Ear pain/Pressure help

[stolatl]

While waiting for the service appointment next week, I started to experiment a bit today. Here's what I did.

When the car is idle:

1. I started by taking all four bumpers off the hatch. With all windows and the hatch closed, I can feel the buffeting effect (probably also the boom effect, but they are compounded in this scenario with no way to distinguish). And my sound level meter measured on average 60 dBA and 85 dBC.

2. Then I put all four bumpers back and adjusted them properly using the envelope method. With countless tries (half a turn on each every time), I seemed to be able to fix the buffeting effect just by adjusting the bumpers. When I could no longer feel the buffeting effect at idle (the boom effect also seemed to be improved but was still there), sound level meter measured on average 60 dBA and 71 dBC.

When the car is moving:

3. Then I drove the car onto highway and put it in autopilot. Sound level meter now measured on average 65 dBA and 95 dBC. That's when the boom effect was the worst. When hitting road bumps, dBC went as high as 107.

From the test drive I did today, does it mean I no longer have a sound buffeting issue? And my focus should be the sound boom issue. If that's the case, which hack (the rigid cap hack from MY-Y and the vinyl tube hack from ilovecoffee) will be able to address the sound boom issue. Or maybe they are essentially the same issue and both methods need to be employed to fix. I'd really appreciate any comments or suggestions from the great minds here while I continue to try.

 

[Jovo]

Hey just chiming in here on my experience and what worked best for me. I have an Oct 2022 MYP - everything about the car has been near perfect with the exception of the buffeting and booming issue. Same problems as everyone above describes, especially when driving over bumps. This is even after constantly readjusting the hatch stops using the envelope method. Some minor improvements, but still causing ear pain especially over bumps.

However, I installed the vinyl tubing and that seemed to be the most effective fix for me. I recently drove through choppy streets downtown, and the buffeting I used to experience while driving is almost completely gone. The boominess when driving over bumps is still there, but it is noticeably reduced. In total this cost me $25 in 5/16 OD tubing and rubber-safe lubricant spray (I used rubber-safe armorall), and took 15mins to install. Imo the vinyl tubing is the cheapest/easiest and most effective fix, but it does increase my rear hatch panel gap by a few mm especially on the driver side - a small sacrifice that I’m willing to accept!

I can finally truly enjoy this car and bring my family along without feeling embarrassed or fearing that they would also feel ear pressure.

To further reduce the boominess over bumps, I’m going to try the rigid stops soon, and also install some butyl over the rear wheel wells as recommended by ilovecoffee. Will report back once installed. Shout out to guys like ilovecoffee and MY-Y for helping the rest of us on here!

 

[stolatl]

Hey just chiming in here on my experience and what worked best for me. I have an Oct 2022 MYP - everything about the car has been near perfect with the exception of the buffeting and booming issue. Same problems as everyone above describes, especially when driving over bumps. This is even after constantly readjusting the hatch stops using the envelope method. Some minor improvements, but still causing ear pain especially over bumps.

However, I installed the vinyl tubing and that seemed to be the most effective fix for me. I recently drove through choppy streets downtown, and the buffeting I used to experience while driving is almost completely gone. The boominess when driving over bumps is still there, but it is noticeably reduced. In total this cost me $25 in 5/16 OD tubing and rubber-safe lubricant spray (I used rubber-safe armorall), and took 15mins to install. Imo the vinyl tubing is the cheapest/easiest and most effective fix, but it does increase my rear hatch panel gap by a few mm especially on the driver side - a small sacrifice that I’m willing to accept!

I can finally truly enjoy this car and bring my family along without feeling embarrassed or fearing that they would also feel ear pressure.

To further reduce the boominess over bumps, I’m going to try the rigid stops soon, and also install some butyl over the rear wheel wells as recommended by ilovecoffee. Will report back once installed. Shout out to guys like ilovecoffee and MY-Y for helping the rest of us on here!

Thanks for sharing Jovo. Glad to hear that the vinyl tube solved most of your issues. I went ahead and bought the vinyl tubing and the PVC caps this evening. While I won't be trying them until after the service appointment as Noflash suggested. I will continue to experiment and report back. And I second your shoutout. Without the knowledge shared in this mega thread. I was seriously considering just trading it in for another Y (taking a loss of cause). Thanks everyone.

