did you lookup the reviews of the tires that are on the car? road noise is important VS high MPG as well as rim size from what i understand...you could play with the PSI a bit?

 

I have Michelin Primary Tour A/S tires. Only 6200 mi on vehicle

 

The Michelin Primacy Tour tires are trash.

My test drive covered a freshly paved roadway and I was impressed with the quiet at the time.
Driving my normal commute morning after purchase, there were times I literally couldn’t hear myself think the road noise/roar from the tires was SO LOUD. These tires are also extremely hard and thump/crash loudly over every expansion joint, pit, pebble, and ripple in the road.
Filed a complaint with Michelin, but inspection showed no defects so if I want to replace am on my own dime. Would rather not spend the money so soon, but will be replacing these tires ASAP.
Have run Michelin tires almost exclusively on all vehicles, and this is the first set I’ve been very disappointed. Have a set of Pilot Sport 4S on my Jag and they are phenomena, quiet on all but the roughest of pavement, excellent grip, soak up bumps extremely well, etc. If I didn’t know better, I’d think they are the “Grand Touring” tire and the Primacy Tours on the XT6 were the sport/high performance tire.

 

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Based on my research and the reviews I've read, I'm moving to Michelin CrossClimate2s. I've read they're firm but I like that.

 

I went with the Michelin Defenders which has 10.5 tread depth s compared to 8.5. The ride is great and I'll guarantee I will get better milage from these than from the originals.

 

I am looking at the crosscontact LX25s to go on later this year, had them on my '19 Impala and they were quiet and did great in the 3-4" of snow my car ever saw.

 

I have LX20's on our SRX and they've been a great tire as expected.

 

Has Cadillac fixed the road noise problem in the 2024 ST6? My 2023 is good on blacktop, horrendous on concrete at at Interstate speeds. It is so load you can't listen to the radio unless you slow way down.. If they fixed the noise in the 2024 i would trade my in even though it only has 10,000 miles on it.

What has Cadillac told others about this problem? They should put out a service bulletin if there customer service dept was up to par.

 

Did you ever consider changing tires - several posts on this. Original tires (type and size) are specified upon assembly line installation but for several reasons, may not be satisfactory under your driving conditions. A new set of tires is considerably less cost than giving away a nearly new car and getting into a new cash pot.

For your upper western Minnesota area I'd look through the A/S tire reviews in www.tirerack.com. You DO NOT want any sort of performance summer tires (soft rubber) in your area.

 

I am disappointed in Cadillac. I am obviously not the first person to complain about how terrible the noise is on concrete highways. You can't even hear the radio and the noise is constant not just when you hit road joints or bumps. It is like traveling fulltime on a bridge. Other people have mentioned changing tires but wouldn't you think Cadillac would have did this. I can't see where they have made any changes to fix this. I hate to throw away expensive tires without anything from Cadillac that new tires will work. I don't think it will.

 

Not many concrete roads in these here parts but every vehicle I have ever had sounds awful on concrete (there are some sections on the highway between my city and Montreal). I feel your pain. But it's 100% the tires. You have to look for tires that provide lower noise feedback on concrete if those surfaces are significant where you live.

 

I don’t have any concrete on my daily commute but there is one stretch of asphalt that reminds me of concrete, and even at slower speed, as I mentioned in the thread about CrossClimate2s, it is incredibly LOUD inside the XT6.
Another short stretch is, again, asphalt but has expansion joints like concrete and the Primacy’s slap over those loudly. At least you don’t “feel” them but they’re SO LOUD.
GM/Cadillac has offered no guidance and the service department performed the required inspection by Michelin and the tires checked out so it’s on me if I want to replace them.
Really frustrating. If not for the horrible road roar from the tires, I MIGHT like the XT6 but as it is, if anyone asks I tell them how much I hate it and to run, not walk, away from the notion of buying one.

 

Has anyone considered putting sound absorbing material in the wheel wells? I understand it must be THICK to absorb the low frequency road rise. Bo Concord, NC

 

I did briefly look into sound proofing materials and was told it would cost up to 10,000 to do it right. This is Cadillac's problem, they should have built this into a high end vehicle. This is my first and last Cadillac unless they really improve the quality. I will probably keep it through this winter and then dump it.

 

The car doesn't make the road noise but the tires sure do. Every tire is a compromise of a whole host of characteristics - tread life, handling, cold weather performance, quiet and comfort. Soft rubber is great for quiet and cold weather but awful for tread life. Larger wheels are great for handling and looks but awful for road noise and ride. The OEM Michelin Primacy Tours on the XT6 are a compromise tire that balances handling and comfort/quiet - it excels at neither but is okay at both. Obviously, they're awful on concrete.

The challenge with these heavy crossovers is that the tires need to have a load rating that pretty much guarantees a stiffer sidewall. If you add a stiffer rubber compound to extend tread life and bigger wheels (which means shorter sidewalls), there's not much capacity in the tire itself to absorb vibrations. Adding even more sound deadening to the car is worse and more expensive than dealing with the tires themselves. It's best to get a tire/wheel combination that reduces road noise.

