I agree, I have the perfect road test, our state is redoing a highway and even tho the old road looked smooth, road noise becomes an issue when I cross over the new to old section of road. Smooth road = quiet with stock tires. Would be nice to change out tires now to see if different tires would be quiet on the old section but not worth the price of changing, to maybe get quiet at highway speed, as I don't hear road noise even on the old section at in town speeds.

 

Compared to a lot of small cars the Fit is noisy. I know because I've driven many small cars over the last few years on business trips, and our 07 Toyota Corolla is much quieter than the Fit. Nonetheless, tire size and tread pattern can make a huge difference and the stock tires are very poor. The Yokohama Envigor tires in 195/55 size have made a positive difference in road noise. Read reviews on a particular tire prior to purchase. If I recall, the Envigor tires are directional tires and sometimes they can be less noisy due to the tread pattern.

When we had the stock tires on the Fit, most of the time it sounded like we were driving on a gravel road. Fortunately that problem has been solved and my son enjoys his car.

We have a motor pool at work, mostly new small cars such as GM, Ford, and Honda. Three cars in particular are bad in the road noise department, and one specifically. Those three cars are (brand new too) all Honda Civics. Worst car I've driven since the seventies. One of the three is really bad and the road noise is so bad you can forget about having a conversation if your speed is above 45mph. It sounds like the rear end of the car is going to fall off. This vehicle has been pulled and inspected but with no mechanical problems found. I can only assume its the tires, which don't look bad for I've looked to see if there is a tire bubble or issue. I would suggest that you go drive a few more Fits just to ensure that your issue is indeed tire related.

 

Does changing the size of your tires to 205/50/16 affect the accuracy of the speedometer?

 

Nope.... Its a less than 1% differance.


Specification Sidewall Radius Diameter Circumference Revs/Mile Difference
185/55-16 4.0in 12.0in 24.0in 75.4in 840 0.0%
205/50-16 4.0in 12.0in 24.1in 75.6in 838 0.2%

 

You still say you do not even know whether or not you have Dunlops (you do).

Step one. Walk out to your car, bend down, and read the sidewall of your tires. Write down all the info and numbers, and learn what it means as below.

Step two. Go to tirerack.com (google) and do some basic research. Spend a couple of hours researching.

Step 3. Google "sound deadening". Spend several hours researching.

Step 4. Come back to fitfreaks and search on "tire". Read the threads. Search on "deaden" and read the threads.

Step 5. Come back and ask educated questions, if your research did not answer all of it.

 

Already answered it. The whole point of these forums are to streamline that process and come together to ask questions and showcase our ideas.

 

The good thing about the stock tires is they don't last very long and you have a good excuse to replace them. Did wonders for the noise level in our '09.

Cheers.

 

Couldn't agree more the stock tires are terrible. Just got new shoes on mine and its so much quieter

 

Nice!...good info. It sounds like you could replace the stock tires with just about any 205/50/R16 size tire and it would be an upgrade in most if not all ways over the stock Dunlops.

-Dustin

 

Not just any 205/50. Stay away from the Goodyear Eagle F1s - my car got significantly louder with them! This was coming from the stock dunlops. I put a pair of the Falken 612 on the fronts after a blowout from a 10' long 6x6 fell out of a big rig in front of me, and they are silent. Slightly taller than the Goodyears even though the same size (caused rubbing when the Goodyears cleared - lowered on Teins). Also, the Goodyears caused about a 1-2 mpg drop and putting the pair of Falkens on has recovered that to the stock mileage.

 

I'll make sure to stear clear of the Goodyears when I upgrade, thanks!

-Dustin