Road Noise

[kithmo]

Is it just me or does anyone else find the Prius road noise tiresome ?

I mainly do short journeys of 3 miles on my commute to work and can bear the noise normally, but Sunday I travelled 30 miles up the M1, with 4 passengers and the constant drone from the road, above 50mph, was very tiresome. It sounds like I've got a swarm of bees in the car. It's not loud but does resonate through the car, a bit like a duff wheel bearing noise but it's coming from all around. The suspension seems to magnify every imperfection in the road, I've driven quieter vans. I can't hear the engine above it.

All other aspects of the car are brilliant and I love it, but the road noise is seriously making me think of swapping it for something else.

[johalareewi]

There isn't much soundproofing in a Prius. I guess there doesn't need to be if the engine doesn't make much noise and it keeps the weight down. However, you do get to hear lots of other noises. You can have a look over on the Prius Chat forum for some ideas for sound proofing a prius. Here is an example...

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii-2010-prius-audio-electronics/74690-noise-control-sound-vibration-damping.html

[agfs]

I have an idea that the newer (smoother ?)the tarmac, the less noise there is from the road surface.

[Jan&tone]

Do we find the Prius road noise tiresome?

No. Can't hear it over the radio, kids, wife....

I have noticed that the radio volume seems to adjust itself upwards as the speed increases?

[princeotter]

I find the Prius' road noise quite bad on certain roads but no worse than a number of other cars I have had. Mine has 17" wheels which make it worse I believe. However tyre rumble I can put up with - what is annoying me is the creaky plastics, especially when its cold. The creaks seem to emanate from the 'flying bridge' console area but its hard to pin down - I think it may be the sliding cover of the storage box. Trouble is they are very spasmodic - enough to be annoying but not enough to kick up a fuss - I think its more to do with the frequency rather than the volume. Still ever mind - I just console (sic) myself with the £120 BIK tax saving each month lol

Jan&Tone - you are right - the radio volume increases with speed if you set the ASD (or something like that) under Sound tab on the Audio panel (Mines a T-Spirit so have the satnav screen setup) - took me a while to find that out as I thought it was a setting to equalise the sound levels on playback of music stored on the HDD. Suppose I should have RTFM :-)

[Jan&tone]

Jan&Tone - you are right - the radio volume increases with speed if you set the ASD (or something like that) under Sound tab on the Audio panel (Mines a T-Spirit so have the satnav screen setup) - took me a while to find that out as I thought it was a setting to equalise the sound levels on playback of music stored on the HDD. Suppose I should have RTFM :-)

Lol, i found that button while i was setting the audio up the day i got the car! You are right about the flying bridge, the lid of the cup holder is the culprit when it's cold, takes about 10 minutes to go off when it warms up.

[kithmo]

I have an idea that the newer (smoother ?)the tarmac, the less noise there is from the road surface.

It is quieter on very smooth tarmac, which is why I don't think it's a bearing problem. It's the low frequency drone that I must be more sensitive to.

Do the protective side strips make the doors more solid ?

Knocking on the door skin with my knuckle echoes like a sound box.

Everything in the boot has a hollow sound when tapped, the side trims, the boot floor cover, the boot tray and the flimsy stretch over cover that replaces what would be a parcel tray in most cars doesn't help insulate the boot.

I might try a thick carpet over the boot floor cover to start with and see if that improves matters.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

I think you should test drive a t3 with the smaller non low profile wheels

[Dizzo]

Is it just me or does anyone else find the Prius road noise tiresome ?

I mainly do short journeys of 3 miles on my commute to work and can bear the noise normally, but Sunday I travelled 30 miles up the M1, with 4 passengers and the constant drone from the road, above 50mph, was very tiresome. It sounds like I've got a swarm of bees in the car. It's not loud but does resonate through the car, a bit like a duff wheel bearing noise but it's coming from all around. The suspension seems to magnify every imperfection in the road, I've driven quieter vans. I can't hear the engine above it.

All other aspects of the car are brilliant and I love it, but the road noise is seriously making me think of swapping it for something else.

Tyres make a big difference - what do they put on the GIII?

[kithmo]

Is it just me or does anyone else find the Prius road noise tiresome ?

I mainly do short journeys of 3 miles on my commute to work and can bear the noise normally, but Sunday I travelled 30 miles up the M1, with 4 passengers and the constant drone from the road, above 50mph, was very tiresome. It sounds like I've got a swarm of bees in the car. It's not loud but does resonate through the car, a bit like a duff wheel bearing noise but it's coming from all around. The suspension seems to magnify every imperfection in the road, I've driven quieter vans. I can't hear the engine above it.

