Road Noise on 18 inch wheels?
 

Hi All,

I have booked a Mazda 3 2018 SP25 variant. It comes with 18 inch alloy wheels which look good but have thin tyre profile. Does it mean they will produce annoying road noise? How bad it can get? I am surprised to see that this topic is not discussed much here in the forum. Does it mean the problem is not that big?

Thanks,
Amit

First advice: Test drive the model you have on order on various road conditions and decide for yourself.

I don't know how your models match to the US models. I drive a 2015 Mazda 3 2.5 touring with 18 inch wheels in the summer and 16 inch winter tires and wheels in the winter. I have heard that they have made changes since 2015 to reduce road noise. That said, I have no complaint about road noise in my car. It is louder than the Civics and Corollas of the word, however, I did not want to drive a Civic or Corolla. I think a little road noise is part of feeling connected to the vehicle. I have not noticed any significant difference between the road noise between the 18 and 17 inch standard wheels or between my 18 and 16 inch wheels.

If you enjoy driving, I am willing to bet that you will enjoy the Mazda 3 with the 2.5 engine with the 18 inch wheels.

Just to be clear, the size of the wheels has very little to do with road noise, that said, tire design and tread patterns have a lot to do with it. As a general rule as long as the sidewall height is at least 4", there should be no difference in noise when compared to a tire with say 5" if sidewall height; as you start getting thinner than 4", yes, there can be an increase.

FWIW, we have a 2016 Mazda3 s GT with the 18" wheels wrapped in 215/45 R18 tires and there is virtually zero road noise.

Hi Buddy,

Thanks for your reply. I loved the looks of it so much, that I purchased it without a test drive...:D ....but the deal is sealed and I will make full payment in few days and pickup the car. So keeping my fingers crossed. Hope I like driving it, more than any noise it MAY produce. Cheers!

Yes. It's the not the SIZE that matters. It's the sidewall. In Mazda 3, 18 inch wheels actually mean, a much thinner sidewall. I think it is less than 4 inches. Didn't measure it and not sure if it's available online to check. Is there a way I can check online which tyres I am going to get in my new Mazda 3?

The best reason for my question was to understand from owners of Mazda 3 18 inch wheels as to what they feel about road noise in the car and how much of it is because of bigger wheels (and hence, thinner sidewall).

I have a US market 2018 Mazda3 GT with 18" wheels. As others have noted, more acoustic insulation was added to the Mazda3 in the last couple of model years to reduce road noise. I do not find the tire noise to be objectionable. For what it is worth, the 215/45R18 tires have a sidewall height of about 3.8 inches (96.75 mm).

The OEM tires in the US for the Mazda 3 with 18 inch wheels are Dunlop Sport 5000 tires. These are not the quietest tires due to the design. TireRack.com in its survey gives these Dunlop tires a 4.8 out of 10 for noise. For comparison, the top rated Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 Plus received a 8.6 rating for noise and several other tires performed even better in the noise category. If you find the noise from the OEM tires objectionable, you may be able to address this by changing the tires in the future.

Looks like you may get Dunlop SP Sport Maxx TT tires on your Mazda3 in Australia. You may read some reviews at the link below.

https://www.productreview.com.au/p/d...t-maxx-tt.html

Very nice response. Thanks a lot! Love this forum!

Hey mike! I have a naive question...not sure if I should have googled it :-) - When you say, I can change the tyres...Does it mean I have to change the RIMs as well or just the tyres? Sorry for being silly :-)

You just put new tyres on the original rims.

As I added to my post above, it appears you likely will have a different Dunlop OEM tire in Australia. You may have Dunlop SP Sport Maxx TT tires on your Mazda3. You may read some reviews of these tires at the link below. These tires may be better than the US OEM tires.

https://www.productreview.com.au/p/d...t-maxx-tt.html

Hmmm, our Mazda3 with 18" wheels isn't home right now, but I'm pretty sure it came with Pirelli tires; they're nice and quiet. :)

The only tire that Tire Rack lists as original equipment for the 2018 Mazda 3 GT with 18" wheels in the US is the Dunlop SP Sport 5000. Are you sure the Pirelli tires were OEM on your Mazda?

