Tyres again - a question for someone with knowledge about tyre compounds.

[vespa]

I posted a while ago about a noise from my front passenger side and it sounds like a worn bearing. It has been thoroughly examined by a VW Dealer when in for service. The tyres have been blamed for causing the noise, which is apparent more on smooth road surfaces at low speed (up and possibly over 30 mph) They are Pirelli P Zero Rosso 235/45/17 97 Extra Load as fitted from the factory with 19000 miles on them. Fronts are about 4mm or just below and rears are 6mm approx. Tread wear is even across the width of all tyres and they are now 5 years old (poss 6 from make date) Since than I have been told that Pirellis, when getting old, harden and can make noises. It was suggested, on here, that I swopped them around to see if the noise went away but I am sadly not able to do this. I have let a tyre company look at them and they say that noise can be due to the age of this type of tyre also. The reason I ask is because I have never in 45 years of driving ever heard of this. I must say though my tyrs were only ever on a car about 18 months and then worn out, so never got time to get old. Any thoughts from yourselves on this before I dicard 4 reasonable tyres and spend £500-£600 on new tyres.
Car is a 59 plate Passat 2.0 Ltr TDi Highline with 17 " wheels (OEM)

[Doctle Odd]

Look on this site for "tyremen" I believe they sponsor the site as well

[Quatrelle]

I've just changed the 6/7 year old tyres on my MGB. Admittedly they were Taiwan's finest, but they'd definitely gotten hard with age, and the difference in ride is very noticeable. Can't comment on any noise, far too much else going on!

If your tyre seems noisier on smooth roads that definitely sounds like a bearing to me!

Having said that, after the puncture of a front tyre on my Laguna, I had to use a spare that had spent its life on the rear. The noise it made was just like that of a completely knackered bearing.

Can you not jack up the suspect wheel and run the engine to speed the wheel, stick it in neutral, switch off and see if it makes a noise?

[vespa]

Thanks for the replies so far. Today it is a lot cooler and I noticed that the noise was almost gone. I am suspecting the tyres as both VW and Nat Tyres say similar. I have no experience in 42 years of driving to ever get to a 6th year of a tyre as most were gone in 18 months max.

[Teflon]

I had the "wheel bearing" noise on both my Passat and also my GTI. I could make the noise worse on the Passat by rotating tyres around and traded the car at 26k with the least noisy combination I could get.

After much messing with the GTI, including new discs and pads I finally decided to swap the rear wheels off my wife's Eos and the noise disappeared completely. Two new rear tyres were a permanent fix. One car was Pirellis, the other Bridgestones. The replacements were Goodyear.
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[vespa]

I had the "wheel bearing" noise on both my Passat and also my GTI. I could make the noise worse on the Passat by rotating tyres around and traded the car at 26k with the least noisy combination I could get.

After much messing with the GTI, including new discs and pads I finally decided to swap the rear wheels off my wife's Eos and the noise disappeared completely. Two new rear tyres were a permanent fix. One car was Pirellis, the other Bridgestones. The replacements were Goodyear.
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Thank you Teflon. After another longish run yesterday into Derbyshire the noise was not initially there. After the tyres had warmed up the noise was there again but as it was only about 15C at our desination I noticed that the noise was almost inaudible. I am more convinced now that it is tyre noise as they wear down and due to temp changes. It has not got any worse in 3000 miles since I first noticed it.