Hello all,

New member to the forum. Just picked up our new 500C Lounge yesterday. First impressions - good fun car. Opted for the 1.2 as my daughter will be learning to drive in it soonish, with both the car and insurance being cheaper. Only niggle so far is road noise. It's running 185/55/15 Conti EcoContacts and they seem very sensitive to road surface. Get the right road surface and she is pretty quiet, but on most there is quite a bit of noise. Is this something they suffer from or do tyres make a difference?

Cheers

Kevin

KJ4x4 said:

............ running 185/55/15 Conti EcoContacts and they seem very sensitive to road surface. Get the right road surface and she is pretty quiet, but on most there is quite a bit of noise. Is this something they suffer from or do tyres make a difference?

Click to expand...

Same here.

Same tyres, same size, same road noise.

Our 500TA has done just a tad over 20,000miles now and we're considering a new set of tyres, so I'm very interested to read the responses to your question.

Welcome to the forum BTW.

Regards,
Mick.

Hi

both me and my mam have fiat 500's bith with 195/45/R16 tyres, hers has conti EcoContacts and mine has Goodyear Efficientgrip's. the goodyear tyres fitted to mine are noticeably quieter, they have better wet weather traction and i get better fuel economy with those tyres fitted, although for 16" wheels they are quite expensive 15"s should be a bjt cheaper

thanks
Alex

KJ4x4 said:

Hello all,

New member to the forum. Just picked up our new 500C Lounge yesterday. First impressions - good fun car. Opted for the 1.2 as my daughter will be learning to drive in it soonish, with both the car and insurance being cheaper. Only niggle so far is road noise. It's running 185/55/15 Conti EcoContacts and they seem very sensitive to road surface. Get the right road surface and she is pretty quiet, but on most there is quite a bit of noise. Is this something they suffer from or do tyres make a difference?

Cheers

Kevin

Click to expand...

My 500C runs 16" Bridgestone Potenza's and tyre noise is very noticable though it doesn't bother me too much to be honest. In any case I've usually got the music turned up so loud little else gets through.

The soft-top tends to be pretty noisy anyway compared with a 'tin-top'.

A couple of days ago, I had a set of four Uniroyal Rainsport3 tyres fitted.

I must say that the grip is wonderful, but the noticeable difference is the reduced road noise.

Very happy indeed.

Regards to all,
Mick.

Just got our 59 plate pop, changed the tyres to Yokohamma Bluearth as they were reasonable price/performance, seem fine, nice and quiet except at about 65/70 where they make a strange singing noise on some surfaces.

If you go on Blackcircles or similar you will see the new Euro ratings for characteristics such as Noise, Wear, Wet Grip, Fuel Efficiency etc.

If these are to be believed then you should be able to roughly compare between brands and models.

If you want a quiet tyre then this would be my choice
https://www.tyre-shopper.co.uk/tyres/brand/goodyear/goodyear-efficientgrip/185-55HR15-82H

Its about 4db quieter than the Conti's so that's half as noisy depending on speed rating,road surface etc, generally I've found Dunlop make the quietest ones at the moment followed by Goodyear.

Apparently Michelin Cross-Climates are pretty quiet, although I haven't tried them yet. Not available in all sizes though - can't get 195/45's for my 500 yet.

I spent a lot of money soundproofing my previous 500 - a four figure sum in materials and nearly a week - and the short answer is, "don't"!

The choice of tyre will make a bigger difference. You have 15" tyres which works in your favour - 16" standard with Sport trim is worse. My Lounge is on 16s too.

We have a particularly coarse chip surface on most of our roads in NZ. The difference between a coarse road and a smooth road is huge. 50km/h (30mph) on a coarse road was a headache-inducing 84dBA. The booming effect would get no louder when going faster - it actually seemed to peak at this slow speed.

On a smooth road, and at a much-faster 80km/h, sound level was 68dBA. Here's the interesting bit: my soundproofing work (deadened floor pans, bonnet, tailgate, and spare wheel well, extra felt and a constraining layer between the felt and the carpet, deadened and sealed doors and rear side panels, soft material under rear seat, inside rear side panels, and behind wheelarch liners, expanding foam in front door pillars and B-pillar behind door - to block sound paths) yielded a 6dBA reduction at 80km/h on the smooth surface - 62dBA. That was a significant reduction which I think a manufacturer would have been happy to achieve in production. It wasn't quite what I was aiming for, as I could hardly hear the engine!