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireS...inLoadRating=S

noise
 

My 2016 Mazda3 GT that I just purchased came with 18inch Dunlop 5000 that are starting to show the wear indicators, but I’m told have another season left, are the noisiest tires I have ever heard. I know uneven wear and reduced tread adds to road noise. Even the winters on steel rims are not that noisy, although not quiet either. My dunlops registered 78decibles while the winters were a high of 74db. That small difference makes a lot of difference in comfort level. I have been researching tires and find there is conflicting info available on road noise. For example: Michelin x climate 2 is rated the most quiet on some sites and “loud” on other consumer sites. Also it doesn’t have the tread characteristics cited in the description of quiet tires. I did learn that higher sidewall and smaller uniform tread design improves things. Also a new tire after being broken in, will usually be better, but deteriorate with time and wear. I’m not sure if there are any stats on longevity of quiet comfort in tires. That would be very helpful. Let me know if you find any reliable info as I’m very interested in this subject too, as I have tinnitus and am more sensitive to road noise.
Cheers
m3newbee

Welcome to the forum.
You posted on a rather old thread? Last posted was on 03-31-2018 03:44 PM

I am curious what you used to measure the db.
I do have a couple of hand held db for use in audio sound both vehicle and home as well diagnosing engine sounds and noises.
Most of your info is spot on.
I doubt there will any information that is credible about increased tire noise level with age or miles because this varies so greatly by to many input factors.

Hi Callisto. Thanks for your reply. I just used an app called “Sound Meter”. I don’t imagine it is perfectly accurate, but I thought it would give me a relative idea of the noise levels. cheers m3newbee

weather door seals for noise reduction
 

Has anyone used door, trunk and hood rubber weather stripping from eBay? It is peel and stick and is supposed to help with noise levels in the cabin. I haven’t installed the seals yet as I’d like to see if anyone else has tried it and if it was helpful. It is supposed to be specific to M3.
Thanks
m3newbee

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.maz...25ba093a39.png
This is the installed seals. Instructions are non existent

To be clear and simple...They will do almost nothing, and it can be accurately measured. as doing nothing using a db meter. It is more selling advertising hyp on most vehicles from about 2000 and newer and most all Mazda from 2014 to present.
Actually IMHO likely no vehicle that has at least the factory weather stripping ...

To reduce more sound in the interior requires a lot more work and that would be applying sound reducing material like FAT MAT.

M3newbee the road and other noise is caused from MAZDA using more sound proofing material. almost nothing on the body none in the head liner or wheel wells to speak of and bare minimum on the floor.
My guess having done most all those the biggest 2 areas was #1 the floor, that is the complete area and hatch or truck under the carpet. The second biggest noise area is the roof or complete area between the headliner and roof. Then the body doors. Moving on to the wheel wells and then the last the complete undercarriage. The investment to have an Audio shop do this is about 3k. Well worth the investment.
Trust me when I say doing partial area's only addicts you to want to do more because of the drastic decrease on outside noise influences.

What tires do you have on the 2016mazda 3GT with 215r45 18inch rims?. That is the car I just bought and the sport dunlops are horrible for noise and need replacing. The winter tires are Winterclaw 215r45 on 17 inch steel rims. They have a lot of life left, but are quit noisy. I have to drive with ear plugs. I want to at least replace the dunlops but I want to get the best tire for a quiet ride. I don’t care about fuel efficiency, or performance that much. Any help you could provided would help. Sorry I know this is an old post, but hope you might be able to reply.

Shippo has been gone form responding on this forum for a long long time. Last Activity: 01-17-2021 08:37 AM

However I will contact him and see if he wants to respond?

Per a post above from five years ago, our 2016 Mazda3 s Grand Touring 5-Door came with 18" Pirelli tires, however, I don't remember which model as they are long gone. Our car is now on its third set of rubber, set two was some flavor of General G-MAX all season tires and the third set is the 215/45ZR-18 General G-MAX AS-05 model. Since the Pirelli tires which came OEM on our car were noisy and quite "done" looking after only about 35,000 miles, I switched to the Generals and they nice and solid for 45,000+ miles, so now we're on the second set of Generals.