/65 15 size, but they do list a Pirelli P4 Four Season Plus that already gets about the same great ratings as the P7. Might be worth investigating. UTQG rating is 760 AB. Not bad at all. Although Pirelli produces LRR tires, this one doesn't say it in the description directly. There is a sentence about tire structure saying it combines "ride comfort, low noise and reduced rolling resistance with long life". It's also a comparably inexpensive on that site.

The Continental TrueContact is rated a notch higher than the P4 Plus (ranked 1 vs 2) but a friend installed a set of TrueContacts on his 2010 Prius and the experience with the tire was mixed. MPG took a hit until the tire broke in which is normal, but then it seemed harder to get back to previous levels. I can't be sure that he checked his tire pressure very often and I did drive the car quite a bit, sharing rides to and from our local ski area in the Winter. The tire ride was good, the noise level was lower that the OE Yokohama Avids on his car. Snow traction was quite good for an all season tire. We do have different driving styles, plus he lives in Portland and I'm well out in the rural sections of north of the city, so he definitely does a lot more city type short trips on a day to day basis. I thought it was a pretty good tire and he was pretty neutral about them. Later in their second year of life they did start to develop a bit of a buzz, but again I don't think he did an alignment when he put the tire on, although he did rotate every 6,000 miles. So don't know if I can blame the tire for the noise development.

Michelin Premier A/S is an excellent tire for Prius. One of the top rated tires and might the least noisy tire on the survey. The Michelin Energy Saver A/S is a tough tire to find much info on, but the survey on TireRack puts them in the OK category.

In the 195/65 15 size, I would pick the Michelin Premier A/S. Great ratings overall and quiet, plus it's marked as a Low Rolling Resistances, so it should help keep good fuel economy. UTQG for this tire is 640 AA and that indicates that it's durable with excellent grip and heat dissipation.

 

I am shopping for new tires too. I want to keep high MPG and also a smooth ride. The best ones that I have found are michelin energy saver A/s and Bridgestone ep 422 plus. Costco sells ep422+ for $400 plus $60 to mount and balance. I cannot find the michelin es anywhere except a couple online sites for $600 plus shipping and then probably at least $60 for a local shop to install. So I plan to get the Bridgestone EP422 plus.

First Bridgestone made the ep20, then ep422, now ep422+. Not sure why you would want the old model Ep20. The new model is supposed to have slightly lower rolling resistance and a smoother quieter ride, at least based on reviews.

 

Bridgestone Turanza Serenity Plus 195/65/15

Replaced OEM Bridgestone EP20 at 36000 miles. A lot of research on Tire Rack. First 2000 mile tire felt much firmer, handling far better, ride very good, noise as well as can be expected on SoCal concrete freeways. Lost about 2-3 mpg, but the enhanced driving experience made up for it.

 

My wife has these on her Honda Civic. They are very noisy now that they have a lot of miles on them. They make a wooh, wooh, wooh noise. They must have worn funny, but I don't see any odd wear pattern on them.

 

My personal experience has been that Yokohama OEM LRR 15" tires last about 30k and are quieter than the Bridgestone Ecopia which lasted about 25k. The Prius in stock form has little sound insulation and road noise makes up most of what I hear, I guess because my current tires don't make noise.