For those of you who have driven both GXE and SE 3rd gens, is there a significant difference in road noise at highway speed between the two models?

I had a 93 GXE with over 200K miles that had a fairly quiet highway ride for that age. Now I have a 93 SE with under 100K, and it's a good bit louder on the highway. Is this typical, or do I maybe have an issue of some sort? It rides perfectly smooth through 85 mph (that's my fastest so far), it's just louder.

Perhaps not a very interesting thread, but I'm curious...

 

could be a difference in the type of tires on each vehicle

 

Would the SE's tighter suspension make a difference, too?

 

First and formost cause would be worn/crappy brand/performance tires being the cause..

Second would be all your rubber bushings on the suspension parts are starting to dry out-n-crack from age/use,etc..

 

that is my thinking as well

I had a 124k VE that rode like SHAT around town, the suspension was completely trashed (much like the rest of the car)
I had a 237k VE that rode beautifully. both were 92s
actually all my cars recently have been that age...

 

i second that. I ran 2/3 tread Falken ZIEX 502s up front for 6 months, with crapped-out LCA bushings. I COULD NOT hear my radio above 60mph. even with my tire rotation and softer quieter tires on front now, it's still pretty hard to hear the radio above 65-70mph.

http://forums.maxima.org/showpost.ph...7&postcount=46 click the 'watch it here' link and just listen how the road noise drowns out the engine in 2nd gear. video was with the Falkens up front.

 

I think I may be even more confused now:

93 GXE: 231K, cheapo tires; tired, creaky shocks: nice and quiet highway ride.

93 SE: 66K, older tires, but good brands/good tread; tight, silent shocks; still a decently quiet ride (I can hear the radio easily), but noticeably louder than the GXE.

It's not so loud that it's really annoying, but it's definitely more than I was used to with my GXE. So can shocks that seem to be riding really well have worn out bushings that makes for a loud ride?

 

Even so called "good brand tires" can have more road noise than other brands...For instance,my kuhmo 711's[mid grade performance tire] have quite high road noise,but that is to be expected from a directional performance tire...but I would not trade their road griping ability for a quieter ride though..


What brand tire are you riding on?

 

I just went outside to check. Quite an assortment, it turns out.

Right side: Bridgestone Potenza, 92H
Left front: Monarch Ultratrack, 92S
Left back: "premium" no name on it, 92S

 

There's yur trouble...

 

Is the trouble the "premium" tire, or the assortment in general?

Since they have good tread I'd like to run them for a while. It won't do any damage to struts/alignment, etc, will it?

 

What you need to do first is: think about what you'd rather have and are willing to deal with. If you like to push the car around corners and enjoy doing that sort of thing you might have to deal with a little more road noise. Or you can go with some comfort tires and have less cornering ability, grip. Choices, choices... edit: I'd also suggest getting a set of matching tires all the way around when you get the chance as well, My Nova had a bunch of different tires on it at one point and was quite a bit more noisy untill I got new tires.

 

The assortment of different brands is likely the cause of the road noise,i would just run them until dead,then replace them with all around same brand tires...

It wont hurt any part of your car to ride them out..

 

Great. As always, thank you all for your wisdom. This site alone makes me like my maxima even more.

 

if you can't afford to run a full set of matching tires.
at the very least match pairs to the axle.

 

Good advice brian,i've had to do this a few times in the past.

 

Here's an idea... swap the assorted tires onto the GXE and the cheapo tires onto the SE and see if theres a difference.

NOTE: I just noticed the word "HAD" but got too lazy to delete the above post, if you're a mod be my guest and delete.

 

I'm doing it now
on 2 of 3 cars
3rd car will have the same soon.
if it ever gets driveable

 

Well, I was the one who bought the cheap tires on the GXE, but I got the SE with all three different brands already on it. I will definitely plan on getting all the same brand once they wear out, but for now I would much rather run through these.

I like having tires on that you're trying to wear out-it's a good situation.

And thanks for the tip on the axles-I hadn't thought of that.