Tyre noise from Bridgestones on GTI

My wife bought her GTI brand new in April 2016 and it’s now covered 22k miles. It came with Bridgestone tyres from new which I’ve found hard wearing but not much grip in the wet or cold months. I had the fronts replaced at about 18k with Goodyear F1’s which seem better in every way as far as driving is concerned. We took it to Belgium the other day and for the first time I noticed a horrible drumming noise from the rear which got worse with speed. More noticeable on motorways and very smooth roads. Now I don’t drive the car that much as it’s my wife’s car and the noise doesn’t bother her that much!
Anyway after a bit of reading and checking the tyres I’m pretty certain it’s the rear Bridgestones causing the issue as they have worn “sawtooth” shape on the inner edge, still have about 5-6m, across the tyre but I’m thinking I’m going to have to replace these tyres with Goodyear’s as the drumming noise is bloody horrible.

Anyone else experienced this?

Apart from this the car has been perfect and a really good car.

I had sawtooth wear on the inner tread of the rear tyres of a mk5 Golf, and the noise they made was similar to worn wheel bearings. As the inner tread pattern became more ‘stepped’ over time, the noise got worse. I lived with it, as I part exchanged the car for a mk6 Golf not long after the noise started.

As you’ve said, Bridgestone tyres are hard wearing (agree, they don’t have very good grip in the cold or wet), so as they’re on the rear of your wife’s car, they’ll probably last ‘forever’, and the noise may get louder over time as they become more worn.

Never had the problem on my mk6 Golf though.

It looks like they have gone out of shape. Getting new Goodyear F1’s fitted on Wednesday. Will see if that makes a difference.

I honestly thought the rear bearings were on the way out as it was that noisy. New Uniroyal Tyres fixed it instantly. They are getting noisy again now but plenty of tread left on them.

s1monc said:

It looks like they have gone out of shape. Getting new Goodyear F1’s fitted on Wednesday. Will see if that makes a difference.

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On my last MK7 GTI I fitted Goodyear F1 tyres all round and the drumming noise I experienced on the original tyres was eliminated. I now have an issue on a new MK7.5 1.5 TSI EVO. So far I have changed the rears from Dunlop Sport Maxx to the F1's. The drumming noise is still present so I will switch them to the front tomorrow to see if I can detect any difference in the sound.

I have found that it is very difficult to determine from which axle the noise originates from. From my past experience with the GTI I think I will be fitting the F1's all round as they definitely gave me a far quieter ride. This is an added expense I could do without as the Dunlop tyres have only completed 2000 miles.

http://www.vwgolfmk7problems.uk/

s1monc said:

My wife bought her GTI brand new in April 2016 and it’s now covered 22k miles. It came with Bridgestone tyres from new which I’ve found hard wearing but not much grip in the wet or cold months. I had the fronts replaced at about 18k with Goodyear F1’s which seem better in every way as far as driving is concerned. We took it to Belgium the other day and for the first time I noticed a horrible drumming noise from the rear which got worse with speed. More noticeable on motorways and very smooth roads. Now I don’t drive the car that much as it’s my wife’s car and the noise doesn’t bother her that much!
Anyway after a bit of reading and checking the tyres I’m pretty certain it’s the rear Bridgestones causing the issue as they have worn “sawtooth” shape on the inner edge, still have about 5-6m, across the tyre but I’m thinking I’m going to have to replace these tyres with Goodyear’s as the drumming noise is bloody horrible.

Anyone else experienced this?

Apart from this the car has been perfect and a really good car.

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Yes I have had this issue now on 2 Mk 7's. On my last MK7 GTI I fitted Goodyear F1 tyres all round and the drumming noise I experienced on the original tyres was eliminated. I now have an issue on a new MK7.5 1.5 TSI EVO. So far I have changed the rears from Dunlop Sport Maxx to the F1's. The drumming noise is still present so I will switch them to the front tomorrow to see if I can detect any difference in the sound.

I have found that it is very difficult to determine from which axle the noise originates from. From my past experience with the GTI I think I will be fitting the F1's all round as they definitely gave me a far quieter ride. This is an added expense I could do without as the Dunlop tyres have only completed 2000 miles.

http://www.vwgolfmk7problems.uk/

fuelboss said:

Yes I have had this issue now on 2 Mk 7's. On my last MK7 GTI I fitted Goodyear F1 tyres all round and the drumming noise I experienced on the original tyres was eliminated. I now have an issue on a new MK7.5 1.5 TSI EVO. So far I have changed the rears from Dunlop Sport Maxx to the F1's. The drumming noise is still present so I will switch them to the front tomorrow to see if I can detect any difference in the sound.

