Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Well I posted last summer about the noise of the Michelin HydroEdge 205/55-16 tires on my aunt's 2004 TDI VW Beetle. The car is religiously maintained at the dealer but the tires were bought in late May of 2011 at 104,000 miles. It's coming up on 156,000 now. The tires have been rotated pretty well I would say, maybe one interval it was skipped but overall pretty good. The tread life has been amazing, tons of tread left (rated at 90,000 miles per Michelin) and they handle and corner fantastic. They also have absolutely no weather cracks either (garaged). The thing we (I drive the car often as well) can't stand about these tires is how loud they are! Even on surface streets and especially freeway driving it has got to be the most annoying thing. They were very noisy and had a little vibration due to one tire "cupping" a little bit according to Discount Tire. The suspension on this car is great, and had $2,000 worth of front end work last year at the dealer, so I know it's good. The tire that is cupping was a replacement at about 116,000 due to road hazard replacement. Personally I believe this tire is defective because even after rotating several times after it's replacement it's the only tire that is cupping. When it is on the front of the car that is when it is REALLY loud. Last summer we went on a road trip for 2 weeks and did about 4,800 miles. We took the car to Discount Tire before and during the trip and I tried to get them to replace it because I couldn't stand the noise and they wouldn't replace it due to cupping that that was most likely due to the car. I still don't believe this and Discount Tire is still no help at all. That tire has been on the back since October at about 151,000 miles. Now at almost 156,000 I took it in for a rotate and balance and once again with that odd ball tire up front it was extremely noisy on the highway (which this car sees mostly) and had them rotate back. I am done with rotating tires on this set of tires.
I'm leery about going back to Discount Tire for the next set and am leery about going back to Michelin for the next set as well. Discount Tire also tells me that they are known to be loud tires and I have to live with it. Obviously we weren't told this when we bought them, we didn't sign up for loud tires. I'd like a set of Michelin Defenders because of the mileage rating but with have such a high mileage rating does this make these tires susceptible to being loud as well? Is Big O Tires any better than Discount as far as customer service?
I emailed Michelin last summer and last week complaining about the tires and they never call or email me back.
Sorry about the long post, I just HATE this set of tires lol.
The first 2 sets of tires were Continental ContiProContact's from the dealership and they lasted 50k, wasn't very impressed.
Thanks guys
Apart from the cupping if you don't like the Hydroedge's stay away from the Defender's, we have a set on our 2004 T&C with ~17K miles and they are getting harder and harder and the differencein noise between road surfaces is getting greater and greater, they are wearing well, correction they are not wearing, dry grip excellent, wet grip great too, I'm disappointed because I specifically wanted a quiet and plush tire and that was what the people were reporting at Tire Rack and other websites, granted, it was a fairly new tire when bought, less than a year since introduction but since then a lot of people are reporting the same issues and others; also they are very prone to punctures, any sharpie thing will penetrate the carcass too so be aware of that.