All other aspects of the car are brilliant and I love it, but the road noise is seriously making me think of swapping it for something else.

Tyres make a big difference - what do they put on the GIII?

It's got Michelin Primacy HPs on, from past experience on a Mk3 Mondeo they were very quiet tyres.

I do think they look wierd on the Prius though, 215 width on a 7" wide rim, IMO they should have had narrower rims.

[johalareewi]

Tyres make a big difference - what do they put on the GIII?

It's got Michelin Primacy HPs on...

On the 17 inch wheels.

My gen3 15 inch wheels came with Bridgestone b250 back in Nov 2009.

Not sure what they come with these days though.

Any new T3 owners (or T spirit with solar panel) know?

[Opifex]

I used to think my big old Saab was very quiet but I believe the Prius actually beats it.

I find the noise varies quite a bit with the road surface. French roads are very variable so there are some surfaces that are a bit noisy but in the main I am very impresssed with the quiet smooth ride. If the surface is bad it is usually the vibration that you notice rather than the noise.

The only noise that I really dislike is when climbing hills at motorway speeds and the engine decides to scream its little heart out, even though I'm still in the ECO range on the Ecometer.

[Seamaster73]

I found the road noise on the T4 I testdrove intrusive, but not intolerable. I've driven worse. I attributed it entirely to the 17" alloys, and wondered if installing the rubber boot liner of the Protection Pack might help?

[Jan&tone]

I found the road noise on the T4 I testdrove intrusive, but not intolerable. I've driven worse. I attributed it entirely to the 17" alloys, and wondered if installing the rubber boot liner of the Protection Pack might help?

Good point.... I have the boot liner and the side protection strips and don't really notice the road noise

I have found however that although it's quite flimsy, the boot tonneau cover makes a difference too. If it's open or out the car is noisier....

[Opifex]

I found the road noise on the T4 I testdrove intrusive, but not intolerable. I've driven worse. I attributed it entirely to the 17" alloys, and wondered if installing the rubber boot liner of the Protection Pack might help?

Good point.... I have the boot liner and the side protection strips and don't really notice the road noiseI have found however that although it's quite flimsy, the boot tonneau cover makes a difference too. If it's open or out the car is noisier....

I've got the boot liner and don't have any trouble with the noise but I never take it out so don't know if it's helping or not.

Tone - I fancy adding the side protection strips. Were yours supplied/fitted by Mr T?

[Jan&tone]

Tone - I fancy adding the side protection strips. Were yours supplied/fitted by Mr T?

Yes, ordered with the car. Frankly two reasons. First that I believe they are essential with the way some people open their car doors when you are parked, supermarkets, carparks etc...

Secondly i think they look good

Can't remember the cost though, they were part of the negotiations, the rubber boot liner was 35 quid.

[Opifex]

Thanks for the info. I'll look into it when we return to UK in a few weeks.

[cbcdesign]

Tone - I fancy adding the side protection strips. Were yours supplied/fitted by Mr T?

Yes, ordered with the car. Frankly two reasons. First that I believe they are essential with the way some people open their car doors when you are parked, supermarkets, carparks etc...

Secondly i think they look good

Can't remember the cost though, they were part of the negotiations, the rubber boot liner was 35 quid.

I always park either as far from the supermarket doors as possible or park next to the smartest cars I can find to try and avoid damage in these car parks. So far so good!

[kithmo]

Well this Sunday I went to Grosmont near Whitby, up the M18 then A roads, returned down A64/A1M and it was like a completely different car. The M1 must be a rougher road surface than the M18, and some of the A roads I went up on were resurfaced with new tarmac and the car was completely silent at speeds up to 50-60 mph except for a slight wind noise. What a relief, at least now I know there's nothing wrong with the car, just the roads round Rotherham.

[Chris Dance]

Our new Prius Gen 3 is noisier and has more rattles on rough roads and there are plenty of those in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. When you do get on a decently surfaced road the car is quiet just as you describe Kithmo. I have only done 200 miles in the new car I wonder if road noise will be reduced as the tyres get run in!!! Today I went to Henley it was a major task trying to miss huge pot holes. All had been marked by the council but if a motorcyclist hit one the pot holes they could cause a fatal incident. My previous Gen 2 was not as noisy as the Gen 3 on rough surface roads. I am going to see if I can trace the cause of an annoying rattle from the boot area of the car this week end. Will have to put the wife in the boot and drive over a few rough roads I reckon!!!!!!!!!!

