Forum Discussion

Sooboy's avatar
Sooboy
Explorer
Apr 22, 2015

Flat Towing Makes my Tires Noisy

I replaced the OEM tires on my '09 CRV last spring with a set of Continentals. I run winter tires 5 months of the year, so if you're wondering why my mileage seems so high on the OEM's, that's why.

The new tires were fine until we towed the Honda from Ontario to Glacier National Park and back - a round trip distance of almost 10,000KM (~6100 miles). Now they are extremely noisy - enough that I've considered replacement again.

I've look at the tire surface, but I don't really know what I'm looking for. What might be causing this, and how do I fix it? This happened with the OEM set too, but not as dramatically. I thought it was a function of their age, but maybe not.

Thanks in advance,
Tom
  • WyoTraveler's avatar
    WyoTraveler
    Explorer
    Apr 22, 2015
    I think tire noise or howling is a result of tread design. I would talk to a high quality tire dealer on which brands have less noise.
  • j-d's avatar
    j-d
    Explorer II
    Apr 22, 2015
    Are they Uni-Directional? If not, cross'em, side to side. You have supplemental brakes no doubt, and braking can cause a re-shaping of the tread blocks that makes the tires noisy. I'm told, a side-to side cross, reversing the rotation, will wear those odd spots away.
  • othertonka's avatar
    othertonka
    Explorer
    Apr 23, 2015
    I had the same problem on my 2002 CRV with Michelins, they cupped especialy the front ones and became very noisy. I now have perllis and they have not cupped. Keeping track of the mileage towed, rotate them about every 4000 towed miles and they smoothe out some.
  • mikebo's avatar
    mikebo
    Explorer
    Apr 23, 2015
    I had the same problem with a 2010 crv. You want to have the alignment checked on the crv, both front and back axles. My rear axle alignment was causing the problem. If possible get the front toe set on the high side since towing causes it to go negative. I still get a little noise after towing long distances but it seems to go away after a few miles of driving, before I had the alignment it never went away.
  • Sooboy's avatar
    Sooboy
    Explorer
    Apr 26, 2015
    Thank-you all for your responses. I rotated the tires front-to-back and side-to-side this morning. I will have the alignment confirmed next oil change, which should be in the next month or so.

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