 

[Edtreo]

Hey just chiming in here on my experience and what worked best for me. I have an Oct 2022 MYP - everything about the car has been near perfect with the exception of the buffeting and booming issue. Same problems as everyone above describes, especially when driving over bumps. This is even after constantly readjusting the hatch stops using the envelope method. Some minor improvements, but still causing ear pain especially over bumps.

However, I installed the vinyl tubing and that seemed to be the most effective fix for me. I recently drove through choppy streets downtown, and the buffeting I used to experience while driving is almost completely gone. The boominess when driving over bumps is still there, but it is noticeably reduced. In total this cost me $25 in 5/16 OD tubing and rubber-safe lubricant spray (I used rubber-safe armorall), and took 15mins to install. Imo the vinyl tubing is the cheapest/easiest and most effective fix, but it does increase my rear hatch panel gap by a few mm especially on the driver side - a small sacrifice that I’m willing to accept!

I can finally truly enjoy this car and bring my family along without feeling embarrassed or fearing that they would also feel ear pressure.

To further reduce the boominess over bumps, I’m going to try the rigid stops soon, and also install some butyl over the rear wheel wells as recommended by ilovecoffee. Will report back once installed. Shout out to guys like ilovecoffee and MY-Y for helping the rest of us on here!

Do you have to cut through the seal to insert the tubing?

 

[Jovo]

Do you have to cut through the seal to insert the tubing?

There was no cutting needed for me. I just sprayed the hole with some rubber-safe armorall and it stretched to accommodate the tube. After installing the hole size returned to normal.

 

[GoldenBoy]

My lower bumpers did not ever hold an envelope no matter how far they were cranked out.
So instead I screwed them back in to stock position and put some self adhesive felt chair glides on the flat contact points for the lower bumpers to raise the landing point. For me this seems to cut the booming by about 2/3 all on its own.
What was unbearable before, is now gone on all but choppy packed snow/ice covered roads. And even that is reduced a ton.

I may print a set of those 3D sleeves to try and get the remaining 1/3, but I'm already happy for 5 minutes of effort.

 

[MY-Y]

I tried the same felt bumpers before solving the 41 Hz booming issue with my $2 rigid stop solution. The felt still has too much flex.

 

[Happy Hippo]

I tried the same felt bumpers before solving the 41 Hz booming issue with my $2 rigid stop solution. The felt still has too much flex.

can I ask what year you have? I noticed the ear pressure pain in the early 22 builds when I test drove and was not taken back. Since the 23's have come out and I test drove the others, no ear pressure. They must be making them better since I have sat and test drove several after sitting in the car and no pressure what so ever. The only issue I have is the gap panels which they included for me for free. UGH!

 

[MY-Y]

can I ask what year you have? I noticed the ear pressure pain in the early 22 builds when I test drove and was not taken back. Since the 23's have come out and I test drove the others, no ear pressure. They must be making them better since I have sat and test drove several after sitting in the car and no pressure what so ever. The only issue I have is the gap panels which they included for me for free. UGH!

2020.

 

[CyanideDN]

Does tire pressure make a huge difference with the road noise and/or booming sound? I have my MYP + 19" gemini OEM tires to stock 42 psi but was debating on going to either 40 or 44 psi. Any experience with going higher or lower PSI for road noise / booming?

 

[MyEarHurts]

Does tire pressure make a huge difference with the road noise and/or booming sound? I have my MYP + 19" gemini OEM tires to stock 42 psi but was debating on going to either 40 or 44 psi. Any experience with going higher or lower PSI for road noise / booming?

No, it only makes the ride minimally softer. The boominess needs the vinyl tubing and the end caps or 3d printed hatch stops. Even with those there will be slight boominess/pressure due to poor design of the car/hatch.

 

[GoldenBoy]

Stuffed in the polyethylene 8mm OD tubing today.
Oh wow, it took out the buffeting almost completely. At this level I don't care about the last 5%, the fact I have to strain to hear it demonstrates the level of improvement.

