Hi

I posted this message below in a thread a few weeks ago with no response. I need some advice:



Two weeks ago I went to the dealer over the noise of my tires. The thumping and whining noise is just awful. I hve now, 12,000 miles on the original Bridgestone RE040 tires. We were sure that it was an alignment issue. I watched as the tech did the alignment - the machine indicated that the car had nearly perfect alignment (in center of the range). The balance of the tires was slightly off on two and the other pair was fine. Then he checked the road force and it was okay as well. The sound is awful and he took if for a drive and said that whatever it was was seriously noisy. He did not think it was rear end or bearings. What else could it be? Something is wrong.

 

Maybe the tires are cupped? (uneven wear in certain spots). Check your tread depth all around and see if it's all the same or if ya have variations. a couple mm will be more then enough.

 

yea i have the bridgestones also. just hit 12k miles. the tires are just loud. you need to start doing a search for replacement tires. i would look for something quieter if i were you . i know i am.

beers

 

Hey what kind/size of a tire is the RE040(s)?

 

i had the same problem, my dealer was a moron in dealing with it and bridgestone did nothing as well. The tires were very seriously cupped and i know i did not abuse them. I had to buy a new set. Got the pzero nero MS as i am in Mtl. very quiet, handling is fine but they are not as nervous reacting as the potenzas. I for one will never ever buy another bridgestone in my driving life, the cie sucks !!

 

stock tires are 225/40/18

i have heard of noisy tires after rotation. is there still some warranty on the tires? maybe they can replace them under warranty. check mazda's site or manual for warranty detail.

 

The warranty if you buy them is 3 years. THe warranty that came with the car is 1 year. I took it to the dealer before the warranty was up regarding the problem but now it iw about 3 weeks past 12 months. If I have to buy tires I am going with Michelin SP2 but STILL the car now has 13,000 miles on it an the tires are $211 a piece.

We think the belts have shifted or something since you can see visible tire offset movement with a simple spin. I know some of this is normal but there is a definite problem.

 

Update

We discovered today that it is definitely the tires and not the car. We were able to considerably alter the sound factor with a simple increase in air pressure. THe thumping is there but at 35 psi on the rear, the thumping only creates a resonating sound. Crummy tires. The Tire Rack rating is bad too. Michelins are a comin.

 

I have experienced increased road noise after my tire rotation at 9000 miles. With 10500 miles now on the car, the noise is only getting worse. I'm thinking about having the alignment checked since it's covered until 12000 miles, but I doubt it's the problem since the dynamics of the car feel normal and tire wear doesn't look unusual. Maybe the OEM Bridgestone's are just noisy tires after they have worn moderately as some people have suggested. I hope the noise doesn't get too bad since I'm expecting to get about 25000 miles out of these tires.

 

...I had heard that our RE040s didn't exactly have the best tread-wear rating, but cupping seems to be a pretty serious problem. From what I've read, our cars have some pretty serious rubber on them...seems very disappointing that they degrade so quickly (around the 10,000 mile mark?) as far as noise and stability are concerned.

Question for you...did the noise come about suddenly or was it gradual? I'm only at the 6500 mile mark myself and have had my tires rotated once.

After the Bridgestones, think I'm gonna go with some Yokohamas...perhaps with a new set of Advan RCII wheels! :D

Arvin

 

I didn't notice excessive noise before the tire rotation, so I guess it was not a gradual increase. The only thing I can think of is that the tires are somehow loaded differently after the rotation, and for some reason this causes more noise. There is no vibration or steering wheel nibble, which suggests it's not a wheel imbalance or warped brake rotor issue, and the driving dynamics don't seem to have changed, which indicates alignment is probably okay. The noise definitely sounds like it's tread-related... but I'm definitely not an expert on these matters, so any ideas would be appreciated.

 

If you get 25k miles with those shitty tires you are not driving you are flying ! I got 17k miles before i had to buy a new set, they ere driving me crazy.

 

25k miles is just my estimate for tire life. I have significantly more than half of original tread depth at 10,500 miles. I should point out that just about every road around here is perfectly straight, and I almost never leave rubber on launches. Also, 80% of my miles are city driving... not sure if this is good or bad for tire life because my average cruising speed is probably only 40 mph.

