Road Noise

[JamesDD]

My 22 CT4 has 21" Goodyear and does not have thermally insulated glass. I get humming noise that starts at about 45 mph. It's not loud but it irritates me when it kicks in. I understand there is Workshop Campaign WPA2 to replace tires with this issue. Campaign forecast failure rate is shown as 10%. I'm thinking about taking the car in to my dealer see it the tires are the issue.

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[TLC]

Concentrate on getting yourself better. The car is just a little added incentive. A seriously great driving car and plenty quiet.

@gtm…. thanks.

 

[SergeyIndy]

Hi @TLC, I want to join others to wish you speedy recovery so you can enjoy your Taycan more. I would like to know what brand of tires you got, you shared 21 inch and all seasons but brand matters as well. Also, just driving for this few miles should not be the baseline for road noise. Car components need to break in properly and settle after operating at different temperatures and tires need to have the oil distribute through and the treads need to be smoothed out.

I am a few months in and 2,500 miles and following proper break in procedures and you can tell the car drives and sounds better and better, and the tires started having little grip on dry road, and no grip in the rain, only now becoming more grippy in all conditions, riding smoother, with lower road noise. I have the Thermal Glass particularly for its thickness for the frameless doors.

I would say come back here in 3,000 miles and tell us about it again.

 

[Taycanfamily]

We had the Insulated glass in our Macan and it made a difference so we ordered it for our RWD Taycan. I don't think it made any difference. I would order it again basically because it is one of Porsche's least expensive options. Road noise in our Taycan on 19" All Season Tires is disappointing. Passengers comment the road noise is loud. For a comparison our neighbor has a Cadillac Lyric. It's dead quiet inside the cabin. I love the EV part and the handling. If you have never owned a Porsche you probably would never appreciate the Porsche DNA in the car. Bottom line we would not buy another Taycan.

 

[Hirschaj]

We had the Insulated glass in our Macan and it made a difference so we ordered it for our RWD Taycan. I don't think it made any difference. I would order it again basically because it is one of Porsche's least expensive options. Road noise in our Taycan on 19" All Season Tires is disappointing. Passengers comment the road noise is loud. For a comparison our neighbor has a Cadillac Lyric. It's dead quiet inside the cabin. I love the EV part and the handling. If you have never owned a Porsche you probably would never appreciate the Porsche DNA in the car. Bottom line we would not buy another Taycan.

You wouldn’t buy another Taycan because it’s too noisy? I think that’s the first time I’ve ever read a statement like that.

 

[Leverage]

The summer Goodyear tires on the 21 are super noisy. Switching to 20 inches made a huge difference.

This is the reason. 21 are noisy. My winter set in 20 is soooo much quieter.

 

[Chas1]

@gtm… thanks.. the road conditions were probably an additional factor to the road noise. As stated, I’m battling some health issues and haven’t had the opportunity to take it out…. drove it home on delivery/acceptance day then a week later drove it to the shop for PPF and once finished drove it back home… been in the garage every since…

Sorry to hear that. Just switched for the winter from 21” with Goodyear tyres to 19” with Michelin Pilot 4 sport tyres and road noise has virtually vanished and handling feels improved. It felt a bit over-tyred on the 21” rims. Is that the Goodyear tyres? My car is rwd on air suspension. It’s such a quiet refined car now but quick enough for road use. It’s a bit like a very sporting version of an s class Merc. Truly amazing. After six months of trouble free motoring and nearly 8000 miles I can’t think of anything that would come close.

 

[Chas1]

You wouldn’t buy another Taycan because it’s too noisy? I think that’s the first time I’ve ever read a statement like that.

My 22 CT4 has 21" Goodyear and does not have thermally insulated glass. I get humming noise that starts at about 45 mph. It's not loud but it irritates me when it kicks in. I understand there is Workshop Campaign WPA2 to replace tires with this issue. Campaign forecast failure rate is shown as 10%. I'm thinking about taking the car in to my dealer see it the tires are the issue.

