S-60 AWD road noise?

Drove a 2004 AWD today with 47k miles. It had significant road noise
in the interior. Is this normal, or maybe bad tires?

-jeff

 

Hard to tell over the internet. If they are Pirelli tires, they seem
to generate a lot of road noise even when new. Are the tires new or
are thery past 1/2 tread? Are they wearing unevenly?

 

I should have looked more closely at them; they weren't noticably
uneven and I'd say they looked like they had about 2/3 of the tread
left. They were those tires you'll see in wet climates a lot- with a
large center groove, then the main tread grooves of the tire sort of
come out from the center groove at arcing diagonals. Pretty
distinctive.

I don't remember the new S-60 FWD I drove having excessive road noise,
though I don't remember it being particularly quiet that way, either.
This had a significant "roar" to it- at least as much as my Toyota
Tundra pickup with BFG AT's, for instance. I'd expect a sport sedan
to be much quieter.

-jeff

 

A tire with an aggressive tread designed to shed water quickly can be
quite noisy, especially at highway speeds.