Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Wheels & Tires Noisy Tires or Bad Wheel Bearings

I've read in this forum about how noisy the stock SVT G-Force tires are. I've also noticed this with my SVT. It seems to me that the noise is getting worse the more miles I'm putting on them. I spoke today with a guy that used to do QC road testing of vehicles at the Claycomo, MO plant, including Countour SVT's. He recalled all BFGoodrich tires being noiser than any other brand (and that the SVT Contours ran like scalded cats).

The noise can best be described as a warbling rumble that starts at about 10mph on up. Since the noise is not just constant that rises in pitch as speed increases, this has caused me to wonder about the wheel bearings. Do Contours, SVT's in particular, have any history of bad wheel bearings? What is the best way to check wheel bearings?

I don't know about your bearings, but chances are pretty good it is the KDW tires. They get much noisier as the tread depth gets shallower. Not only that, the tires get so squirmy and vibration so bad that the only cure is new tires. If you get 25K out of them, you've done very well.

If it's your tires the noise will be constant as you move the steering wheel from side to side. With wheel bearings the noise will get louder and quieter as you zig and zag. The KDW's are noisy, but the Firehawks are worse.

I had a noise issue to, so I was at a tire shop having my tires looked at and they also found that the inside of one of my front wheels had a dent on the inside lip of one of the front rims.

Thank you for your responses. My KDW's have 31,000 miles and not much tread left on them. As an experiment, I had all four rebalanced. The vibration all but stopped but the noise is just as bad as before. The side-to-side swerve test indicated the bearings are not bad.

As I am in my fortys, I've owned many sets of tires. Some have performed on par with the KDW's but none have ever even been close to how noisy the KDW's are.

I greatly enjoy music (as you can probably surmise by my e-name) and the sound of my SVT's engine/exhaust. I'm currently researching a better sound system (I've stuck with the poor performing factory system only because of bad memories of insurance companies and repair shops after having two systems ripped from my previous car) and a less restrictive exhaust system.

I guess the only way to fully enjoy the sounds of my SVT is to replace the KDW tires with non-KDW tires.

At that mileage, they are due for replacement very soon, if not already. Many of us have moved to the 225-50-16 BFG KDWS (not KDW) and found the performance almost as good, but MUCH LESS NOISE. You will again be able to enjoy the music with these tires. Oh yeah, dump the stock stereo, it sux.