I dumped my OEM tires for Michelin CrossClimate 2s and have been extremely happy with them - they are phenomenal in the rain and they are very quiet. I do not encounter many concrete roads here in Canada.

Unless I hated a vehicle, I wouldn't dump it because of the tires - it's way cheaper to replace tires.

 

My 2021 is also very noisy, I think most of the road noise is coming thru the pee-poor floor and door insulation installed on the assembly line. Changing up tires to better rated highway tire can help. I'm thinking of replacing my stock Gm 20" rims with stock Gm 18" . This would provide more tire rubber on the wheel and hopefully absorb road imperfections a tad better.

 

It's not a Cadillac issue, as my wife and I have a 2020 Premium Luxury AWD XT5 and it's the same thing, and our 2022 Ford F150 Lariat is quieter. Road noise is almost always worse on concrete than on asphalt, I'll explain below. Road noise is a function of 3 things -- tire tread, road construction, and vehicle insulation (and possibly wind noise in some instances). Re tire tread, most highway or all season tires are comparable in road noise. It's only the off-road tires with the large lugs that make a lot of road noise, which is obvious when a jeep or truck with off-road tires goes by. So tire tread is not your issue. Vehicle insulation is considered quite good in the Cadillacs, probably expecially in the premium luxury models although I doubt there's any extra for the more expensive models. Road construction is highly variable. Older concrete roads are the worst, with the seams in them and a smooth surface that really produces the most noise. Newer concrete roads that are paved seamlessly don't have the bumps, and are "grooved" by diamond grinding (this reduces noise significantly) and are about as quiet as any paved surface. I'm mostly familiar with FL and GA, and there are many newer paved concrete highways in GA that are a pleasure to drive on. Re asphalt, there's a big difference between the older and newer "Superpave" road surfaces. The older surfaces are solid and produce significant noise, but not as much as older concrete. The newer superpave roads have structural layers of ashalt underneath that are impermeable (water runs off of them) but the surface layer is constructed of permeable asphalt (usually a single size 3/8" x 1/4" with no fines to fill in the gaps). This surface layer is essentially like riding on an acoustic panel because of the voids and is very quiet. In addition, it provides a SAFER surface in terms of resistance to hydroplaning or skidding during wet weather. The surface does get wet when it rains, but nearly all of the rain passes through down to the structural/impermeable layers and runs off to the side of the road. This also reduces "splatter" or the water splashing up off of tractor trailer tires, again making travel safer. You'll see a road safer that looks wet with road shoulders that are shiny because that's where all the water goes. Superpave asphalt is the safest, quietest roadway made and in some places where it's replacing old asphalt, you can tell the difference between driving on the older and newer surface. You'll likely have to turn your radio up or down depending on which surface you're driving on. My wife has a soft voice and I struggle to have a conversation with her in our Cadillac, but not in our Ford. I downloaded a docimeter app and it seems accurate but is pretty worthless for this type of evaluation because 80 db is 10 times as loud as 70 db (eponential or logarithmic scale), and it's hard to nail down the difference when you're driving the the guage is fluctuating. The Ford did appear to be 1 or 2 db quieter on average and considering 10 db is 10 times as much, that's significant. If you're around new road construction where they're milling/grinding/removing the old asphalt and putting new asphalt down, you might see increased noise on the new asphalt because sometimes they'll route you onto the new structural layers which don't absorb sound, but you can sometimes find areas where you can switch lanes between finished superpave surfaces and structural layers and you'll really notice the difference. I think some automakers are trying to come out with a noise cancelling technology for vehicles -- similar to what you get in headsets, but for the entire interior -- to help resolve some of these issues. We like our Cadillac, especially since it's powered by the 3.6 liter naturally aspirated engine that burns regular fuel, but we did have the same or similar concerns as you regarding road noise. Hope this helps.

 

I have a 2024 XT6 Sport AWD with 2,600 miles on it and it is very noisy going down the freeway. I have the stock Michelin tires that came with the car. I took it to the dealer and they could not find anything wrong on a ride along. The mechanic stated that the car sounded like all the others. Is Cadillac not insulating the cars like they used to?
My F150 is quieter than this Cadillac.

 

I have a 2024 XT6 Sport AWD with 2,600 miles on it and it is very noisy going down the freeway. I have the stock Michelin tires that came with the car. I took it to the dealer and they could not find anything wrong on a ride along. The mechanic stated that the car sounded like all the others. Is Cadillac not insulating the cars like they used to?
My F150 is quieter than this Cadillac.

Sorry to hear that,but I'll agree withy you, I think GM short changed my Cadillac XT6 with sound deadening material also. My 2016 Chevy G30 van is much quiter on the road. I'm serious about it when I compare the two.It maybe lack of insulation but I also think it's because both our Caddies have unibody construction not a full frame like my Chevy van or your F-150.. Makes a big difference.

 

My parents' 2024 XT6 (Premium Luxury, platinum package, 20 inch wheels) is very quiet on the stock Goodyears. Sounds like something is amiss.