 

almost every "thump"(your word) i have ever heard on any tires i have ever owned turned out to be belt movement or seperation.

 

Is there an easy way to tell if there is belt movement or separation just by visual inspection?

 

Sometime ago there was a thread on tire 'sipping'. Has anyone done this and noticed the longer term difference/effects?

 

Actually, the stock size is 225/45/18.

I used to wish my car came with the Potenzas, but now I'm glad that I have the Dunlops. I've read that the Potenza RE040's get quite noisy with tire wear, that they wear quickly, and are quite bad in the rain. While the Dunlop SP Sport 8090 seems to perform as well in the dry, better in the wet, are quieter, and perhaps ride better. Not sure about the wear just yet, as the 8090 is a pretty new tire from Dunlop and most of us don't have enough miles on our cars to say.

Curious if anyone has gone from the RE040's to Potenza S-03's? Those are the tires that I'm thinking of getting once the the Dunlops wear out.

 

sometimes you'll see a "dimple" in the sidewall

 

Just to explore all of the possibilities - who did the rotation? Our tires are unidirectional, meaning they should only roll in the direction indicated by the arrow on the sidewall. If I'm not mistaken, they used to rotate tires between the left and right side of the vehicle, as well as front to back. Perhaps that's what they did to yours.
Keep us updated.

 

The rotation was performed at a Mazda dealership when I had my oil changed and recalls serviced. The first thing I checked was that the directional tires were oriented correctly. I think the next thing I'll do is inspect the tires very carefully for uneven treadwear or dimples from belt separation. If I can't figure it out, I'll probably take it to the dealership within the next 2 weeks and have them check alignment, wheel balance, etc.

I'm curious to know if most RX-8s with the RE040s have similar tire noise after reaching about 10,000 miles. If that's the case, I'd be content to accept the fact that these tires are just noisy.

 

try taking it to a tire shop. like a firestone in your area or some highly regarded shop. since they deal with tires everyday and could even be potentially selling you new ones they might do a closer inspection and be able to diagnos a problem if it exists better than the dealership

 

My car with the Bridgestones have about 12k miles on them. I rotated them at 10k. So far, they are wearing pretty quickly, but I should be able to get at least 20k from them. I haven't noticed any additional noise from the tires. I definitely will not be getting them again, because as soon as it drops below 40 deg., they are awful. The Michelin Pilot Sports look nice, but are expensive.

 

I have had the exact same situation as RX8 Buckeye.. I recently took in my 8 for an oil change, reflash, and rotation of tires. (I have 9K) . My tires are now noisier ??? not sure why. I know that in my 911 I changed from Continentals to SO3 and the change was incredible. Smoother, quieter, better ride.. Maybe I will have to look for a change soon. (Only problem is expense..So3 are high) Maybe when they rotated and balanced at the dealer it was not done to specs???? I too am puzzled.

 

Funny thing is at the TireRack the Potenza RE040 actually costs a little more than the S-03 or the Pilot Sports. And the Dunlop Sport 8090 is the most expensive of the bunch. Go figure.

 

Well, Tuesday Aug 17th I went to the local Bridgestone inspection station and was told that the problem was the car and not a fault of the tires. He informed me that the tire wear was obviously a fault of mis-alignment in the front of the car (since they were rotated) and it was so obvious to them that no machine was needed to check. I informed him that I just drive to work and that was a straight shot, etc., he said that he could tell that it was not abuse and that the rotated tires on the front now were wearing the same way. I went to the dealer since their machine said that my car was nearly perfectly aligned and shared the news with the Mazda service writer. He told me to call Mazda. I have called and am waiting for a response.

RX8 BUCKEYE,

I have a more serious problem than noise. It is like a developing thump. The Bridgestone rep said that my tires were wearing unevenly - like flat spots and causing the thumping and the roar sound was from the tire wearing uneven between the grooves. If you rub your hand over the tire (around the tire), it literally stops your hand at each groove. It is more than just noisy. The gentleman with Bridgestone also said that he would not just put on new tires for they would do the same thing.