Tires: Tire Noise, michelin primacy, cv joints

Question
QUESTION: I just replaced the original tires (after driving 65,000 miles) on my 2003 Acura 2.3TL with the Michelin Primacy tires at the Discount Tires.  Within a few hundred miles of driving, I discovered that with these new tires, the car is much more noisier with a distinct humming sound.  The people at the Discount Tires say - this noise may be due to an alignment issue, brake problem, wheel bearing problem, etc.  My point is - why these problems didn't cause noise with the original tires?  

Your expert opinion?

ANSWER: Nitin,

Tire noise comes from three areas - the tires, the road surface, and the interaction between the tires and the road surface.

Hopefully, you haven't changed the route you are driving.  If you have, then the change could be 100% the road surface.

Also hopefully, the pavement on the roads hasn't changed either.  Different road surfaces have different noise characteristics.

We know you changed tires, but didn't notice a change in noise level until several hundred miles later.  That only makes sense if either you've changed routes (or the pavement changed) or something other than the tires changed - like CV joints, wheel bearings, etc.

So I'm going to ask the same question you asked, but in a slightly different way - Why didn't the tires cause the noise right after you changed them instead of several hundred miles later?

I'm thinking the noise is not directly related to the tires, but to some other change.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the quick response.

Sorry, I misguided you.  I didn't mean to say that the noise level increased after few hundred miles of driving.  My wife started complaining about the excessive noise right after the tires were changed.  However, I waited until after driving a few hundred miles to take the car back to Discount Tires, hoping that the noise would be reduced.

By the way, the route or the pavement I drive on has not changed.

Do you think the tires might be defective?  Discount tires has offered to replace them at no cost.

Thanks again for your expert opinion.

Nitin Shah

Answer
Nitin,

No, the tires are not defective.  However, it may be the characteristic of the tires.  But what usually comes along with increased noise is increased wet and snow traction.

But if Discount offered to replace them, this might be a good way to see if perhaps there is problem with the vehicle.