 

I expalined in an earlier comment about how road construction and asphalt vs. concrete affects cabin noise levels. Stand on a sidewalk along a 50 mph street and see if you notice any difference in tire noise between all the cars, SUVs, pickup trucks, or other vehicles going by at 50 mph. You really don't unless it's an off-road vehicle with large lugs on the off-. tires. IT'S NOT THE TIRES! Everyone knows their vehicle is quieter on some surfaces than others ... IT'S THE ROAD SURFACE! Change tires all you want, but you won't get a noticeable effect. All modern highway tires have small tread sections to minimize noise levels. Drive on different road surfaces and you'll understand -- hopefully -- that it's the road surface and not the tires. Is there some tiny difference in tire noise between different brands or styles? Yes, but it's so minimal as to not be noticeable. IT'S NOT THE TIRES!

 

Yes, Dan, it IS the tires. Differences in tread patterns can have a great difference in ambient noise created by the tires. It's just that simple. Replacing the stock Michelin tires with a different tire will greatly reduce the ambient noise within the vehicle.

 

As I'm closing in on tire changing season, I'm going to take some decibel readings on a variety of local roads, recording my speed and locations and will repeat that in a few weeks once I have the winter tires off and the Cross-Climate 2s back on the vehicle.

It is possible that GM scrimped on sound-deadening material in the XT6 but - based on photos alone - the fender liner replacement parts for the XT6 do appear to have more sound deadening than the same part for a Traverse. So if the road noise is bad in the XT6, it must be awful in the Traverse.

Something that's important to note is that only the 14 speaker sound system (in Platinum trim) has active sound management that would mitigate road and powertrain noise - the base 8 speaker Bose system does not have this feature.

My 2020 Sport is not Platinum and I ride on 20s (understanding that larger rims means shorter sidewalls and more road noise).

I don't find the road noise inside my XT6 to be bad but I will try a few runs and share decibel readings here. According to what I've read, 80 kph (~50 mph) on a smooth road should produce under 70 db measured inside the cabin. We'll see what I can record with my decibel meter (not a phone app but an actual meter).

 

As I'm closing in on tire changing season, I'm going to take some decibel readings on a variety of local roads, recording my speed and locations and will repeat that in a few weeks once I have the winter tires off and the Cross-Climate 2s back on the vehicle.

It is possible that GM scrimped on sound-deadening material in the XT6 but - based on photos alone - the fender liner replacement parts for the XT6 do appear to have more sound deadening than the same part for a Traverse. So if the road noise is bad in the XT6, it must be awful in the Traverse.

Something that's important to note is that only the 14 speaker sound system (in Platinum trim) has active sound management that would mitigate road and powertrain noise - the base 8 speaker Bose system does not have this feature.

My 2020 Sport is not Platinum and I ride on 20s (understanding that larger rims means shorter sidewalls and more road noise).

I don't find the road noise inside my XT6 to be bad but I will try a few runs and share decibel readings here. According to what I've read, 80 kph (~50 mph) on a smooth road should produce under 70 db measured inside the cabin. We'll see what I can record with my decibel meter (not a phone app but an actual meter).

Highway noises are somewhat acceptable most of the road noise seems to be carried from the tires thru the floor and some to the the doors. I have the stock 20" rims and michelin tires . Traveling over general road imperfections are the worst for noise penatration into the cabin. The Traverses are roughly the same In noise levels as my XT6. Smaller rim sizes(16"-17") mounted with the current circumference tire sizes would help greatly In the less noise department . Unfortunately car manufacturers push nothing but low profile tires for looks instead of the noise abatement properties of more rubber tire on the sidewall with smaller rims that worked very well in the good "ole days". Also the unibody platform design which the car is part of doesn't help . Thanks for listening.

 

I took some initial sound readings today. On decent asphalt surface roads and with the cruise control set at 75 mph, I got readings of 64-65 db at ear level (so, roughly 13 sones). The radio was off but I had neglected to not turn off the HVAC/fan. Once I dropped the speed to 50 mph, the readings dropped to around 59 db (just under 9 sones).

Those readings are considered European luxury car levels of quiet. Keep in mind that I'm riding on Michelin X-Ice Snow tires and 235s. Since the 21s on the XT6 are 265s, those tires will produce more road noise than 235s due to the larger contact patches but summer and all season tires usually have more quiet tread patterns. I'll take more readings later today and then when I put on the CrossClimate 2s when spring fully arrives up here.

FWIW, I use a $50 db meter and while far from professional grade, its readings seems to be pretty accurate when I use it in other applications.

Here are some numbers that Car & Driver got when they tested a bunch of luxury cars five years ago: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a28006624/bmw-x7-quiet-interior-test/

 

Late yesterday, I had the car out at 40 mph and 50 mph on very good asphalt surfaces. Again, with my winter tires and I was consistently getting readings in the low to mid 50 db range. When I encountered surface irregularities, the readings jumped as much as 10 db - meaning twice as loud. Operating the HVAC system seemed to push sound readings up by around 10% but it's white noise.