[kithmo]

Our new Prius Gen 3 is noisier and has more rattles on rough roads and there are plenty of those in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. When you do get on a decently surfaced road the car is quiet just as you describe Kithmo. I have only done 200 miles in the new car I wonder if road noise will be reduced as the tyres get run in!!! Today I went to Henley it was a major task trying to miss huge pot holes. All had been marked by the council but if a motorcyclist hit one the pot holes they could cause a fatal incident. My previous Gen 2 was not as noisy as the Gen 3 on rough surface roads. I am going to see if I can trace the cause of an annoying rattle from the boot area of the car this week end. Will have to put the wife in the boot and drive over a few rough roads I reckon!!!!!!!!!!

I thought it was the tyres (Michelins) when I first got it and thought it would bed in, but I've done over 5k miles now and it didn't.

SWMBO has a Gen 2 T4 and hers is much quieter, but it has cheap Matador tyres on and 16" wheels.

I was running higher tyre pressures at one time (+6 psi all round) and the noise was only slightly worse, but the ride was horrendous over potholes and speed humps. I dropped them back to Toyota's recommended 33 front and 31 rear and the ride is tons better. I don't know if it has affected the mpg because the weather has picked up and the economy has shot up.

It seem to me that the vibrations from the road are resonating through the body, the rear doors especially, I might try some soundproofing on the rear doors when I get round to it.

[dorboy]

I have just changed my 2007 T-Spirit for a 2014 T-Spirit. I love all the new gizmos but after a short test drive, was horrified to hear the extra road noise on the way home from Bournemouth. It seems the A-roads in Dorset are set up for winter use and are particularly noisy. So I changed the Toyo Proxes to Goodyear F1 Assymetric 3 215/45 R17 W87 and there seemed to be a slight improvement. When driving up the M3 and around the M25, there is a lot of variation in road surface, and sometimes the road noise is reduced to very low levels. But there are a lot of concrete sections which are horrendous. Tyre pressures are standard 32/33psi.

Reading other posts, there doesn't seem to be much mileage in changing to 15" wheels. So I am considering sound deadening by a commercial outfit. Has anyone else considered this? It costs about £800 and adds 20-30kg extra weight. I am not sure how much difference it would make to noise levels on the noisy road sections.

[PeteB]

I think because the Toyota Hybrids are so quiet in most ways, the noises one does hear seem exaggerated, such as the engine note on full throttle and rough road surfaces.  I think the ear self adjusts too, because when I got my first (Gen 1) Prius I started to feel after a while it wasn't as quiet as it used to be, then I went in other cars and confirmed it was.

There's a 7 mile stretch of road near me with a 60 mph speed limit and a number of different surfaces.  During the time I had my 2012 Gen 3 T3 Prius (face-lifted version) I acquired a sound meter a took some measurements on a dry day on 15" wheels with Dunlop Blueresponse tyres fitted (they're supposed to be quieter and did give an improvement compared to the original Bridgestones - although I got the sound meter after I'd changed so that's subjective).

On most of the surfaces it averaged out at about 67 dB and I always though the whole car was pretty quiet except on the very rough surfaces.  A Lexus NX I test drove was about 2 dB quieter.

The facelift Gen 3 had some body stiffening improvements over the original Gen 3, and the odd time I drove cars on 17" wheels there did seem to be more road noise.

On my test drive of the Gen 4 Prius (17" wheels) in March it was a very wet day but the sound meter showed a 1 dB improvement over the Gen 3 even in those conditions and on the bigger rims.  I've since tested my Gen 4 (15") in the dry and got very impressive results (about 63-64 dB - better than the Lexus!), but the roughest surfaces seemed noticeably worse because the rest of the car is so very quiet.

At some point during the pre-launch barrage of news releases I saw (but can no longer find) a diagram showing a vast increase in the amount of sound deadening material compared to the Gen 3, but road noise is transmitted through the body and sound deadening can't help - only better mountings for the wheel and suspension assembly would help.  The front side windows are two very thin sheets of glass with a sound reducing layer between them too.

A couple of weeks ago I did 600 miles in 3 days and found the whole trip really relaxing (the radar cruise control helped enormously too).

And C-O-A-R-S-E GOT REMOVED TOO!

Edited October 22, 2016 by PeteB
TOC changed C O !Removed! to "coubik" - MODERATORS - any idea why please? Someone said this happened to them too a while ago. Thanks.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Coarse

[PeteB]

4 minutes ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Coubik

OK, now I'm really puzzled:

coubik

Coubik

Edited October 22, 2016 by PeteB
HA! and it's done it to the quote of yours - I would have suspected my browser, excpet this is a brand new PC and it's done the same to someone else!