@LandToSea Are you planning to do track days on these tires? I wouldn't recommend that for anything in this category. I don't do any racetrack driving these days, but friends who still do say the PS4S absolutely can hold up in a pinch - better than the Potenza Sport would if I had to guess! - but like everything in this category they will overheat, get greasy, and require excessive pressure fiddling. At least for warm, dry days.
On a typical highway tire noise is 60-70 db. Perhaps 75 db at most on normal roads. How loud is your radio? How loud is wind noise at 85 mph? How loud are the truck tires next to you?
Certainly I'd be fatigued if I did all my driving with the radio on.
It isn’t just the radio though. It is tire noise from other cars and trucks. They are many many times louder than any tire you put on the Tesla.@mpgxsvcd I disagree that a 3db change in tire noise would be irrelevant in this car. Tire noise is transmitted very clearly into the cabin on this car, whereas wind noise is decently well suppressed (for 2021+). If you always have the radio on then tire noise is irrelevant, but I think based on @Zmetman62's concern we can guess he doesn't have the radio playing 100% of the time.
Also something I find interesting: Both @Zcd1 and I feel the M3P OEM foam-lined PZ4 are quiet (at least for a performance tire), while @canasion35 felt the Macan PZ4 were loud - and I presume those were NOT foam lined. Maybe the liner makes a real subjective difference.
To be clear I'm not suggesting @Zmetman62 restrict his tire buying to ones with the foam liner. I don't do that, and I don't normally recommend that to anyone. After all there are quiet tires that aren't foam lined, and the stories of the foam coming loose and causing balance issues definitely make me shy away from the foam as one more thing to go wrong.
@mpgxsvcd What's the crossover point on your car for when wind noise becomes (subjectively) louder than road/tire noise?
I honestly don’t have an issue with either tire or wind noise in my 2022 Model 3 Performance with 235/45/18 Michelin PS4S tires. I don’t typically drive that fast on public roads so that definitely keeps the noise down.@mpgxsvcd What's the crossover point on your car for when wind noise becomes (subjectively) louder than road/tire noise?
I tried paying extra attention to comparing specific noise sources in recent highway driving in my 2021 M3P (with double-paned front windows). Everything below assumes a decently smooth, quiet road surface (not necessarily fresh pavement, just average-ish). If it's really loud old asphalt or concrete or such, then of course road/tire noise will dominate at even higher speeds.
There is definitely a crossover point where wind noise becomes louder than road noise in my car, but it is somewhere north of 80mph, and I don't usually drive faster than that, at least not for long / only to pass quickly, due to traffic and/or ticket risk.
At 75mph, which is a typical highway cruising speed for me when traffic allows, wind noise is still quieter than road noise.
Now my current tires are a bit louder on the highway than the stock foam-lined Pirellis! And later (well after wheel+tire change) I replaced a few rubber bushings with solid metal bearings (top hats and FLCA), which in theory should transmit road noise a bit more clearly into the cabin. I didn't notice any drastic noise level difference after installing the suspension parts, but I would guess a controlled test with a microphone would pick up an increase.
However even when 100% stock down to the tires, road noise was still louder than wind noise up to at least 75mph, as best I recall, and I think up to 80+ mph as well. I'm sure my slightly louder tires have raised that crossover point where wind noise begins to dominate, but not drastically, I think.
Having a loud diesel truck or a gas car with an obnoxiously loud exhaust next to me will certainly dominate over my own car's noises, but I try not to cruise right next to such vehicles for long.
"How many people drive at 60mph?" Answer: Many when that's the pace of traffic!
Nobody really knows how extensive the changes are when somebody makes an OEM version of one of these tires for Tesla. We still don't even know what they did to the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S other than the obvious addition of acoustic foam. I suspect that both tires (Pirelli P Zero and Pilot Sport 4S) got recompounding with harder center sections to avoid exaggerated crown wear from high inflation pressures. There might also be changes to the carcass and sidewall to reduce rolling resistance. Given the difference between how easily the Tesla OEM PS4s chunks on the track compared to other versions of the tire I also suspect they went to a softer tread Compound on the outer areas of the tire to pick up lateral grip given the cars hefty 2 ton weight. So long story short it's not surprising that there would be a disparity between what people report with some of the generic P0s and the Tesla versions.
Same experience here on 245/45/18, I perceive them to be quieter than the stock MXM4 (worst tires I’ve ever driven on). I’d contend the 3db increase in noise is well worth the decrease in stopping distance.
It probably is worth about a DB or so of Road noise. But the other issue is tire compounding. The Tesla spec tires probably have compounding that is better for our cars. Nobody knows for sure but the speculation is somewhat harder compounding in the center of the tread to tolerate High inflation pressures without exaggerated crown wear, and then perhaps stickier softer Compound on the outer areas to help with cornering given the high vehicle weight. I have non Tesla spec 265/30 in the front of my car and I honestly can't tell the difference so who knows.
Good catch. Forgot to mention that. But it's about 3/10 of an inch which is still significant - 8.5 for the non Tesla versions of the 235/35 versus 8.8 inches for the Tesla spec version without any change in section width, all at about 9.5.
