Road noise

[cruiserOAP]

I have ordered a Yaris Cross Icon. I've test driven the Design, which has bigger wheels. I noticed some tyre noise, although I thought it was less than my Ibiza, which has 45 profile tyres. Has anyone compared the Icon with the Design's 17 inch 55 profile tyres for road noise?

The Icon has 65 profile tyres, much higher than most cars nowadays. Cars sold in Europe often have higher profile tyres, in the UK buyers seem obsessed with big shiny wheels and skinny low profile tyres, which often ruins the ride quality. I notice cars with low profile tyres bring the wheel rims down to the kerb level, making those shiny rims vulnerable.

 

[anchorman]

57 minutes ago, cruiserOAP said:

I have ordered a Yaris Cross Icon. I've test driven the Design, which has bigger wheels. I noticed some tyre noise, although I thought it was less than my Ibiza, which has 45 profile tyres. Has anyone compared the Icon with the Design's 17 inch 55 profile tyres for road noise?

The Icon has 65 profile tyres, much higher than most cars nowadays. Cars sold in Europe often have higher profile tyres, in the UK buyers seem obsessed with big shiny wheels and skinny low profile tyres, which often ruins the ride quality. I notice cars with low profile tyres bring the wheel rims down to the kerb level, making those shiny rims vulnerable.

 

Others have fitted smaller wheels and high profile tyres.  I’m very satisfied with the ride on my 18 inch wheels - perfect I would say but I soon worked out that none and I mean none of the panels have sound deadening.  I’ve done mine and it has transformed it.  The only panels I haven’t done are the floor.  In summer I’ll have the underside panels off and do the floor at the same time.  I’m just giving you something else to consider.  If you get to Derbyshire any time you’re welcome to ride in it.   

[SinglePointSafety]

Hi Mike, I swapped my Excel 18-inch wheels with 50-profile (Falken) tyres, for 16-inch 3rd-party wheels and 65-profile all-season tyres. Significant reduction in road noise, filters out a lot of the 'road buzz', much better cushioning against our local disastrous roads (which have deteriorated even further in the last 2-3 months, no repairs going on anywhere that I can see: given the council's financial status, roads won't be getting better any time soon)

Description and photos below, hope that helps

 

[Max_Headroom]

 

As the old saying goes "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" 

The ride may be quieter but the style of the new wheels does the car any favours.

 

[Cyker]

The tyre profile does make a difference, but so does tyre compound and tread pattern.

When you need to change tyres and have a short-list, is worth looking on TyreReviews.com to see what people say about the tyres in your short-list with regard to how noisy they are.

The 'official' noise rating is practically useless as it's the external noise to someone passing by, not the internal noise. In my experience, tyres with lower noise ratings tend to be louder in the car than tyres with higher noise ratings!

 

[TonyHSD]

From the pictures above I like the smaller wheels more. It gives an extra rugged look in addition to the plastic wheel arches and door trims and those sharp approach and departure angles like a proper small suv (4x4). 
Tyres with V shape tread pattern has ability to cancel road noise much better than straight line summer style tyres, something to consider too.
However these all season tyres reduce efficiency a bit and the inertia of the car, less ev free rolling., and does make the car dirtier, mud-flaps are highly recommended. Softer side walls also helps with tyre noise and vibrations reduction and transmission into the cabin. The cars with quieter interiors are those with extra plastic surrounds around all doors and windows including rear hatch, extra door seals , and extra under carpet sound proofing, something that it’s completely missing in many Toyota cars. 👍

[Max_Headroom]

 

Reposting my earlier post as i can no longer edit the mistake - 

 

As the old saying goes "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" 

The ride may be quieter but the style of the new wheels doesn't do the car any favours.

 

  .

[TonyHSD]

21 minutes ago, Max_Headroom said:

 

Reposting my earlier post as i can no longer edit the mistake - 

 

As the old saying goes "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" 

The ride may be quieter but the style of the new wheels doesn't do the car any favours.

 

  .

