Road Noise

[FROSTYBALLS]

On my one tablet I'm using tonight and my desktop, my test posting of 'coarse'  is showing correctly !

 

[PeteB]

Could it be some sort of auto-censor that doesn't to it for moderators due to their higher privilege perhaps? (bearing in mind what the last 4 character spell!)

Would someone else like to try typing c-o-a-r-s-e as a word without the hyphens?

In fact, doing a search on "coubik" produced lots of examples from lots of people, with some discussion as to the cause.  So it's not just me!

[FROSTYBALLS]

When members have used the name Matsushita in posts the swear filter is triggered by the four letter word within that - and Mods, along with members, see the word has been blocked.

However, it seems that if Mods use the same name, it doesn't have any part blocked as the full name shows on my equipment

Strange.

[PeteB]

Good thing I don't live in Scun*horpe then! 

IIRC when AOL (America OnLine) first came to these shores, people from that town couldn't join as their swear filter blocked it, and their credit card validation failed if they changed the name!

[kithmo]

14 hours ago, PeteB said:

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!

Well I traded the Gen 3 in for a Prius+ in April 2013, after test driving a Plug-in and a 2013 Gen 3 on 15" wheels and finding very little difference to the 2010 Gen 3 on 17" wheels, I tried the + and it was a totally different ball game. Almost silent compared to the latter, I guess due to it being a bit more solid and the extra row of seats in the back probably deadened some of it. I finally traded the Prius+ this year for a new 2016 Gen 4, not quite as quiet as the + but a lot better than the Gen 3.  

[dorboy]

Many thanks PeteB and kithmo. This was my first post and I was very pleased to get such a swift response (not sure about the other replies though...). I am going to investigate sound deadening further and maybe try a lower cost minimal treatment first. Sounds like it's not that easy to make sound level recordings but I will ask them to do it and will report back to the forum. Not sure how soon, though.

[YarisHybrid2016]

Cars with low profile tyres/larger alloys will have more road noise.

[dorboy]

Here is an update in case it is of use to anyone else. Local roads in Dorset tend to be a bit noisy so I had to do something. So I purchased new 15" wheels with winter tyres which made a good improvement that I could live with. Then at the beginning of summer 2017, I changed back to 17" wheels with nearly new Goodyear tyres but the increase in noise was too much. So I then went back to 15" wheels with Dunlop Sport Blue Response tyres and that is acceptable now. Still a bit noisy on some roads, but generally ok so I am not contemplating any sound deadening at the moment. I might try and fit some myself at a later stage.

[PeteB]

My last Gen 3 Prius had 15" wheels, and I didn't find the noise bad except on rough surfaces.  When I switched to Dunlop Sport Blue Response tyres there was a noticeable improvement - I chose them because the ratings for economy and wet braking were quite good, and they had a low noise rating.  The winter tyres (Nokian WR D3) were not so good, but I chose safety performance over noise levels.

My Gen 4 on 15" was better still, not too bad on the standard Bridgestones, and not terrible on the same Nokians.

Once the Bridgestones need replacing I'll look around again, and consider the Dunlops unless there's something that seems to be batter at the time.

[Duffryn]

On 17/09/2017 at 9:15 PM, dorboy said:

Here is an update in case it is of use to anyone else. Local roads in Dorset tend to be a bit noisy so I had to do something. So I purchased new 15" wheels with winter tyres which made a good improvement that I could live with. Then at the beginning of summer 2017, I changed back to 17" wheels with nearly new Goodyear tyres but the increase in noise was too much. So I then went back to 15" wheels with Dunlop Sport Blue Response tyres and that is acceptable now. Still a bit noisy on some roads, but generally ok so I am not contemplating any sound deadening at the moment. I might try and fit some myself at a later stage.

Hi John

Road noise levels are my major concern with the car too, could I ask if you purchased the standard Toyota 15" wheels (as fitted to Prius T3 I believe), and was either your warranty or insurance affected by what is, in effect, non-standard equipment for the T Spirit version?

260 miles on the M5 yesterday varied between beautifully serene and headachingly noisy, depending on the road surface.

[fordulike]

5 minutes ago, Duffryn said:

Hi John

Road noise levels are my major concern with the car too, could I ask if you purchased the standard Toyota 15" wheels (as fitted to Prius T3 I believe), and was either your warranty or insurance affected by what is, in effect, non-standard equipment for the T Spirit version?

260 miles on the M5 yesterday varied between beautifully serene and headachingly noisy, depending on the road surface.

The solution is to trade in for an AYGO. The engine noise drowns out the road noise 

[dorboy]

I did tell my insurance who weren't bothered and just said that new alloy wheels were fitted. But beforehand I had checked with Toyota at Yeovil which has a very good service dept. They checked everything and said it would be fine. I think the Prius plugin is supplied with 15" wheels so the tyre dimensions had already been sorted out by Toyota. The 15" wheels are reasonably attractive but have a trim that needs to be removed when checking tyre pressures, and also for proper cleaning. Someone got a bargain for the 17" wheels and tyres on eBay!

[FROSTYBALLS]

1 hour ago, Duffryn said:

......... could I ask if you purchased the standard Toyota 15" wheels (as fitted to Prius T3 I believe), and was either your warranty or insurance affected........

Usually with car manufacturers if original accessories are ordered at the time of ordering a vehicle, the accessories are covered by the new car warranty. If original accessories are purchased afterwards, they are covered by a 12 month warranty.

[birdseye]

All the roads in the UK seem to be getting  resurfaced with bigger chunks of stone imbedded so presumably it requires less of the expensive tarmac, in our area we had some lovely smooth roads and now they have been resurfaced it's really noisy,

[mickburkesnr]

2 hours ago, birdseye said:

All the roads in the UK seem to be getting  resurfaced with bigger chunks of stone imbedded so presumably it requires less of the expensive tarmac, in our area we had some lovely smooth roads and now they have been resurfaced it's really noisy,

I remember seeing a documentary about this, and the embedded stone surface is to reduce noise for the surrounding areas, not for the car. So on a flat smooth road, the noise to houses near by are amplified. Using the rougher stone surface the noise is lowered. Obviously though that then means the drivers are getting the noise instead.