New Caprice - Discussion forums

I just bought a 2012 PPV. I love the car, but the level of road noise it produces on textured highway pavement is unbearable. Wind noise is not an issue, but road noise is. It is defining loud - Old Jeep Wrangler loud. Make my ears ring for an hour after driving loud.

Is there any way to improve this? Is it the Eagle RSA tires or is it the car?

My 94 caprice by comparison was very quite.

http://newcaprice.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 7de68#p289" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(I wrote this 4-1/2 years ago--in link above)
I've "re-tired" the OE Goodyears--they're rough & noisy, even at lowered pressure.

Some thoughts/questions:

These cars lack a good bit of sound-deadening material throughout, so there's much to be gained in that area.

Going to the SS spring setup has seemed to moderate some of the harshness, which can translate to noise.

What area of the country are you located, and what are typical road surface conditions? Paved, concrete....?

What tire pressures are you running?

Hey PC, welcome to the board.

My Sound deadening journey is lightly detailed here:
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1327&hilit=foam&start=10#p14566" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I can actually have a conversation in my car now where I would have to strain to hear before at freeway speeds.. Extra weihgt but worth it. Still going to try a firewall pad on the underside of the hood, getting up the courage to give that a try, lots of cutting and fitting.

I am in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle). The largest offender is I-5, but it's typical interstate concrete that has become smooth, but coarse over time. It's not noise induced from bumps or irregularities. I get those too but I can deal with them. Rather, it's from older concrete that has turned coarse and sandpaper like.

Tires are at around 42 PSI according to the monitor.

I do know from previous police cars (crown vics) that re-tiring can help with ride quality, but in this particular case the larger issue is the noise.

Navy Lifer wrote:http://newcaprice.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 7de68#p289

(I wrote this 4-1/2 years ago--in link above)
I've "re-tired" the OE Goodyears--they're rough & noisy, even at lowered pressure.

Some thoughts/questions:

These cars lack a good bit of sound-deadening material throughout, so there's much to be gained in that area.

Going to the SS spring setup has seemed to moderate some of the harshness, which can translate to noise.

What area of the country are you located, and what are typical road surface conditions? Paved, concrete....?

What tire pressures are you running?

I might give this a try, but it's a lot of labor. I'll admit even in the old caprices, the ones with carpet were notable more quite than the ones without. I wrote this off to the minimal lightweight insulation on the bottom of the carpet.

smwalker wrote:Hey PC, welcome to the board.

My Sound deadening journey is lightly detailed here:
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1327&hilit=foam&start=10#p14566" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I can actually have a conversation in my car now where I would have to strain to hear before at freeway speeds.. Extra weihgt but worth it. Still going to try a firewall pad on the underside of the hood, getting up the courage to give that a try, lots of cutting and fitting.

i just took my 14 ppv with 5k on the oe goodyears , there wasnt much road noise unless it was built into the road , ive still got the rubber carpet in mine

pc500 wrote:Tires are at around 42 PSI according to the monitor.

Definitely try lowering pressures to 36 PSI. You may or may not face TPMS alarms, but the system alarm setpoint can be adjusted to prevent nuisance alarm situations.

As Steve mentions, the insulation option is there to help.

My factory Goodyears were Loud, didnt know if it was a hud bearing going bad, changed them out with '17 SS Rims and tires road noise virtually gone.

If I'm searching for Craigslist tire/wheel combos, which ones work well?

That was my biggest complaint with the stock Goodyear RSA's. I picked up my car from Chicago and drove it to Florida. The noise almost made me bat-sh&# crazy.

I'm now running Continental Extreme Contacts on Camaro 18's and on H&R springs and my PPV is one of the nicer riding cars I've ever owned.