Ride and tyre noise in the Golf ?

[G0rdon]

At this time of year, or any time the roads are wet, it's more the noise of the water on the roads intruding into the cabin space that seems more obvious. Not sure whether it's because the cabin on the whole is quiet, but I'm sure I've not heard it as obvious as this either in my previous Passat or cars before that.

This 'too quiet' cabin could also be why the noise from vehicles either travelling in the opposite direction, or passing by alongside, seems more intrusive as well. Anyone else noticed it?

[dickt]

mine are 17" on P7. All fine with ride & noise..

[cs2009]

At this time of year, or any time the roads are wet, it's more the noise of the water on the roads intruding into the cabin space that seems more obvious. Not sure whether it's because the cabin on the whole is quiet, but I'm sure I've not heard it as obvious as this either in my previous Passat or cars before that.

This 'too quiet' cabin could also be why the noise from vehicles either travelling in the opposite direction, or passing by alongside, seems more intrusive as well. Anyone else noticed it?

The noise I get with the A3 is definitely a roaring and rumbling sound, and it completely obliterates the engine noise. If anything, it gets slightly quieter if the roads are wet.

When I first got the car, I thought they had fitted sports suspension by mistake, but then the car had to go back to the dealers for a couple of days. They gave me another A3 which did have sports suspension, and the ride on that was atrociously bad, although admittedly it also had 18" wheels.

[icebun]

I have the previous generation Golf on 17 inch wheels with sports suspension. At first the car was very quiet but got noisier as the tyres wore down. Ride is firm and the potholes don't help.

The road noise drove me mad and I ended up getting the car soundproofed which helped a bit.

It is good to know that the sound suppression has improved in the newer model which I look forward to test driving when I change cars at some point.

Quite surprised by the difference in sound levels between the Audi and Golf considering they share the same chassis (I think).

I would be interested in hearing some comments from those moving from the previous Golf model to the latest on the same size wheel size.

[a8toa6convert]

The noise I get with the A3 is definitely a roaring and rumbling sound, and it completely obliterates the engine noise. If anything, it gets slightly quieter if the roads are wet.

That is definitely transmission of vibration through the tyres into the suspension, through the suspension/sub-frame mounts into the car body, and then radiation from the car body panels into the interior. It's a PITA to deal with, definitely the hardest kind of NVH to tackle. I guess Audi just did a worse job than VW of "tuning out" the typical resonant frequencies of this kind of noise when they designed the body and the suspension components. Wouldn't be the first time......

[cs2009]

That is definitely transmission of vibration through the tyres into the suspension, through the suspension/sub-frame mounts into the car body, and then radiation from the car body panels into the interior. It's a PITA to deal with, definitely the hardest kind of NVH to tackle. I guess Audi just did a worse job than VW of "tuning out" the typical resonant frequencies of this kind of noise when they designed the body and the suspension components. Wouldn't be the first time......

Thanks, that sounds very plausible.

You have to wonder if Audi deliberately left out some rubber bushing components in the suspension to give a 'sportier' feel, but ruined the ride and noise level in the process.

[jk88]

I believe you said you drove a Sport version with bigger wheels which was much worse, but maybe worth driving a car with the same spec as yours just in case there is actually something amiss.

[andyCYM]

Slightly off topic, but related. I test drove an Octavia 1.6tdi DSG yesterday. Very nice car, but it made a really weird noise between 35-40mph - a sort of booming resonance like you get with a rear window open by an inch (which it wasn't).

Salesman was completely baffled by it and acknowledged that there was clearly something wrong with the car. As he didn't have another one to try he had to let me walk away. Probably some vital piece of soundproofing that was missing or loose, could be the case with the OP's Audi.

Shame, would have been a sale, much nicer car than the 1.6 Golf I drove the same day.

[cs2009]

The noise I get is just classic road roar - there is no particular resonance noticeable.

Before buying the car, I did test drive a Sport model which had the standard suspension (as in SE), and that too was very noisy. At the time, I just put it down to the fact that the roads on the test route were mainly rough country roads.

[Boost]

Factory fitted 17" Singapore alloys and Bridgestone Turanza er300 tyres with sports suspension. The ride is great. The tyres roar like a jet plane on the motorway!