I bought an RX8 about a month ago because I got a new job and needed something to show for it. The problem I have is with the road noise. When I test drove the car I drove it on the streets and didn't go past 45mph. After I bought it and took it home, I began to notice excessive road noise when I drove on the freeway. There are also a few rattles inside which I don't like at all either. Is there anything that can reduce road noise for the RX8?

 

Different tires. Can't help you with rattles, search them out one at a time. New or used car?

Do you have the Dunlops, by any chance?

Welcome!

 

While I wouldn't call the 8 a "quiet" car, for a sports car it's fairly quiet on the highway.

Different brands of tire vary widely on road noise. Go to tirerack.com and you'll find surveys where all the tires are rated on many factors, including road noise. See if the tires your 8 has are especially noisy. If so, consider buying quieter tires.

Also, make sure your tires at at 32psi.

 

True. May need to lower the tire pressure or try different tires.

 

how many miles on the car? does it still have the stock potenzas? they were notorious for horrible road noise.

 

Tires, balanced?

 

Yeah check the tires. When i bought mine there was alot of road noise as well. but i replaced my stocks with after market wheels + tires. There is no noise now. except the engine and exhaust.

 

+1 to the noise of older stock Bridgestones. By the time that I got rid of them it was like driving inside a speaker at a Metallica concert. With good tires, it is actually a pretty quiet car.

As for rattles, there is a piece of styrofoam that can come loose and rattle in the doors which can be fixed with a little glue. Other than that, my car seems to be pretty quiet so I don't know.

 

And if it's not the tires.... get some dyna matt and install in the doors.

The RX8 is quite by my standards. Try the Eclispe. That's one reason why I sold it.

 

Wow thanks for all the quick info guys. I owned an integra before this car and I was getting upset with this car because the freeway noise is almost as bad as it was on that one.

I have the Dunlop stock tires. It's a 2004 and I bought it with 14k miles on it. The tires say 51psi max so why should I only inflate to 32? Most of the noise now that I listen to it seems to be coming from the rear tires so I'm guessing they might not be aligned properly. I'll check out different tires and see if it helps.

 

Its the stock tires they suck. Get some kumho spt's best bang for the buck off tirerack.com
They get flat spots in the summer time but go away after you drive for about a block or two.
-Gil

 

By the way............... Welcome to the club.

 

The Maximum inflation on the tier only tells you how much pressure you can put into the tire before it will blow the sidewall out.

The manufacturer of the car sets the tire pressure for the suspension set up that they have, and you can find that optimal number in your owner's manual. I can't remember what it is exactly, but I run mine at 31PSI, and I know that it is right around there.

The reason that you don't run them at 51PSI is because your car will skitter around the road like you are running on bowling ***** ... because basically you are. It makes the handling very nervous and unsafe. Also any bump in the road is like running over a boulder. It causes tremendously uneven tire wear and can destroy a set of tires in just a couple of thousand miles, and all in all it is just a bad idea.

14 thousand miles on the rears if they were driven by someone with a lead foot and didn't rotate them, they could have worn out treads.

 

Also, if you live in a cold climate, the stock tires are summer only, and can get very hard in Winter making them unsafe to drive on winter roads. All the best.

 

I don't mind the tire noise, but sometimes the noises from the doors can get a little annoying if I don't have the radio on when it comes to the freeway.

 

If the ( fix-a-flat ) was use to fix a flat, then the tire will be out of balance. The tire will need to be removed, and the **** wiped out. then balanced.

 

I was looking on tirerack.com and the potenzas actually seemed to rate very highly for road noise. Better than most of the other tires I looked for in fact. Does anybody want to give me a few options to look for? I don't care about cost all that much. I just want to get my car to sound and ride better.

 

I second the above post. Any suggestions on tires??? TIA

 

Kumho Estca SP

 

I got the continental contiextremecontact (That's seriously how they write it)

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....e1=yes&place=2

I bought them because I'm too cheap to have two sets of tires and they're highly rated for the price.

 

I got the Potensa RE750,they are rated very well(quiet too) and I bought (245X40X18)at Costco and saved major bucks.

 

It could depend on which Potenzas. The noisy stocks were RE040s, and they were also stock on early 350Zs where those owners tried a class action suit back in '04 because they were so damn loud. I don't think that it went anywhere, and I didn't notice noise from them until the tread was over half gone. Then it was loud like a metal concert with a deaf sound engineer ... never want to do that again.

I'll +1 the Kumhos. Nice tire for the buck.

 

I was looking at these.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....+Pole+Position

Everything is rated very highly for these so I'm taking a good look at them. What are the stock ones?

I'm looking for all-season tires that can handle rain really well because I get some snow and a lot of rain in Oregon. These look like the best choice so far...

 

I considered those too. I broke on the price difference ($114 v. $191 per tire) They were my second choice though.

 

Here's what I'm getting next for street - Sumitomo HTR Z III . These are #1 rated by TR against Potenza RE050A, CC Sport Contact 3, Yoko ADVAN Sport.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....RZ3XL&i1_Qty=4

Yet only $139 in stock 225/45/18 fitment. Less for other useable sizes. I can't see a better value with performance and quiet than that. Read the tire test they did - amazing for $139 and relatively lowkey brand.