I had a little trouble getting the hatch to close all the way using the electric closure the very first time, but it has closed reliably every time since.

what I used : H.A.K. PNEUMATIC Air Hose Tubing O.D. 8 mm x I.D. 5.5 mm 10 Meter

 

[GoldenBoy]

can I ask what year you have? I noticed the ear pressure pain in the early 22 builds when I test drove and was not taken back. Since the 23's have come out and I test drove the others, no ear pressure. They must be making them better since I have sat and test drove several after sitting in the car and no pressure what so ever. The only issue I have is the gap panels which they included for me for free. UGH!

I've got a 2023. Getting this issue on a Model Y manufactured in October 22 was still a crap shoot as of that date.

 

[robd]

dB-A weighted is what you want. B is probably not good enough. C is not applicable at all in this case.

Given that your hatch stops seemed....somehow over extended to me despite your hard efforts at adjusting them, I recommend removing the tubing and making a service appointment with Tesla at this point complaining about this issue.

You're armed with enough information at this point to accurately describe the problem.

I think Tesla service will have to have a go at calibrating your hatch. And you can run your phone app on the test drive with them or around the shop first. And then immediately after the service to see if there was any change.

Next, because I presume you'll still "hear" it even after the service appointment. Check the folded paper against the hatch stops. Do they grip the paper? Hopefully they do. Use their adjustment as the guide if you decide to try inserting tubing again. Making only minor adjustments at a time until there is contact. Alternatively proceed right to rigid hatch stops and see how that performs with Tesla service calibrating your hatch.

 

[robd]

Pop your rear trim off, remove the subwoofer on the passenger side, lift up the grey foam wheel well insulation on both sides and put a layer or two of Butyl down under the OEM foam pad. Makes a BIG difference in road/tire noise.

Before doing this, noise was a key decision factor when picking tires. It's a much lower priority now.

Double check your middle stoppers are relatively even. Even my outer ones are have slight differences but nothing major. Maybe a few mm difference.

There should be a thud and pop with the latch. Don't worry about it. It may further settle in.

They should all make a folded paper unremovable.

@ilovecoffee I watched your video and just to clarify, the upper/outer stops are 2 piece? The lower part which contacts the hatch is stable and the adjustable part is the inner rubber which contacts the stopper on he car? Do I have that correct? So to adjust you screw only the inner rubber stopper?

 

[MY-Y]

It's the 2 piece. You unscrew both parts, and the plastic hex nut (outer piece by the hatch) is then screwed in to lock the stop in place. You can hold the inner round rubber piece while tightening the outer piece.

 

[MyEarHurts]

So I got a 3d printer and printed 7mm to 9mm stops and found that it still made the booming but with the pvc end caps that I had, they seemed to work better. Don't know if a 10mm stop is needed or not especially with the tubing? Either way I am happy with the end caps.

 

[voom500]

I added the 5/16" vinyl tubing inside of the rubber seal as mentioned before in this thread. It cost like $3 for a 10 foot section at the local hardware store. I fished a string trimmer line from the top middle all the way to the turn signals (similar to here). That's 2 slits on the top and one on each side. I wasn't able to fish it through. But what did help me was coating the vinyl tubing with 303 aerospace protectant. That helped with pushing through the tubing from the top slits down and around to the turn signals. I re-adusted the stoppers. I'll take a ride in it later and see if it helps at all.

Here's my update from a while ago: I really only feel the boomyness on one stretch of main road near home where the asphalt surface is choppy for a long distance. Otherwise I rarely ever notice it. I can say that most of the annoying boomyness has stopped with the ideas on this thread. So my vinyl tubing goes from the top middle to the area near the bottom of both turn signals. The bottom portion I have not fed it through. Does anyone here feel that I should try that route?
I also just added the felt chair glides to the bottom stoppers, too, just like someone else has just done above. That also seems to have helped overall.

 

[ohmman]

I'll note that driving over washboarded icy/snowy roads in Tahoe turns my Model Y into this:

 

[CyanideDN]

No, it only makes the ride minimally softer. The boominess needs the vinyl tubing and the end caps or 3d printed hatch stops. Even with those there will be slight boominess/pressure due to poor design of the car/hatch.

So I got my tires up to 44 psi and put my modern spare tire flat on the trunk for a road trip... surprisingly the cabin is so much quieter with this setup. No booming or significant road noise. I wonder if all that extra weight from the spare tire suppresses the noise generated by the trunk bottom before it echos throughout the car.