Hello,
I bought a 20 year old 2005 Elantra last fall and have been fixing it up like crazy. It’s turning out to be a nice vehicle. But it needed tires immediately, when I bought it. Not knowing if I’d keep the car or not I bought cheap tires – Sentury Touring 195/60 15 inch.
The Sentury tires were very comfortable and quiet, despite being rated relatively low in these categories. Grip and aquaplaning were also very good considering the ultra low price. The thing that killed it was the never-ending vibrations and pulling, as I do 99% freeway travel. I must have spent 10 hours at America’s Tire trying to sort it all out – and it was never right.
Finally, after about 5000 miles, I threw in the towel – told them I was done with these tires and to please get me out of them.
For replacements, I picked the Falken Sencera SN250 A/S and paid $320 to upgrade. They scored very high for quietness and comfort – the most highly rated tires for quietness by owners and professional reviews that I could find for my car. I thought I couldn’t lose.
Well, I feel like I’m going crazy because, unfortunately, these tires are LOUD on the freeway and have more NVH than the cheap Sentury Touring tires. On smooth blacktop they ARE very quiet, but on concrete surfaces at 70 to 80mph, which is 99% of my freeway driving, they are quite loud.
I set the tire pressures to 30psi, cold – which is what the inside door jam recommends. That helped a bit, but not much.
Since all the reviews indicated these were exceptionally quiet and comfortable, I called Falken to see if they had any idea why I was having such a divergent experience with my particular tires – like maybe the taller 60 series tires are constructed with a firmer sidewall (transmitting more noise), or something, for improved road handling? But he said that wasn’t the case. Then again, he didn’t seem to know virtually anything about tires or tire noise. He said the only thing that generates road noise is the wind movement over the tires – not the road surface, not the sidewall construction, and not the compound, etc. He was basically of zero help. I also noticed these tires require a lot more effort to turn the wheel, especially at low speeds. He didn’t have any explanation for that either.
I guess I have a 1000 mile and 30 day trial period to decide if I want to keep the Falkens, or not. But these were rated so highly for comfort and quietness that I don’t even know what else I might choose. I thought about adding some sound deadening to the car but I’m really not looking for another project – and I could easily spend as much money on sound deadening materials as another set of tires. It seems to make more sense to go with the quietest tire I can get FIRST.
Any recommendations? I’m completely baffled - I don’t know where I went wrong. Quietness and comfort are priority number 1 – I have a neurological condition that makes noise and NVH hard to deal with. NVH and loudness was great until I switched to the Falken SN250 A/S.
Also: Three of the Falkens were made in the 30th week of 2024 (June) - and are 10 months old. Would this bother you?
Thanks,
I bought a 20 year old 2005 Elantra last fall and have been fixing it up like crazy. It’s turning out to be a nice vehicle. But it needed tires immediately, when I bought it. Not knowing if I’d keep the car or not I bought cheap tires – Sentury Touring 195/60 15 inch.
The Sentury tires were very comfortable and quiet, despite being rated relatively low in these categories. Grip and aquaplaning were also very good considering the ultra low price. The thing that killed it was the never-ending vibrations and pulling, as I do 99% freeway travel. I must have spent 10 hours at America’s Tire trying to sort it all out – and it was never right.
Finally, after about 5000 miles, I threw in the towel – told them I was done with these tires and to please get me out of them.
For replacements, I picked the Falken Sencera SN250 A/S and paid $320 to upgrade. They scored very high for quietness and comfort – the most highly rated tires for quietness by owners and professional reviews that I could find for my car. I thought I couldn’t lose.
Well, I feel like I’m going crazy because, unfortunately, these tires are LOUD on the freeway and have more NVH than the cheap Sentury Touring tires. On smooth blacktop they ARE very quiet, but on concrete surfaces at 70 to 80mph, which is 99% of my freeway driving, they are quite loud.
I set the tire pressures to 30psi, cold – which is what the inside door jam recommends. That helped a bit, but not much.
Since all the reviews indicated these were exceptionally quiet and comfortable, I called Falken to see if they had any idea why I was having such a divergent experience with my particular tires – like maybe the taller 60 series tires are constructed with a firmer sidewall (transmitting more noise), or something, for improved road handling? But he said that wasn’t the case. Then again, he didn’t seem to know virtually anything about tires or tire noise. He said the only thing that generates road noise is the wind movement over the tires – not the road surface, not the sidewall construction, and not the compound, etc. He was basically of zero help. I also noticed these tires require a lot more effort to turn the wheel, especially at low speeds. He didn’t have any explanation for that either.
I guess I have a 1000 mile and 30 day trial period to decide if I want to keep the Falkens, or not. But these were rated so highly for comfort and quietness that I don’t even know what else I might choose. I thought about adding some sound deadening to the car but I’m really not looking for another project – and I could easily spend as much money on sound deadening materials as another set of tires. It seems to make more sense to go with the quietest tire I can get FIRST.
Any recommendations? I’m completely baffled - I don’t know where I went wrong. Quietness and comfort are priority number 1 – I have a neurological condition that makes noise and NVH hard to deal with. NVH and loudness was great until I switched to the Falken SN250 A/S.
Also: Three of the Falkens were made in the 30th week of 2024 (June) - and are 10 months old. Would this bother you?
Thanks,
