Well...

I bought some new Cooper Discover AT3s. I have a crazy theory that tyre manufacturers have missed a trick with their noise suppression foam. Following several experiments, this is my theory: Car wheels are made of alloy, when there is no tyre mounted to the wheel and you tap the wheel with a spanner, it rings out like a symbol on a drum kit. Bolt this to the car hub, and the transference of this resonance now travels through the car. I understand the principal of foam in the tyre, but the foam does not contact the alloy wheel to suppress the resonance.

I have in the past inserted foam into the tyre to reduce road noise, while this in itself was successfull and reduced some DBs from the road noise in cabin, I decided to try the same on the wheels.

Click image to enlarge

I love fun experiments At the same time I wonder why nobody does that with foam on the wheel. Looking forward to longer term reports.

With regards to the rest of the sound deadening; in my opinion, it is the wrong car to do this to. It is so refined as it is anyone, except perhaps the roof when something falls on it. The gains will be minimal considering its existing low sound levels, double glazing, etc.

Now on my daughters VW Golf MK2 that made a huge difference as I had to strip the interior anyway. On a FFRR that seems a lot of trouble and hours for what is already very good compared to most cars on the road.

Well unless one drives a diesel But then only a V8SC is the solution

Charles89 wrote:

Well....

Open cell with a closed cell top would have been better. But I wanted to prove the theory first. My MK2 experiment will consist of using a duel layer foam. Once I am happy the formula works I will then have my spare set of wheels refurbished and install the foam that works best 👍

This is the first post in this section that's actually interested me.

Looking forward to further updates.

Dunc. The life you have is the only one you'll get; make the most of it.
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2012 4.4 TDV8 L322 Autobiography
2003 TD5 Oslo Blue D2 ES Premium Auto (with mods!)

Cool experiment  Kev

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it's an interesting question as to why manufacturer efforts in this area don't follow the path of damping the wheel itself.
My guess would be around the longevity of the adhesive under the centrifugal loads it will experience. Looking forward to hearing how that holds out in the slightly longer term.

I suppose the main issue could be if moisture got trapped between or taken up by the foam and it started to cause corrosion of the wheel from the inside and you would only find out when your wheel collapsed

If you fancy a read.

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/di...ise.38598/

Very interesting read. Its interesting how the bending cycle concern in that post is not an issue if you mount to the wheel itself, but rather the adhesives ability to maintain its effectiveness under centrifugal force, unlike mounting the foam to the rubber where the centrifugal forces keep the foam in place. I have tried both solutions and my next step is to actually take a much thicker layer of foam that is mounted to the rim as per my post, but is also thick enough to also make contact with the rubber of the inner part of the tire, this in theory should be the most efficient method of sound absorbency that could resonate from both wheel and tyre combined.

Last time I did this with my cooper discoverers there were no issues with the foam degrading after 18months of use, they did however come loose from the rubber after about 4 months and I had to have the tyre taken off and used a stronger contact adhesive and they were then fine for another 13 months before I changed the wheels and tyres to another brand.

Would love to hear an update on this experiment if there is one? I was also thinking about using plastic or lightweight metal banding to act as a fail safe for the foam. No one would want the contact adhesive to fail at the beginning of a long journey when getting tyre off and refitting/balancing would be a real pain! Andy

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If you’re look at dampening resonance ting of an alloy rim, then would you not be able to add something like a strong rubber band to the ring … which would hold to the inner face and not pull away under centrifugal force
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Which when I think about it, is called a tyre

That being said, if you have a tyre off the car and bounce it, there is a resonance to it, so i guess mass damping could help to deal with that. I’ve never really considered whether that resonance comes from the rim or the tyre ( i presumed the tyre to be honest ) V8 or else ...

I know this thread was a long time ago. Any update if this actually held up as the CF will be huge I would think

I have seen other testing where the foam was on the tyres but kept getting thrown off, where in fact you would think it would be pinned on due to CF SDV8

OP's not posted on here for over two years, maybe send him a PM, he should receive and email then... Pete

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yeah would be good to get his take on it

cheers SDV8