Hello everyone. I am a new poster to the board and hope that someone here can help point me in the right direction.

A brief history of my problem(s):
Purchased the car (2008 FEH 2wd) used about a year ago. Had 35000 miles on it and the original Continental tires about 2/3 worn out. Our Honda Pilot that we traded had the same size BFG tires so we swapped out the tires as part of the deal. Had no road noise issues for several months then the tire noise started. The car appeared to be inline as it went down the road straight with no issues. Never the less we took it to the Ford dealer and had them do a 4 wheel alignment. About 1000 miles later, the noise was gone. After several more months with no tire noise, the noise suddenly came back, worse than before. I immediately mistakenly blamed the Ford dealer for a bad alignment and took it to a different tire shop for a 4 wheel alignment as well as a rotation (cross rotation). 3000 miles later, still terrible tire noise. So I then figured that my daughter hit something and knocked it out of line so I took it back to the original Ford dealer for another $75 alignment. After a couple rotations and different tire pressure, the noise is still there as bad as ever.

The tires appear to be wearing on the outsides of the tires so I raised the pressure from 35psi to 40psi. Still no improvement.

The BF Good. tires still have life on the tread, but my wife hates the FEH because of the annoying noise. I hate to replace the tires since they still have life left on them. Also am scared to death that replacing the tires will not eliminate the problem after I get some wear on the new tires.

I have asked the dealer to check the car for other possible problems that would cause the noise with no results. Anyone else have this problem and if so, what was the ultimate fix? Any and all comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Thanks in advance
Bryan
Greensboro, NC

 

My first reaction to all of the tire noise posts is: ITS NOT A CAR ITS AN SUV! You trade off some car luxuries (noise) for SUV utilities. Most folks complaining about FEH tire noise have came from owning a car before the FEH, some of us came from (loud) SUVs and think the FEH with the Contis is just fine. You came from a Pilot and because noise perception can be subjective, you have every right to try and improve it.

That said, I believe the experience on this forum is that changing from the original tires greatly improved road noise. I don't remember any posts where the noise came and went so frequently with the same tires. Your experience listening to the exact same tires on the Pilot and then on the FEH is interesting. I imagine there is more noise control engineering in the Pilot that in the FEH. The only meaningful difference should be the distance between the tire and the ear and what's in between. Are there any other possible variables? weather?, time of year? vehicle speed? pavement types? Sorry I can't be of more help.

 

I went through three sets of totally NEW tires and of different brands before I came to the realization that at about 8-10,000 all of these tires got noisy, some moreso than others.

I have found that the Bridgestone Turanza summer use only have the lowest noise "factor" overall, so that is what I run on my '01 F/awd RX300 throughout the year. Keep tire chains on board for the rear in times of need.

The best solution I have found for tire and wind noise is an entire spray can of rubberized undercoating onto each wheel well liner and a twice a year treatment of all of the door and window rubber seals with silicon spray. I spray a good generous coating with the doors open and the windows down and then give the spray at least 24 hour to penetrate, soak into, the rubber seals.

Permatex silicon spray lubricant, ~$5.00, 1 can for a 2-door, almost 2 for a 4 door.

 

One can also quiet the cabin area with additonal insulation as in material like dynaliner. One needs to pull up the carpeting and apply to the floorboard. One can also remove the inner door panels and apply a layer to the inside of this door panel to further quiet the cabin area.

 

I've had this same problem on a 2002 non-hybrid Escape, and now with our newer 2008 Escape Hybrid. The local Tire shop (recommended by my Ford dealer, by the way) has done well by me for a long time, so I trust them to give me good advice. They've advised that the Escape platform has alignment specs that tend to cause cupping on any tires, some brands being more susceptible than others. Over 7 years of trying a few different brands on these two vehicles, it seems the best combination is a slight variation on the alignment specs (to minimize the cupping), plus the use of Michelin SUV-specific tires has brought the noise to an acceptable (yes...very subjective, indeed) level. Our 2008 has the original Conti eco-low-rolling-resistance tires back on it right now, because the newer Michelin Tour ones (that are also being shipped OEM on 2009-2010 FEH's) are not yet in stock at my dealer.....maybe in October. The same Michelin tires that I used on my 2002 resulted in mileage that went down by almost 3 mpg, so the difference was striking....I took them back off (as the dealer agreed to do before I tried them....it pays to have a good relationship with a tire dealer !!!) and put the originals back on temporarily.

Yes, the original conti's are noisy...and, at 13,000 miles, are already cupped due to the difficulty in alignment with the vehicle platform.

So...it seems that this is an issue that doesn't have a simple answer. I've read through all the posts here, on Escape-Central and a few other forums, and having worked in the Rubber Chemicals industry for over a decade in the past, fully understand all the variables in making a suitable tire for various applications.

Sorry to ramble......I sympathize with folks wanting to get rid of the freaking noise...so do I.

Cheers,
Gary

 

Not having owned a previous year, I have an 08 and didn't notice any loud tire noise, or really wind noise either. So I think the 08's + have done a better job from the factory isloating outside noise.

Having said that I'm comming up on 25k on mine and recently I swear the road noise is getting louder, I thought it was just me, maybe it is. I'm bad at keeping the tires rotated, probably only done it 2 maybe 3 times since new, I do run about 40psi in the stock conti's. So maybe it is an Escape issue/problem that the alignment causes.

My current soloution, find a good Sirius station or pop in a few mp3 Cd's and turn it up!!! But then I only have a 5 mile commute.

 

Does the FEH use the electric power stearing..??

If so you may need to add a "shock absorber" type stearing damper to prevent vibrational effects and the resulting odd tire wear. The old hydraulic power stearing systems had a LOT more stiffness (and just plain POWER & TORQUE) against steraing vibration than the new electrics.

 

[quote=robingf;210709]They've advised that the Escape platform has alignment specs that tend to cause cupping on any tires, some brands being more susceptible than others.

I haven't heard of the alignment spec difference, but to me that makes perfectly good sense because the tires haven't made this noise all the time. And the first alignment that the dealer did, actually made the noise go away after about 1000 miles. But when it came back, I haven't been able to get rid of it again! I can clearly see where the tires are cupping slightly on the edges and believe it is a correct assumption that the noise is a result of the cupping.

I am WELL aware that SUV's will have more road noise than cars. I have had many trucks and SUV's over the years. Some are better than others about noise, but I can certainly tell the difference between normal road noise and TIRE noise!

Quite frankly, I could care less about a small reduction in gas mileage due to new tires because it will still be substantially better than any other SUV you can drive. I just want the stinking tire noise to go away!

I am going to take the FEH back to the dealer and have them go through it to inspect for any suspension problems that would cause poor tire wear. I am also going to inquire about the alignment specs that apparently cause cupping. I just wish they had given me the printout of the alignment specs both times when they did the alignment. Maybe with some luck, they will have a record of the alignment specs from the original alignment that made the tire noise go away.

Thanks,
Bryan

 

I have had a similar a problem before. Sometimes certain brands of tires just do no work well with specific makes of cars, My tires were not aligned correctly and were making a shriek sound. I thought it was the brakes but, even after I got those checked the noise was still apparent. Can get really annoying.

http://www.kenjones.com

 

As it turns out it wasn't about bad tires or even a bad alignment, well not really. Apparently on many Ford products there isn't a factory setting to adjust the camber when the alignment is done. So technically the camber is pre set and in a factory alignment the camber isn't touched and may not even be checked. The camber on my '08 FEH was WAY out of whack and after a camber kit which enables the camber to be adjusted, it is cured. So after buying a set of Michelin tires and having this work done, we are good to go.