[d2005]

I've been looking into getting an odyssey for a few weeks now. Many people who I have spoken to report that it has alot of road noise. One of my co-workers basically said that the stripping around the doors in his EX is not the best. In fact, he claims that he can see daylight. This all adds up and when he is on road trips he claims that his children in the back cannot even hear him when he is screaming at them.

He actually took us out to lunch in his van to compare to his truck.

His truck has multiple(or just thick) firewalls, the door frame overlaps the vehicle frame, and the stripping is quite thick. All of these options help reduce noise in the cabin. It's odd that a full sized extended cab pickup truck (with a V8) is quieter than his V6 miniman..

Are the touring models quieter drives than the EX models? You would hope that the extra gear would keep it quieter on the highway. The thicker glass should help to. I can't seem to find anything on reducing noise around the doors in design or stripping. And you would think that the larger wheels would actually increase engine noise. Not to mention, I put "quieter" tires on my accord and overtime they get louder and louder. This is expected, but it won't help if the vehicle is already loud.

Thanks for the help! Any info is welcome.

 

[PhilZJ]

For what it's worth, I don't think the door trim is different on elites. Only acoustic windshield. Also the 6th gear does reduce rpm but I doubt it's enough to make a difference. On the highway most of the noise I hear is road noise or wind sheer coming from he top left A pillard.
The 18 inch wheel and tire combo isn't big enough to add road noise that I noticed. Especially compared with a V8 Audi Q7.

Also at 75-80 mph my wife doesn't have trouble hearing me in the 2nd row.

I think our touring elite is reasonably quiet, but if I had an option or package I could add to make it even quieter, I would have most likely gotten it.

 

[blkody11]

Like to contribute to your thread. I'm new to the van scene. I'm the average joe when it comes to van own-age. People argue about "road noise" and all but I have no reason to complain and I consider my EX very quiet compared to a mid size car I've been driving for 20 years or so. I guess I just gotton deaf or something but this van is super quiet to me.

Maybe later on the years I'll start to realize what you guys are complaining about. But for right now I guess it hasn't sunk in.

 

[DVIII]

I went from a 2003 Honda Accord to the 2011 Touring Ody, no complaints whatsoever on road noise.

windows down causes a lot of noise and wind, windows up is smooth and quiet.

 

[baobay]

I think my TE is pretty quiet. Just had a long trip of mostly highway driving with no issues at all. Pretty quiet and comfortable.

 

[vthehonda]

It isn't the quietest vehicle I have ever been in to but definitely not the noisiest either. You will get some road noise at high speeds but nothing what your coworker described. Over all we are very happy with our buy.
BTW: I drive EX-L.

 

[BigBoat]

Touring Vs. the other trims, the main difference is the acoustic windshield. IIRC there is one member who took a dB meter during test drives and did not notice a major difference between the 2.

But regardless, the best bet is for you to test drive (and test ride) both, cabin noise gets kind of subjective I'm afraid (roads in your area, what you are driving today, own comfort levels, etc.)

 

[hxpz1d1]

Tires could be contribute to the road noise inside cabin. I don't know about the other models, but My Touring wearing Mich's, and it consistently quiet on most of the road(not all).

 

[Cntrtwnltd]

This has been an ongoing discussion for years, and one thing I have noticed is that while it is very subjective, it has a lot to do with the road surface. The 3rd gen was definitly a lot noiser on concrete roads. I remember someone saying that certain regions of the country tend to have concrete roads more than others. I have not done a thorough enough observation to say either way, but the general consensus of that discussion was that this applied more to the southern states. I can say that around here in Pennsylvania, most highways are blacktop, but whenever you go over a concrete overpass, you can tell a big difference. When I go to New York, I drive up the Palisades Parkway that originally was concrete, but is currently being repaved with blacktop. So it has a lot of sections of each, and is easy to compare. My grandfather can barely hear me when he is sitting in the front seat. He is 99 years old, so this might be the extreme, but everyone else in the car agreed it was very loud, and he could hear fine when driving on the blacktop.

 

[Gstom1]

I've been on several road trips and the road noise has not been overly pronounced.