I reckon my 21” Goodyears are noisy too. As above just switched to 19” with Michelins and road noise vanished.

 

[Chas1]

You wouldn’t buy another Taycan because it’s too noisy? I think that’s the first time I’ve ever read a statement like that.

My 22 CT4 has 21" Goodyear and does not have thermally insulated glass. I get humming noise that starts at about 45 mph. It's not loud but it irritates me when it kicks in. I understand there is Workshop Campaign WPA2 to replace tires with this issue. Campaign forecast failure rate is shown as 10%. I'm thinking about taking the car in to my dealer see it the tires are the issue.

I reckon my 21” Goodyears are noisy too. As above just switched to 19” with Michelins and road noise vanished. Is this the tyres?

 

[Taycanfamily]

You wouldn’t buy another Taycan because it’s too noisy? I think that’s the first time I’ve ever read a statement like that.

I know it may come across as a minor nit not to buy a car. We are a Porsche family. Have more Porsches in the garage other than the Taycan. We bought the Taycan as our beater car. Back and forth to work, Costco, Starbucks, leave it at the airport etc. Wanted to try an EV. When we bought our Taycan the choices of EVs were limited. Tesla was about the only other choice.

After about 3 years of ownership the small things start to annoy us. BTW, the Taycan is my wife's car. She loves it. She puts up with the small things that weren't nits in her previous cars. No place to put her sun glasses, no place for her purse, she doesn't care that passengers in the back are cramped. She doesn't want to hear me complain that the trunk is too small for Costco. Take the SUV she says.

I can overlook those nits too. They are temporary. But the road noise is there all the time. From the time you leave the garage to the time you return. The noise is there. It becomes tiring. You have to talk just a little bit louder to have a conversation. Turn up the radio a tad. BTW I'm not a noise freak. I put up with plenty of noise in my GT3. It's a different kind of noise ;-)

So going forward, the Taycan will be replaced by the EV Macan as our beater. Hopefully the road noise will be less. If not we will be shopping other brands. As an aside, my wife is waiting on the EV 718 for her daily.

We love Porsche. Just not the Taycan.

 

[Hirschaj]

I know it may come across as a minor nit not to buy a car. We are a Porsche family. Have more Porsches in the garage other than the Taycan. We bought the Taycan as our beater car. Back and forth to work, Costco, Starbucks, leave it at the airport etc. Wanted to try an EV. When we bought our Taycan the choices of EVs were limited. Tesla was about the only other choice.

After about 3 years of ownership the small things start to annoy us. BTW, the Taycan is my wife's car. She loves it. She puts up with the small things that weren't nits in her previous cars. No place to put her sun glasses, no place for her purse, she doesn't care that passengers in the back are cramped. She doesn't want to hear me complain that the trunk is too small for Costco. Take the SUV she says.

I can overlook those nits too. They are temporary. But the road noise is there all the time. From the time you leave the garage to the time you return. The noise is there. It becomes tiring. You have to talk just a little bit louder to have a conversation. Turn up the radio a tad. BTW I'm not a noise freak. I put up with plenty of noise in my GT3. It's a different kind of noise ;-)

So going forward, the Taycan will be replaced by the EV Macan as our beater. Hopefully the road noise will be less. If not we will be shopping other brands. As an aside, my wife is waiting on the EV 718 for her daily.

We love Porsche. Just not the Taycan.

Everyone prefers what they prefer. I wasn’t judging, just surprised based on how quiet my car is overall. Based on other comments it seems like tire brand might play a big role in how much road noise is apparent. My 21” P-Zero Elect are really quiet for such large tires. Also, I have a CT so those Costco trips are easy.

 

[ShiftyWolf]

I'm on 20s with Michelin PS4 tires and the noise is very minimal versus my ICE cars. No other Porsches to compare it to, though.

