OK, my stock 17" wheels have the usual rear tire center tread wear problem, which prompted me to buy a set of 18's almost a year ago. I only just put them on last week (I waited to first replace the crappy Nissan brake pads with aftermarket so I don't get dust all over the nice new wheels).

The wheels are BBS RGR (F: 8 1/2 x 18-23; R: 9 1/2 x 18-25) with Kumho MX tires (F: 245/40; R:275/40), and I'm not impressed. Grip is great of course (hell what wouldn't be after the RSA's with no center tread) and they look awesome, but there is a constant rumble of tire noise, even at very low speed. I had expected it to be harsh over bumps but actually that's not a problem at all, its just the noise.

To anyone who upgraded from stock 18's to wider tires, did you notice an increase in tire roar - what I'm asking is: is the increased noise due to the increased width of tire, or perhaps its the Kumhos?

I'm not prepared to spend well over a grand for new Pilots etc, so I'm even considering going back to the stock 17s and trying another brand or size of tire on them.

 

well it is based on your tread patterns of the tires. I had the stock pilots and they make some noise. Personally i would just wear out those tires and switch over to another brand of tires. Toyo t1r's arent too noisy. and they are priced much better than the pilots. Plz dont go back to the stock 17's 18's look much better.

 

yea... its probably the tires and not the rim size... tire compounds make a difference for ride quality and noise.. also if the inner part of your tire is wearing out.. you could possibly be in need of alignment or the tires are over inflated, could be either one and possibly both.

 

I guess I should have asked a couple of basic questions first:

1. Should I have gotten an alignment done when changing to the new wheels?
2. Is the tire pressure still 32 all-round, or something different?

We live & learn

 

I am getting Kumho rears this week with stock goodyear fronts on 17s...I'll let you know how the sound is compared to the stock goodyears. (I had the inner tread wear problem btw at 9,500 miles. )

 

The larger rims are not the culprit for your tire noise. Yes, it is always a good idea to get an alignment whenever you change your tires or rims. The tires and their individual pattern is most probably the tire noise issue. Of course once the inner front tires show wear from the negative camber, that will add to any noise. I had the RSAs on my 17s and they were not very noisey at all other than the rear tires wearing in the centers and around 7,000-8,000 miles were shot. I changed to the Avon 550 A/S all around and the noise from the front tires was so bad, I went back to the RSAs for the fronts and it is like a different car. I kept the Avons for the rears as I get a few thousand miles more out of them over the RSAs. I have heard from the dealer and on line that the Kumos were noisey as well. I would assume your noise is coming from the front tires mostly. All tires on the Coupe make noise, but some are worse. I decided to stay with the RSAs for the fronts as they make very little noise for me and the fronts don't feather as badly as other tires with bigger tread blocks. It's a matter of experimenting or doing research to get the best combination. It's a pain, but it's the price for owning these coupes.

 

I'd say it's te tires period. My stock 18's where very noisy due to the tread wear. After I swapped over to my aftermarket wheels and tires the annoying road noise was gone.

 

Boca, I think you are right there - the noise is from the front Kumhos. My front RSAs would have gone beyond 40,000 and fairly quiet, and did not show too much feathering. Like yours the rears were shot at 7,000, noisy and the loss of traction was noticeable at 5,000 which is very annoying on a performance car.

 

I'm curious what tires do you have on now?
And what pressures are you running?

 

Hey, I just saw a post that mentioned overinflated tires. I'd been having the same nosie problem as mentioned in this thread. I run Avon 550 All Seasons 225/45/18-245/45/18 on stock wheels. I had been running 35-36, dropped them all to 34psi, and the thump-thump in the rear is now just a whine. The tires have 20,000+ on them. I expected some noise, but at least this is not as noticeable a sound.