Michelin PS4S or wheel bearing noise?

[norsairius]

Well, it happened: I hit a pothole at highway speeds. Short sidewalls + relatively stiff suspension = loud thud. I immediately switched to the tire pressure gauge and thankfully saw no drops in tire pressure since then beyond what's normal with temperature fluctuations and the car sitting overnight.

I'm not hearing any grinding and it's not quite a hum, but it leans more towards a howl that's more noticeable at speeds of ~50-55mph or above. If I listen carefully though, I can hear it at slower speeds that are around ~25-30mph too. If the car is in Sport+, the engine/exhaust can pretty easily drown out the noise.

I jacked the car up and shook the heck out of each wheel to check for any play. I also spun each wheel and they all made the same whisper-like metal-on-metal sound. I haven't noticed any additional vibrations through the steering wheel or seat.

Despite the physical check on my part, I'm still paranoid I might have damaged a wheel bearing because of this pothole strike. I'm wondering too though if the sound could be the tires themselves.

I unfortunately didn't drive the car a lot with the stock wheel/tire set because I had to swap to my winter set in less than two months after getting it and I only just swapped back to the stock set within the past couple weeks. I never got much time to familiarize myself with the overall feel and sounds of the stock wheels/tires on the car and I admit I didn't pay a lot of attention until after I hit this pothole. From the little I recall though, the Michelin PS4S did seem to be fairly noisy and my winter set seemed to be quieter.

Has anyone else who's driven on the stock wheels/tires noticed more road/tire noise that resembles a howl, by any chance? I'll probably schedule a dealer visit just to be safe, but I thought I'd check with folks here too.

 

[Grelco]

Tough to say without hearing it but the stock tires can be pretty loud on certain surfaces. Try swerving back and forth while going at a speed where you hear the noise, if it's a wheel bearing you should be able to hear a change as you load/unload that side.

 

[norsairius]

Tough to say without hearing it but the stock tires can be pretty loud on certain surfaces. Try swerving back and forth while going at a speed where you hear the noise, if it's a wheel bearing you should be able to hear a change as you load/unload that side.

Thanks for the tip! I tried and didn't notice much change, if any, in noise.

I agree that it's hard to say without hearing it. I don't think I can get a good recording either based on my experience trying to get similar sounds in recordings, unfortunately.

I scheduled an appointment at one of the Acura dealers in my area for Tuesday morning so I'll see what they say then. I have a feeling the bearings are fine, but I'd rather err on the side of caution for something like this.

I've had other performance-oriented vehicles before, but every car's different and this is my first car where I've had summer performance tires. So, even if it turns out to be nothing, it'll at least help me understand more of what's normal for this car.

 

[Frenzal]

I can say that the stock tires are LOUD compared to the winter tires (Blizzaks) I had on the car a few weeks ago!

 

[norsairius]

Dealer looked at everything this morning and the verdict is: I was just being paranoid.

Bearings, tires, suspension components, etc., all looked good. Tires are just loud and the short sidewalls and wide tread contribute to that too.

I'll just need to get used to the noise from these tires and the stiffer suspension (which probably made the pothole feel worse than it really was).

That said, this was my experience and "your mileage may vary" applies, as always. I would generally recommend that people get things looked by professionals if they have concerns.

 

[ForeverCar]

Glad it is all good, @norsairius.

I would probably add that one should pick their professionals that they trust carefully as well. And it can be a great idea to learn and inspect yourself if one is inclined.

 

[norsairius]

Glad it is all good, @norsairius.

I would probably add that one should pick their professionals that they trust carefully as well. And it can be a great idea to learn and inspect yourself if one is inclined.

Thanks! I agree that people should be confident in the professionals they work with and that they need to make sure they’re trustworthy.

I figured the dealership would generally be incentivized to sell me on repairs and replacement parts if they could, so if they say the car’s good, then it probably is. I don’t mean this in a “dealers are scummy” kind of way either, it’s just a reality of the business. Some dealers aren’t good, but I’ve had good experiences with the Acura dealers in my area.

As for the road noise, I’ll keep an ear tuned in as I drive the car more with the stock wheels/tires. Now looking back again, I wonder if some of the noise is down to the tires needing to break in more and/or if lack of consistent warmer temps has something to do with all this too. We’ll see!

 

[norsairius]

Well, the saga continues: I kept getting the nagging feeling that there was damage the dealership couldn't see because there seemed to be noises that just didn't seem right coming from the side of the car that hit the pothole.

I took the car to Discount Tire and had them go so far as to remove the tires from the wheels to inspect further for damage.