I have found that it is very difficult to determine from which axle the noise originates from. From my past experience with the GTI I think I will be fitting the F1's all round as they definitely gave me a far quieter ride. This is an added expense I could do without as the Dunlop tyres have only completed 2000 miles.

http://www.vwgolfmk7problems.uk/

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Fuelboss, if the noise is still there after having new tyres fitted, it suggests the cause is something other than tyres. Worth swapping your wheels front to back though to see if the source of the noise moves, or is eliminated.

It’s not unknown for a new car to have defective wheel bearings. A forum member on another VW forum had a defective wheel bearing on their brand new Golf GTI - the bearing was replaced under warranty and the noise that was present before the bearing was replaced disappeared.

Even the wife said it was doing her head yesterday, must be bad! She made laugh as she’s using the car this morning and said she’ll just turn the music up!
Will report tomorrow after tyres fitted.

My GTI came with Bridgestone Potenzas fitted from factory. I had a humming noise after having Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3 fitted on the front of the car. I was convinced it was the old Bridgestones on the rear but after having them replaced, it continued to make the noise. I wasn't going to replace a nearly brand new set of tyres so I just put up with it...

Hopefully you find it is the Bridgestones rather than wasting money replacing tyres that had a fair amount of tread left!

Edit: mine was at a really specific speed. It was only audible between about 65 and 75mph - just unlucky that's motorway cruising speed.

Got the same noise problem

Just changed my Bridgestones for Michelin PS4's and they are noticeable quieter.

SRGTD said:

Fuelboss, if the noise is still there after having new tyres fitted, it suggests the cause is something other than tyres. Worth swapping your wheels front to back though to see if the source of the noise moves, or is eliminated.

It’s not unknown for a new car to have defective wheel bearings. A forum member on another VW forum had a defective wheel bearing on their brand new Golf GTI - the bearing was replaced under warranty and the noise that was present before the bearing was replaced disappeared.

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At present only the front tyres have been changed to Goodyear Eagle F1. The rears will be changed in the next couple of days. I agree it could be a bearing but based on my 4-years of driving the MK7 GTI I am almost 100% it is the Dunlop tyres that are the culprit. I will report back as soon as the rears have been changed.

The problem is that the MK7 disappointingly has poorer road noise insulation compared with the MK6 predecessor and that quite shocked me when I took delivery of my MK7 two years ago now.
I even went to the expense, probably unnecessarily, of dumping the factory Hankooks and having Michelin Primacy 3 fitted but really to no avail although they are nice tyres, wear well and are probably a bit quieter but who can really evaluate that.
After my accident in July last year when I was sideways swiped into the kerb but someone coming suddenly out of a minor side turning, I had the repairs done but three wheels were damaged and three tyres had deflated hitting the kerb.
When I eventually picked the repaired car up and incidentally looked superb and so was delighted but when I drove it away an unfamiliar noise was apparent to me.
After many weeks and tests this was eventually attributed to a damaged wheel bearing although that could not be confirmed by the usual tests for a worn or damaged bearing.
Anyway an engineer told me to tell the dealers to check for a brinelled or false brinelled bearing and indeed, when I was on the point of dumping the car they replaced a front wheel bearing assembly and Voila! the droning noise that was driving me round the bend had completely gone.
The moral is that it can be very difficult and despairing to find the source of some car noise when in motion.

Just had new rear Goodyear’s fitted today so running Goodyear’s all round now. The noise has completely gone now and general tyre noise much reduced. No more horrible drumming from the rear.

s1monc said:

Just had new rear Goodyear’s fitted today so running Goodyear’s all round now. The noise has completely gone now and general tyre noise much reduced. No more horrible drumming from the rear.

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That is good news. I am fitting the F1's to the rear tomorrow. Originally I fitted the F1's to the rear first but drumming noise remained. I then moved them to the front and drumming noise did not change. I had the same issue on the old GTI after I fitted F1's to the front. I then replaced the rears and all was quiet. I am hoping that now fitting the rears will now get rid of the noise altogether.

Tomorrow also sees the fitting of Koni Special Active shock absorbers to the rear as I do believe that the stock Sachs shock absorbers are making a slight popping, knocking noise just as they did on earlier versions of the MK7 and which was an issue for so many owners.

I seem to be very sensitive to noise thats for sure. I can hear people telling me to turn the volume up but that annoys me even more. I do think that for the price we pay for these vehicles there should be less intrusive cabin noise particularly on very long road trips.