the car is whisper-quiet at idle...
and obnoxious on the highway. so we're clearer here (and less arbitrary) about what "too loud" means, what's the minimum number on the radio volume dial that any of you need to hear voices clearly? maybe this bothers me more than most because i listen to a lo of classical music, and it's almost a waste of time when driving on freeways. when i drive later today i'll try and get some numbers and report back.

and yes, i have stock tires. still searching the threads since i remember something about getting some kind of noise "treatment" from the dealer...i'm at 7500 miles so i better think about it soon.

thanks.

 

Whenever my TSX gets a bit too loud I just donkey punch her and she shuts up!

 

GUYS THE TSX IS PRETTY DAM QUIET!!!

Heres the numbers from Car and Driver magazine.

INTERIOR SOUND LEVEL

Idle: 38 dBA
Full-throttle acceleration: 74 dBA
70-mph cruising: 67 Dba

=

Just to compare heres the new BMW E90

INTERIOR SOUND LEVEL
Idle: 41 dBA
Full-throttle acceleration: 73 dBA
70-mph cruising: 66 dBA

 

It's thread resurrection Friday.

 

 

Well, as a member of the press I have to tyll you that it's a journalist's job to point out the negative as well as the positive. I mean, he's not gonna write rah-rah pieces. That would be PR. I mean, wouldn't you, as a potential car-buyer wanna know quirky stuff about a car??? Especially, if it's material that costs upwards of $30,000.

Just this morning, I read an article in AUTO WEEK that was complaining about the TSX's AC controls (with nav). It was just his take on it. He was irked by it. I would wanna know as much stuff like that as possible beofre I hunkering down my $$$.

Plus the notion of automobile journalist that writes for a newspaper is somewhat outdated. The majority of the auto press works for magazines. Newspaper journalists that cover the auto industry cover it from the stanpoint of corporate dealings and such.

 

Hey, at least the noobs are finally using the search feature.

 

Just so you know, the human ear cannot discern a 1-2 db difference. The smallest amount we can "hear" is 3 db.

 

The previous gerenation RL was very silent... It was so silent that it was boring...

 

i'm not a noob.
i just don't spend all my time on this board.
i did several searches.
this was a thread that was relevant, so i asked two questions, on this topic, and neither were answered.

shall i repeat them, or will i just be insulted for this post as well?

 

New Yokohama's helped, but only a little. Same with insulating the doors. Road noise is still the main culprit, but it's plenty fine by me - esp when I'm alone and can crank up my stereo (not stock).

 

They are not any friendlier though....

 

Um, 14 posts =

But, you're a good noob. You did it the right way, searching and then posting in a relevant thread. It was just kind of a shock to see an old thread come back to life. If more people did it then it wouldn't be so shocking.

As far as noise, I think the car is pretty quiet. Its the stock tires that are loud. I do not listen to my radio loud. I find that around town, 11 or 12 is good and on the freeway I get it to about 15 or 16 to hear music at a comfortable volume for me (I have the non-navi version).

Folks that have changed out their speakers and installed dynamat (or similar material) in the doors at the same time report really good results in diminishing the road noise.

I use Tirerack.com to search for info on tires. On Tirerack you can also find survey results for various tires, including how loud/quiet they are. You should check out the results for the stock tires and maybe which tires get superior ratings. I've been eyeing the Avon 500 myself for when the time comes. Good Luck.

 

well...i guess i didn't look at the date, i thought the relevance was enough. new doesn't always mean noob. thank you for answering, i suppose polite condescension is as good as i'm gonna get around here for awhile. guess i'll go back to lurking. seriously though, thanks.

 

Well at lease you got "polite condescension" and not an insutl.....

 

I love my tsx its quiet compared to my friends vw golf... wow I never notice how hard her engine works in accelerating. Hers is the basic level golf haha no gti so eh. Tsx wins over her new 04 vw golf.

 

im not gonna lie, my TSX is actually pretty loud at idle. but itll switch on and off. for instance it seems like a fan is going and then it stops, but the happens even with the AC off. sometimes i get a little vibration as well. i can feel it on the steering wheel and in my seat even.

ive thought about getting sound clips so that you could hear how loud it is. but i can definitley hear the engine running from outside the car standing 5 feet, probably more, away. ill see if i can get some kidna clips. dont flame me for saying the car is loud, flame my car, cause its loud.

 

Yea but I think that is normal, You usually can hear most cars idle from a short distance.

Plus the car will need to turn on the fan occasionally, I guess its only what you have expereiced through cars.

 

I thought a 3 db increase in sound is doubling it to our ears so I would think we could hear less then that difference

BTW has anyone ever added dynamat or something like that to the doors? Did you notice a difference?

 

Awwwww, poor baby

 

Idle in the TSX attcually pisses me off because its so quiet, except for the AC fan u cant even tell the damn things running, I wish it was louder at Idle

 

the tsx is pretty quiet, but i think it should be a little more quiet when driving over normal (i.e. not new) roads. we have '00 and '04 tls and neither are noisy, especially on the freeway. i guess that a lot of it has to do with insulation, though. at any rate, i'm ambivalent about the tsx noise level since to me it's good enough.

i'll try to borrow my dad's db reader and post the results sometime this month.

 

I have mine for month with 3300 mile and the engine sound as quiet as the day I drove off the dealer. I used to have a 91 cavalier Z24(POS!) and what a difference in the two.

 

engine noise doesn't bother me. let's me know my car is on...haha lame, but i thought this thread was about the road noise (there is a considerable amount in my opinion) but it's to be expected with the crappy tires and good handling so no compaint there.

 

No, in order to effect a 3 db change (the smallest we can hear) you need to double the wattage. This is why when you have a 100 watt car stereo system, the 200 watt system "barely" sounds louder. For every 3 db increase you need to keep doubling wattage!

 

I agree with you all that my TSX is almost eerily quiet when idling. However the road noise is louder than I expected, but not obnoxious when driving at freeway speeds. I too believe this is tire-related.

Several reviews of the TSX had this one item as their only real complaint (Consumer Reports and a few others I don't remember).