Here to me it does. No argument, just different likes 👍 
I personally prefer the smaller wheels second picture, I believe it suits the car shape and personality more. And these are good wheels.
When I changed mine from 17” nice looking to smaller 16” also good looking every swap between  I was asking myself, hm which ones are better,?!
But honestly, no doubt about it, the less metal and more rubber  has all the benefits including better handling, better grip on slippery surfaces, better braking, better acceleration, less wheel spins, less noise and vibrations, tyres are lasting longer, at least on my car. 
One thing noticed on Toyota Facebook page a lots of customers were complaining about really poor grip on their latest hybrids during the snow.
No surprise to me. If you look at Aygo x, Yaris, Yaris cross, Corolla, they all except the basic trims comes with low profile tyres which are well known for been no go in slippery conditions. These type of tyres are only more  suitable  for side slides, drifting, not much  else really. 👍

[Max_Headroom]

5 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

Here to me it does. No argument, just different likes 👍 

No argument here mate that's why i posted -

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" 

 

.

[Mojo1010]

I like the original wheels and tyres as it looks nicer and still got decent sidewall @ 107.5mm similar to the MK4 design in smaller wheels 107.25mm. That's reasonably enough of a cushioning imo.

Buying a set of wheels, tyres and transferring the tpms sensors are additional cost and time, + having storage space for the original set as well. Individual owners have their wants and needs, the change above are happy with it. I don't have the time, storage and wouldn't want to spend extra when original is good. 

Edit: In addition, having too much sidewall will flex and affect cornering ability such as twisty country roads. 

 

 

 

[Cyker]

In my old cars, I used to deflate the tyres a bit if it snowed really bad to improve low-speed grip, although I didn't have to in the Mk4 because the traction control was so effective!

Must admit I prefer the chunkier tyre look on SinglePointSafety's YC too - It suits the SUV-look more than skinny tyres IMHO.

 Low profile tyres look better on slammed hypercars than lifted SUVs.

Not that the looks concern me too much; I'm definitely more of a function over form person!

[TonyHSD]

Exactly, suv on skinny tyres looks like a mountain hiking man  🥾 is walking with a flip flops instead of proper shoes  🩴 

[RobertR]

Tony, with gi

13 hours ago, TonyHSD said:

But honestly, no doubt about it, the less metal and more rubber  has all the benefits including better handling, better grip on slippery surfaces, better braking, better acceleration, less wheel spins....

Not sure about this. Why do all the performance cars have low profile rubber? Rubber is an unpredictable component in suspensions, that's why you want to minimize it. A high tire profile kills handling and grip, in extremes, with a high profile, you can take off your rubber during cornering.

[APS]

14 hours ago, Max_Headroom said:

The ride may be quieter but the style of the new wheels doesn't do the car any favours.

I see what you mean. It's those mahoosive wheel arches. But I'd be glad to not have diamond cut wheels. It's just a bit bling that will start to corrode in a few year's time. What you've got now looks purposeful. Maybe you should've gone all out utilitarian with steel wheels like the commercial Land Cruiser? 🙂

[TonyHSD]

2 hours ago, RobertR said:

Tony, with gi

Not sure about this. Why do all the performance cars have low profile rubber? Rubber is an unpredictable component in suspensions, that's why you want to minimize it. A high tire profile kills handling and grip, in extremes, with a high profile, you can take off your rubber during cornering.

If you look at Yaris gr4 the real deal sport Yaris you will note that their tyres aren’t  as low profile as on the Yaris gr sport , the look a like “sport” Yaris and the reason for that is the same, ultra low profile tyres loose grip instead of providing more even in sharp turn handling, stopping, acceleration.
There are tons of videos that explain that some more on the fun side but also realistic too. The reason why F1 cars and dragster cars use such a balloon tyres is exact that, grip created by flex. Another example is cats feet. Their soft padding makes them very gripping, add the nails they have and here we have an animal that can literally climb a walls. There is of course a sweet spot between these two grip and flex as obviously if the tyre wall is too high and flexes beyond certain amount it will cause lost of grip instead. There are tables for calculating the right tyres for the vehicle mass, wheel base, length, width and centre of gravity. All needs to be taken into account. And btw the Yaris cross tested on Moose test was equipped with smallest 16” 205 tures available and it did it brilliantly. 👍

 

[RobertR]

Comparing standard tyre to F1 tyres, or even dragsted tyres is totally nonsense. It's like saying some rally cars have 3cylinder engine, so my 3pot in my yaris is also best option. Formula tyres have totaly another construction than normal tyre. F1 tyre have plastic hard sidewals and glue like top layer rubber, nothing like normal car tyre. More sidewall on normal tyre = less control.

