Road Noise

I bought a new 2018 XC60 a year and a half ago in Michigan and now have 30,000 miles on it. Since new, it has had excessive road noise to the point where if you want to speak with a passenger, you need to turn the radio off because the radio needs to be so loud to hear it that you need to yell over it. I have had it to dealers in Michigan and in Salt Lake City which is the nearest dealer to where I now live. No one seems to want to take it for a ride to see what the problem is. Anyone else have this issue? I am ready to trade this thing in on another car and it certainly will not be a Volvo.

Tires size & brand make a difference. change them to a better brand

I changed them 3 weeks ago - not any better

Did the brand have good reviews of being quite? Look at reviews from Tire rack Before buying tires. Michelin is my preferred brand anything else IMO is a compromise. Anytime you reduce the side wall of the tire you increase sound, anything above 18 inch wheels will give you more noise. My 2019 has 19 inch wheels and at 35 PSI its pretty decent when it comes to road noise, not as quite as my wife’s 2018 Q5, but not bad like a Mazda or other SUV‘S I have driven.

I also prefer Michelins but all of the forums that I checked said that Pirelli Scorpion Zero A/S were the quietest that would also give me good traction in snow so that is what I put on. I was also planning on changing the 20” wheels down to 18” but when I asked the manager at the Volvo dealer about this, he said that it would not make any difference (he apparently used to work for a tire supply business), so I took his word for it. I wanted 18” wheels when I bought the Volvo, but all of the SUV models at the dealer had 20” or larger.

But the road noise isn’t the only issue with this car so I will probably trade it this Spring on a Jeep.

interesting, my experience with Jeep depending on the version your ears will bleed from all the road noise. I understand and wish you luck. I am on my 3rd Volvo in 6 years and just picked my XC60 on Dec 2. The lease deals I get in Texas are off the charts and one of the reason I have it as a daily driver. The tires you purchased are on my car now and I am not a fan of mine, will change them out if they get loud.

TireRack quick review This tire looks great on the SUV and does a good job of making you feel like you have on the right pair of shoes to do almost anything. My disappointment with this tire was that it makes the ground feel hard and the tires produce a lot of chatter that you can not only hear but also feel in the steering wheel and accelerator.