our 2006 RL is noisy going down the road at say below 35. Sounds like tire noise - like a 4x4 truck with agressive tires. It has general tires on it and they had some cupping on the inside of the RF but not too bad. I've had Acura check the alignment twice and the driveshaft bearing 3 times. Is the RL noisy by nature and is there anyway to test the sound cancellation system?

 

people say the RL is a quite car, i find it kinda noisy myself.

 

This is one of my MAJOR complaints since getting my RL. I am constantly on the phone for business so I really notice road noise since it is distracting. Also, if you aren't on a brand new paved road then at times its almost unbearable!

I've heard the Bridgestone Serenity tires supposedly offer a quieter ride but have yet to try it.

 

cupped tires can be noisy, if it was dong this with fresh tires then i would be worried

 

IMO the RL is not as quiet as it is stated to be on the road

 

Mine was noisy until I got new tires she quieted right on down.

 

It's normal. The RL is one of the louder luxury cars in its class. Tires new will help, but only so much. Do a search and you will see this is a common complaint from RL/TL drivers. This is what I hate most about my TL as well. Unless the road is perfect, bluetooth phone conversations are a pain.

For whatever reason, Honda skimps on the noise insulation. I believe Toyota/Lexus is on the opposite end of the spectrum.

 

In general, I have always found Honda allows more road noise than say, Toyota's. The trade off is the more driver oriented ride of Honda vs. a quieter comfort ride of Toyota.

Honda chooses efficiency and driver experience as a higher priority. It allows better performance, and efficiency is less impacted by the penalties of sound insulation. Compare an Accord to a Camry, a Civic to a Carolla on these very attributes.

But the RL / LEGEND needed to be quieter to straddle the luxury expectations of the class. The car is already heavy. Adding sound insulation would be a weight penalty. So Honda does what it does best, engineering. The car's surfaces reduce noise (flush side glass, acoustic glass), underbody air flow management (to reduce drag and noise), triple sealed doors and even acoustically absorbing interior and fender well materials. But the RLs technology component was the ANC addition. However it addressed low pitch boom (engine boom) and not as much mid pitch or high pitch tire roar. The 2009+ models have a newer version of ANC which increases range.

Now with 2011 MY, resonators at the wheels themselves will be deployed to continue the assault on road noise. But even with the engineering counter measures, the tires themselves have the largest impact on this issue.

Honda favors fuel efficient, long wearing tire choices. These are usually low rolling resistance tires of harder compounds which increase noise, perform less than optimum but offer long wear and better economy as Honda prioritizes. Hence the typical Michelin choices, and specifically the OEM MXM4s.

At 35K my OEMs were very noisy and feeling harsher on all but the smoothest road surfaces. It was a slow and gradual deterioration, but after 25K on them it was obvious it was louder than they should be. After waffling for indecision of replacements, I went with the BS Serenity tires.

I could not be happier. Not only is the RL smoother, quieter than I can ever remember (eerily so on smooth asphalt), but the tires are uber performance sticky compared to the MXM4s. The drawback is a 1-2 AVG MPG penalty and too soon to compare wear. Not only did my RL become chamber quiet, but the smoothness quelled some interior protests (mostly glovebox door?) on the rough upsetting roads. In some manners, I think the RL is quiet enough to allow us to hear things normally suppressed in normal road noise.

I think the RL is well balanced in luxury / sport attributes. I too would like the range of sound abating to be greater. But as Honda marches on with engineering solutions to sound management, I expect the RL will be introducing more techniques to do so without slabbing on weighty sound deadening materials.

*** Greetings from Athens ***

 

Road noise is virtually a Honda trait. The OEM tires on the RL are noisy, that's for sure. Your first choice is new tires.

Honda recognizes this as a factor and as a result are offering noise reduction technology on the next RL's wheels as noted elsewhere in this forum. Should be interestigto hear whether it does the job.

 

Not that I am recommending them, but the Michelin Primacy MXM4 Grand Touring All Season tire has recently replaced the Pilot HX MXM4 that came as OEM on the RL (and many Acuras) Tire Rack just gave them a very favorable review...of course they are incentivized to sell tires, and this is a new tire...

 

Another means to drown out tire noise is to drive with a woman in the car. I don't actually reccommend it, but I doubt you will hear yourself think, never mind the road noise.

Oh yeah, that's right, I said it.


*** Greetings from Athens ***

 

well, granted that Honda's are more noisy, but I would gladly trade the noise in my old 1995 Legend for this. My CJ7 with off road tires was quieter than this.