[Yugguy1970]

Performance cars have rubber band thin tyres because the car buying public expects them to, as thinner is faster right? 😀

[Rhymes with Paris]

11 minutes ago, Yugguy1970 said:

Performance cars have rubber band thin tyres because the car buying public expects them to, as thinner is faster right? 😀

I'm just pleased that I have the spoiler on the back window of the Yaris to hold it down when doing 50-60 mph on the dual carriageway.😉

 

[TonyHSD]

1 hour ago, RobertR said:

Comparing standard tyre to F1 tyres, or even dragsted tyres is totally nonsense. It's like saying some rally cars have 3cylinder engine, so my 3pot in my yaris is also best option. Formula tyres have totaly another construction than normal tyre. F1 tyre have plastic hard sidewals and glue like top layer rubber, nothing like normal car tyre. More sidewall on normal tyre = less control.

You probably got me wrong on that. I am not comparing an  f1 to a standard tyres, just an example of pure physics. Low profile tyres loose grip by much in all surfaces. I have a direct comparison with my car and with previously owned cars. If you take two same cars with same width tyres one on lower profile tyres and one on higher the later will have better performance. No argument, just something that its a fact and many people doesn’t know and believe the other way around. The lower profile tyres are only good for Tokyo drifters as it’s way easier to drift with them. Perhaps if you speak to a rally drivers or teachers they will confirm that. There did the sweet spot you need to look for and for your cars perhaps it’s the middle 17” wheels set up. 

 

56 minutes ago, Yugguy1970 said:

Performance cars have rubber band thin tyres because the car buying public expects them to, as thinner is faster right? 😀

Exactly 👍

[Max_Headroom]

5 hours ago, APS said:

I see what you mean. It's those mahoosive wheel arches. 

For me its not the size of the wheel arch that's wrong its a very old design of wheel.

I thought you lowered the diameter of the wheel and increased the sidewall so you end up with the same diameter as the original wheels meaning they fill the arch as much as the original.

 

 

 

[APS]

1 hour ago, Max_Headroom said:

I thought you lowered the diameter of the wheel and increased the sidewall so you end up with the same diameter as the original wheels meaning they fill the arch as much as the original.

Yes - that's what you do. You want to maintain the circumference to make sure your meters stay accurate.

(not sure if I missed something - the photo you attached does not load)

 

1 hour ago, Max_Headroom said:

For me its not the size of the wheel arch that's wrong its a very old design of wheel.

With more rubber I guess there's more black on black. In my eyes, the arches are squared, so even the original wheels look a bit lost in there.

In any case, with more rubber you'll be laughing when parking against curbs and perhaps you accidentally go off piste one day and encounter a stone or a pot hole. if not, switch back to the original wheels. Now you know what the trade-offs are either way.  

[APS]

On 3/19/2023 at 12:17 PM, cruiserOAP said:

The Icon has 65 profile tyres, much higher than most cars nowadays. Cars sold in Europe often have higher profile tyres, in the UK buyers seem obsessed with big shiny wheels and skinny low profile tyres, which often ruins the ride quality. I notice cars with low profile tyres bring the wheel rims down to the kerb level, making those shiny rims vulnerable.

Ha, yes - gone are the days when we used standard profile (I don't think many know what that is nowadays). Lower profile tyres is pretty much a style choice. From a practicality point of view - higher profile is better. 

[Stivino]

11 minutes ago, APS said:

(I don't think many know what that is nowadays)

Go on, enlighten us, please.

[APS]

39 minutes ago, Stivino said:

Go on, enlighten us, please.

😉 80% - it is often not explicitly stated. i.e. if it says 185R14 on a tyre then 80 (185/80R14) is implied. 

[Max_Headroom]

2 hours ago, APS said:

 

(not sure if I missed something - the photo you attached does not load)

The wheels on the car on the right are the ones i think look awful, i get the high profile is better for the ride and not kerbing but with so many aftermarket wheels to choose from why pay for wheels that don't look good on the car. 

(i did say beauty is in the eye of the beholder in my original post)