Lo and behold, there were what appeared to be two blemishes or almost superficial scrapes/tears towards the sidewall on both passenger side tires that struck that pothole. They weren't deep or anything, but the fact that they appeared at all was concerning.

Lucky for me, I stopped by Discount Tire soon after buying the car and I went ahead and bought warranty certificates for all tires on the car. About ~$260 in warranty for all four tires will now save me ~$360 per tire + costs for mounting/balancing. I will definitely be buying the warranty certificates again for these replacement tires.

New tires should arrive tomorrow. I'm hoping they get the OEM PS4S because I've read the off-the-shelf PS4S are just sliiiightly different. Worst case, does anyone know if it would be particularly terrible to mix OEM and off-the-shelf PS4S?

 

[StingertimeNC]

You will be hard pressed to tell the difference between off the shelf and ITS OEM tires. If it was me, I would just put the two new tires either up front or out back, then when you rotate, the like tires will always be on the same axle. Other than that, don't give it a second thought.

 

[norsairius]

You will be hard pressed to tell the difference between off the shelf and ITS OEM tires. If it was me, I would just put the two new tires either up front or out back, then when you rotate, the like tires will always be on the same axle. Other than that, don't give it a second thought.

That's what I figured. I'm nowhere near being a Formula 1 driver and I don't expect to notice a difference either, even if I were to go to a track.

I found a couple other threads from other enthusiast forums who have done the same thing with mixing different specs of the PS4S and their experience was generally the same in that it didn't make a big difference:

• https://rennlist.com/forums/718-gts...-pilot-sport-4s-porsche-n-and-mercedes-m.html
• https://x3.xbimmers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1828189

Couple interesting points though:

• This YT video tested an OEM spec tire vs. off the shelf and found some measurable differences and even some with the compound:
• The Rennlist thread had a user bring up a concern if there were an accident and if insurance may try to use the different tires as an excuse to decline coverage. While an accident is not likely, this is my biggest concern.

 

[StingertimeNC]

That would be like denying Insurance if someone switched to all season tires. As long as the tires you're using are street legal, Insurance cannot deny a claim. Don't overthink it.

 

[mopar_man]

If you go to tirerack you can see the differences. One has slightly deeper tread and a tread width of 9.6” versus 9.2”

 

[norsairius]

If you go to tirerack you can see the differences. One has slightly deeper tread and a tread width of 9.6” versus 9.2”

Yeah, looks like OEM has 9.2" width and 9/32" depth while off the shelf is 9.6" and 9.5/32" depth...

I guess I'll see what the techs/staff at Discount Tire say. Those differences seem immaterially small though, especially as long as the tires on each axle match.

OCD part of me would rather have all four match, but I don't think my warranty with them will cover an additional two tires. So it seems that if I really want that, I'll need to either wait for them to get the correct tires in or pay for an additional two of the off the shelf tires. In that case, I'd rather wait, hah.

 

[norsairius]

Well, the tires that first came in to replace the damaged ones were the off the shelf variants and I let my overthinking get the best of me so I asked to get the OEM PS4Ses. Part of me was also very curious to see what these differences I'd only read about were, but I admittedly wanted to have all four match.

I do not work for Discount Tire, but I am a huge fan of theirs as they've been awesome for me over the years so I appreciate them being so accommodating and taking care of this.

I took a side-by-side pic of the tread so everyone can see the subtle differences:

Left: Off the shelf (OTS) PS4S, Discount Tire item # 32758
Right: Acura OEM PS4S variant, Discount Tire item # 127069

Differences I can see:

• OTS middle tread has grooves on the left side vs. flat/smooth on OEM
• OTS treads to either side of the middle tread appear to be essentially the same as OEM, maybe cut a bit deeper in the tread to the right of the middle tread.
• OTS outer treads appear to have deeper and slightly wider cuts vs. OEM

Only difference I felt was that the OTS version was easier to push down and compress vs. the OEM tire when pushing down on the tread (basically turning the tire into an oval). Or maybe it was the other way around? I didn't examine it much more than that.

As to whether there's any differences in compound and compound pattern between the treads like there is in the OTS vs. BMW "star" PS4S variant, no idea.

That said, the car rides noticeably smoother now that the damaged tires are gone but there's a good amount of howling-like noise from the new tires. I'm attributing that to them being brand new though. I think they'll quiet down as they break in.

 

[Frenzal]

Did a road trip last weekend, and God are the stock tires noisy! Some pavement is worst than other, but nonetheless, they are noisy!