 

[Tsingtao]

I have a few theories on road noise, and the elimination thereof. Beyond peradventure, tires make a huge difference. I have 20 inch P. Scorpions for winter rubber and they are supremely quiet. My summer rubbers are 21 inch goodyears and they are noticeably louder. Putting the tire issue aside, the following are some other less scientific theories which I will be testing in the near future. Theory number one: A lot of the tire noise (and exhaust noise from loud trucks) is transmitted through the metal door panels of the Taycan because there is virtually no insulation to be found inside the doors. I have noise insulated glass but don't think that I am getting much benefit because the doors allow so much sound to enter the cabin. Theory number two: the open aero slits in the front wheel wells (on manual charge port cars such as my mine) allow tire noises to flow freely from tires to the cabin through the poorly insulated doors, i.e. it doesn't matter how well Porsche insulated the wheel wells, the aero slits negate the effect of any wheel well insulation. Theory number three: Porsche skimped on sound deadening materials throughout the vehicle in order to keep curb weight to a minimum. I'll be taking my car into a shop for sound deadening once the weather clears and I put my noisy summer rubber back on the car. We will begin with a full sound insulation job on all four doors. If that does not silence the goodyears, we will remove carpets and put sound deadening materials around the front wheel wells, firewall, etc. As a last resort, we will do the same in the rear, but I really think that most of the noise comes from the front tires. I purchased a decibel meter to measure before and after effects of my little science project and will post results and pics of the sound deadening project once completed. Maybe I am wasting time and money trying to silence 21 inch wheel noise, but I can't bear to swap out my 21 inch Mission E's for anything else and I really enjoy a quiet ride.

 

[Old man]

I have a few theories on road noise, and the elimination thereof. Beyond peradventure, tires make a huge difference. I have 20 inch P. Scorpions for winter rubber and they are supremely quiet. My summer rubbers are 21 inch goodyears and they are noticeably louder. Putting the tire issue aside, the following are some other less scientific theories which I will be testing in the near future. Theory number one: A lot of the tire noise (and exhaust noise from loud trucks) is transmitted through the metal door panels of the Taycan because there is virtually no insulation to be found inside the doors. I have noise insulated glass but don't think that I am getting much benefit because the doors allow so much sound to enter the cabin. Theory number two: the open aero slits in the front wheel wells (on manual charge port cars such as my mine) allow tire noises to flow freely from tires to the cabin through the poorly insulated doors, i.e. it doesn't matter how well Porsche insulated the wheel wells, the aero slits negate the effect of any wheel well insulation. Theory number three: Porsche skimped on sound deadening materials throughout the vehicle in order to keep curb weight to a minimum. I'll be taking my car into a shop for sound deadening once the weather clears and I put my noisy summer rubber back on the car. We will begin with a full sound insulation job on all four doors. If that does not silence the goodyears, we will remove carpets and put sound deadening materials around the front wheel wells, firewall, etc. As a last resort, we will do the same in the rear, but I really think that most of the noise comes from the front tires. I purchased a decibel meter to measure before and after effects of my little science project and will post results and pics of the sound deadening project once completed. Maybe I am wasting time and money trying to silence 21 inch wheel noise, but I can't bear to swap out my 21 inch Mission E's for anything else and I really enjoy a quiet ride.

That is an interesting and promising approach. Someone earlier in this thread noted how quiet the Cadillac Lyriq was. I have read this car uses noise cancellation technology. Is there any kind of after market technology that could utilize this method?

 

[Tsingtao]

That is an interesting and promising approach. Someone earlier in this thread noted how quiet the Cadillac Lyriq was. I have read this car uses noise cancellation technology. Is there any kind of after market technology that could utilize this method?

I haven't heard of any after market tech. I did, coincidentally, once own a Cadillac ELR with the noise canceling apparatus but I could not tell how well it worked as there was no way to toggle it on and off. My guess is that it works OK, but nothing really amazing. With the ELR, when I ran out of battery, an ICE electric generator came to life and I could always hear it whining in the background.

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