I drive a 2009 clubman s with stock suspension (non sport). I have about 34,000 on the car. I have 10k miles on Yokahama Avid Envigors in a 205 50 16. Recently I noticed I was experiencing an unusually harsh ride. Feels like I am feeling every imperfection in the road. Tires have been balanced on the car (in the air) and they appear fine. No imbalance, no bent wheel, no tread separation. In fact they show almost zero wear. This is not a suspension or wheel bearing issue. Changing tire pressure from 36 to 31 makes no difference. No steering wheel jiggle or vibration. It just feels like the tires suddenly became "hard." Tire experts at Radial Tire Co. have inspected and balanced and rebalanced and seem stumped. I swear the ride was smoother before. This is not "in my head." This is a noticeable downgrade in the driving experience. Any thoughts from fellow MINI owners?

 

A couple of thoughts come to mind, tires are usually made with different compounds. Once you wear down to a certain tread level, the rubber compound is a bit different than the top part. Usually, it's harder. However, 10K isn't very much so probably not the tire. I'm using Envigors on my car (and I think I've put on 10,000 miles on mine by now) and I still like them. In fact, I'm feeling grip has improved since they were new. Um....I am told the better the grip, the louder the tire as what you are hearing is the tire picking up rocks and dirt off the road surface.

Have you checked your wheel alignment? I usually have a wheel alignment done on my car every 2 or 3 years. Some people change suspension bushings after 3 years or so, but I don't think that is necessary.

Another issue might be the road surface. Especially in the USA. Asphalt is usually only really smooth and quiet for 2 or three years. Then the top layer of the road wears and I've found a lot of paving companies of late use a lot of gravel (rocks) to fill the road surface. So it may not be your car.

 

The only thing in my opinion that changes is the firmness of the rubber. When tires are brand new they are soft and pliable. As they age the rubber becomes less pliable due to heat cycles. A heat cycle is merely driving the tire, and then it cooling down when you park. Normally this is a very gradual change. This explains why when you still have some visible tread, but your water traction has been compromised.