they must have been sitting for a long time...... now I can't say for sure that's why cause I'm not sure if that's a symptom but I put my old tires on that have been sitting for a long time and the OLDER two of the set were really loud.

they are also the ones that say inside and outside, but are fuzion HRi's

 

if it says outside make sure its ont he outside,
that tread design is not directional.... just make sure inside is towrds teh middle of the car and outside is towards, well, the outside

 

Sometimes they will also say on the tire ( right side only ) or ( left side only ). Be sure to read the small print on the tire. Most directional tires are louder because of the aggresssive tread.

 

Yeah they are on the right way "outside" out and "inside" in

The part i question is maybe the 2 front need to be switched or the 2 rear?

Maybe 2 of them or all of them are now running the oposite direction they were on the last owners car? Does this make sence?

If the outside on the right front was on the left front wouldnt it be running the other way?

This is a crude drawing but maybe you can see the tread pattern if it was like this how it would be noisy one way and not so noisy the other way? Or maybe driving them a while on one side would sort of lay the tread over like this image and then if you put them on again the wrong way you are running them against the grain so to speak?

They do seem like an aggressive tread pattern though. A fairly hard compound also i think.

Another thing is these are 15X6 wheels and i put 205/60/15's on it so another thing i wonder about is they are being pinched in a little by the wheel maybe this is causing the tread to stand up different then on the last car?

I hope you can fallow what im saying its kinda bizarre

 

There are quite a few tires that are not directional but must be mounted with a certain side of the tire facing out and are marked as such. These tires can be rotated and used in any position/corner of the car as long as the outside is out when marked as such. Directional tires will have a very dsitinct arrow and will usually include the words such as "direction of rotation" or "rotation direction". Some directional tires (to confuse things) may also have an inside and outside as well.

 

^^ yeah when I switched to my old tires I saw I had them all pointing the wrong direction. [facepalm] that's what I get for not paying attention when I rotated them to try and keep from wearing so much with my negative camber...

I get what you're saying though bower...... I may have done that too. in fact the fuzions I put on, I put on the front since my other two are newer. I couldn't stand it. they made everything vibrate and it sucked to drive. put them back on the rear where they were when I bought the car, and I don't feel it anymore. [dunno]

 

Well my last set were on bent steel wheels. The rear were slightly bent (both) but not warn to the wear marks yet they made some vibration. The front were both good wheels but the tread was down to the wear marks and they made a loud noise.

These firehawks make a similar noise but its alot deeper growel more like a truck or a jeep tread kinda.

They are smooth and have very good traction, they have way better grip then the last set. The only complaint is the noise is all.

I just thought maybe there was somthing i was over looking that might quiet them down a little. I think its just the nature of this tire

 

well im reading alot of other reviews about noise also. I guess its just common on this tire.

I just wanted somthing to get me threw the winter. My last set is darn near bald. I want to get a different size wheel so i didnt want to spend alot on new tires then in 4 months just go and do it again with 17s

Thanks for everyones help, ill just have to turn the radio up a little more. [hihi]

 

some day I'll get two new (or four preferably lol) tires.... my old I purchased used and were great till I flat spotted them almost spinning out at the last autox event. haha.

 

yeah some do that though......

I guess I probably have bent wheels. haha.... roadforce balanced them and I had excessive run out on three of four wheels. good thing I have others for the summer

 

it also looks like the tread blocks are quite large, that could contribute to the noise, kind of like how a mud tire howls down the roads. it looks like a very open tread design

 

Those tires are not directional, summitracing.com says so. It must be true! Seriously though, Geezer is right like usual.

Also Mike, I have 4 Fuzion HRi's on my car with 2 older ones on the front with my "new" used Contour SVT wheels. They are louder than my buddies mud tires on his S-10. Wierd but true, they aren't even that blocky. Luckily I'm just tryin to make it thru the winter too.

 

These may just have been sitting awhile and a thin layer of the rubber has hardened, it just needs to wear off from driving.

the reason some tires are marked with inside and outside is the tread design and different compounds used in them. take a look at the tread sometime, youll notice the outside side usually is more blocky in tread design while the inside has tread designed for gripping.the sidewall on the outside side is usually also stiffer than the inner one for better cornering. thats basically why some tires have an outside and inside designation,

A true directional tire will have an arrow and the word rotation. the tread on this type of tire is usually the same on both sides and designed to grip in only one direction.

There are also high end performance tires that are both directional and have an inside/outside. not to worry, yours arent them. this type of tire is uber expensive and for extremely high end performance cars. This requires special molding so both a left and right tire can be produced.

 

The focus already seems like a loud car IMO. It doesnt really seem very isolated from the outside. This kind of tire might be better suited on a car that has better outside isolation.

I really like the grip and traction of the tires just the noise is a killer.

 

Few 26-2700 lb. cars are really well isolated from tire and wind noise. The Focus is sensitive to tire noise, with '08+ models being a bit quieter. I notice a substantial difference in cabin noise when I switch from my stock 215/45R17 Kumho Solus KH16s to my winter 195/60R15 Michelin X-Ice Xi2s, with the Michelins being the quieter tire despite a much snarfier tread pattern.

There's always Dynamat or similar products, if you can't stand the tire racket and don't mind the performance hit that adding sound damping materials bring as a consequence of their extra weight.

 

Few 26-2700 lb. cars are really well isolated from tire and wind noise. The Focus is sensitive to tire noise, with '08+ models being a bit quieter. I notice a substantial difference in cabin noise when I switch from my stock 215/45R17 Kumho Solus KH16s to my winter 195/60R15 Michelin X-Ice Xi2s, with the Michelins being the quieter tire despite a much snarfier tred pattern.

I would bet the softer compound tires would be quieter. I maybe wrong though.

When i went up to the tire place a few weeks ago and had the firestone put on my car i looked around at the different tires and i could feel the tread/compound when i went home and looked up the different models the ones that felt softer to me had a slightly lower milage warranty.

Being in a wheelchair for the past 20 years i got into a habbit of pushing on tires not just the ones on my chair but other cars, bikes, motorcycles and i developed a feel for the rubber.

These firehawks arnt old but they are a harder tire then what i had on it.

my friend has 18s on his 3000 gt and they recomended a tire to him that felt soft just like all the winter tires they had up there.

 

I had these tires on my car when I still had the stock 16's. They are not directional, as stated many times. They are however, a good tire. Grippy for an all season with good linear steering response. A nice handling tire. Halfway decent in snow. They are however, pretty noisy but I didn't really care about that. They also liked to flat spot sitting overnight. You would get a "thump thump thump" through the steering wheel for the first mile or so of driving in the morning and it would go away.

 

the firehawks are not that good, they tend to cup and make noise........

i work for firestone ive seen atleast a dozen cars come back because of it