However, when driving through Michigan I did notice that the road surface has a significant effect on road noise with concrete being much louder than asphalt.

:rollingeyes:

 

[PhilZJ]

Touring Vs. the other trims, the main difference is the acoustic windshield. IIRC there is one member who took a dB meter during test drives and did not notice a major difference between the 2.

But regardless, the best bet is for you to test drive (and test ride) both, cabin noise gets kind of subjective I'm afraid (roads in your area, what you are driving today, own comfort levels, etc.)

I think that was Shazzam.
Like you said, their readout was the same, but I didn't get a reply when asked what sort of device they used. Because if they used the DB meter app on the iphone, well the iPhone mic has a pretty narrow audio range, and is fairly directional. (not trying to say it's a worthless test, just that I don't think it reflects 100% reality)
From another thread, I think the subjective results were that models with accoustic windshields had less wind noise resulting in a seemingly quieter cabin.

To me, our TE model isn't any louder than my wife's old accord, but it is much quieter at highway speeds than the 2010 Touring we test drove. Though, I'm inclined to think the 2010 touring we drove was some anomaly, because past 55mph the wind noise increased significantly and at 70mph I had to be pretty loud so the wife could hear me in the 2nd row seats, honestly, it was so bad it was an immediate dealbreaker. I would rather deal with the Pilot's ugly exterior, extremly ugly interior, worse 3rd row, etc etc than owning that 2010 odyssey touring.

 

[Shazzam]

Yes, it was me who tested a few models. I found no difference. While I did used an iPhone db meter app, I didn't see any reading difference between the models and couldn't detect any difference with my ear. I used the db meter to confirm my suspicion. Believe me, if I had found the Touring to be quieter I would have bought it.

I think the road noise is tranmitted through the control arms through to the unibody and the to the interior. There is also noise from the tires though the wheel wells getting inside, but I doubt Dynamat or other sound deadening would make a big difference and the weight of those products applied over the full underbody including wheel wells and bottom pan would be labour intensive and costly, not to mention a fuel economy penalizer.

 

[jdskycaster]

For what it is worth each generation has improved in this regard. The 02' was by far the noisiest vehicle we have ever owned, the 06' was better and now the 11' is better yet but not Mercedes or Lexus sedan quiet. So I would agree that it really depends on what vehicle you are coming from and what you are accustomed to.

 

[avesraggiana]

For what it is worth each generation has improved in this regard. The 02' was by far the noisiest vehicle we have ever owned, the 06' was better and now the 11' is better yet but not Mercedes or Lexus sedan quiet. So I would agree that it really depends on what vehicle you are coming from and what you are accustomed to.

Thank you for this. This is an old reply for a relatively old thread. My current 2002 EX booms and roars with road noise like no other vehicle I've ever driven. Matters improve dramatically when driving on blacktop, which we don't have a lot of in Southern California.

I'm on the verge of buying a 2016 Touring Elite, and I really have been wondering if there had been any improvement in ambient noise levels at highway speeds.

 

[Neo Fender]

Thank you for this. This is an old reply for a relatively old thread. My current 2002 EX booms and roars with road noise like no other vehicle I've ever driven. Matters improve dramatically when driving on blacktop, which we don't have a lot of in Southern California.

I'm on the verge of buying a 2016 Touring Elite, and I really have been wondering if there had been any improvement in ambient noise levels at highway speeds.

Heavy rubber floormats, et al may offer subtle improvements but all other factors being equal, tires will have the largest impact on noise. I recently drove a new 2016 EX-L with OEM Continental tires that made significantly more noise than my 2015 EX with OEM Michelin Primacys.

 

[avesraggiana]

Heavy rubber floormats, et al may offer subtle improvements but all other factors being equal, tires will have the largest impact on noise. I recently drove a new 2016 EX-L with OEM Continental tires that made significantly more noise than my 2015 EX with OEM Michelin Primacys.

Good to know. My 2002 Odyssey rides on Yokohama 580s which were quiet, when they were brand new, but have gotten quite noisy again about a year later.

I've made a note of the Michelin Primacys. Thank you.