HOWEVER the sound level on a coarse surface stayed exactly the same - the unbearable 84dBA

I believe the reason for this is the location of the suspension strut mountings almost directly under the dashboard, transmitting noise directly into the cabin. Also, the front structure of the 500 is incredibly stiff with double chassis side rails etc., and this will also transmit a great deal of noise. The only solution is to cut the noise at source - the tyres themselves.

-Alex

Piccolo Nero e Bella said:

The soft-top tends to be pretty noisy anyway compared with a 'tin-top'.

Click to expand...

Interesting - thanks for the practical advice on that, as I've always wondered I remember the first day I drove an Alfa Spider - mine, the day I bought it - and as I got it up to 100km/h on the motorway, I wondered what the rushing noise was! That was with the hood up of course, and there were no obvious leaks or whistles, but the sound of air passing over it seemed more noticeable than for a closed car.

Thing is, I wonder if as well as letting some new sounds in, a soft top also helps to let some of the booming noise out...

-Alex

I wonder if different suspension bushes would improve the NVH?
Before I bought my hatchback, I test drove a convertible. It wasn't for long, but did include a 70mph motorway sprint, and I was impressed with the noise suppression - there was a bit more wind noise, but I think it would have been ok for a long run. Unfortunately, I didn't have the extra 3 grand required for the convertible!

I was shocked the difference the tyre makes. That'll be your best bet.

I moved from Continentals 14inch or whatever, to Proxes, 15 inch, and these are a lot louder.

alexGS said:

Interesting - thanks for the practical advice on that, as I've always wondered I remember the first day I drove an Alfa Spider - mine, the day I bought it - and as I got it up to 100km/h on the motorway, I wondered what the rushing noise was! That was with the hood up of course, and there were no obvious leaks or whistles, but the sound of air passing over it seemed more noticeable than for a closed car.

Thing is, I wonder if as well as letting some new sounds in, a soft top also helps to let some of the booming noise out...

-Alex

Click to expand...

Swings and roundabouts. What was very apparent to me was that even with the roof up I could 'place' other cars around me without even looking, just by their noise. Mind you, I won't be taking the rear-view mirrors off any time soon...!

I have a very modest sub-woofer set-up and it would be interesting to see how much the roof material affects the sound in comparison to a steel roof, both inside and outside.

Piccolo Nero e Bella said:

it would be interesting to see how much the roof material affects the sound in comparison to a steel roof, both inside and outside.

Click to expand...

I think that because of the way the roof folds on the 500 there isn't a lot of capacity for sound proofing and padding as it needs to scrunch up in a very small space above the boot but without interfering with the rearward view too much.

Different roofs on other cars of different designs are much more robust and padded/sound proofed

I'm sure because of this it probably doesn't do a lot to help a good quality sound system, but then all manufactures struggle to get good sound out of a soft top car

Just had a thought if the OP is still reading this. You mention your daughter is going to learn to drive in your 500C. If she is intending to take her test in it, best check she can - some convertables e.g. Mini and Beetle are not permitted. The 500C isn't specifically listed, but best to check when the time comes.

TrevC said:

Just had a thought if the OP is still reading this. You mention your daughter is going to learn to drive in your 500C. If she is intending to take her test in it, best check she can - some convertables e.g. Mini and Beetle are not permitted. The 500C isn't specifically listed, but best to check when the time comes.

Click to expand...

Why?
What's wrong, they are still cars - convertible or not.

Actually, the Mini and the Beetle (and the 500) aren't convertibles. They are normal saloon cars with a soft top ............ called cabriolets. Maybe I'm just splitting hairs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabrio_coach

I wonder why you can't take a driving test in a cabriolet?

Cheers,
Mick.

Cars you can’t use
Some cars can’t be used in the test because they don’t give the examiner all-round vision.

You can’t use any of the following:

BMW Mini convertible
Ford KA convertible
Toyota iQ
VW Beetle convertible

Check with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) before you book your test if you want to use a:
convertible car
panel van

Click to expand...

From the DVLA website.

https://www.gov.uk/driving-test/using-your-own-car

Mick.

I think it's because the examiner might not want to do the test in a Morgan or Mini-Moke.... especially in the English summer!

I believe it's because, with the roof up, there are too many blind spots.