Easy and effective low frequency fix

[Noflash]

Two theories.

1. Your boom is not coming from the hatch. My vehicle was missing standard insulation. Adding it helped a lot, more than anything I've done to the hatch so far. But I still get plenty of boom on textured pavement. I will be trying the tube insertion and rigid hatch stops over the next few days. If I still have boom on textured pavement then I will be in the same boat as you with my hatch.

2. You are driving over a type of textured pavement that others (except maybe me) here have not encountered. Unlikely, yes, but I want to put it out there because you could fool me into thinking I have a quiet car for quite a while now if you know which roads to avoid. Roads in my neighborhood for example are fine. But then I head out to some groovy textured pavement and the boom is amazing.

1. I actually bought the $130 Amazon special of insulation you had success with before I read about the rigid stops and tubing. I thought those would be easier, quicker fixes, so I tried them first. Butyl and foam are for next weekend.
2. Most roads in my area are fine. The road in my neighborhood and the "boulevard" to my kids' school is asphalt that has been "repaired" with stripes of oil every year. I drive these roads every day and they are "tha-bump", "tha-bump", "tha-bump" that I interpret as the booming. The road I take to work was repaved last year (asphalt) and they are fine.

After inserting tube, I actually backed off the rigid stops a little so that the hatch rests on the gasket and not on the stops. If the catch holds the hatch so tight that it pops when opening, it unlikely that the hatch is moving anymore. As Pecunia mentioned, the problem is probably lack of insulation.

I did the 5/16" tube first. The hatch would not close on it's own. I forced it to close and the gap was huge. Upon reopening the hatch popped so loud I dared not close again. I removed the tube. I then bought 1/4" and 3/16". I figured the 3/16" would be easy to install, so I tried that first. The gap was better, but it still popped upon opening so I knew there was rigid seal contact. Driving still had the booming. Then I made the rigid stops, sanding off a millimeter at a time until it fit perfectly. Everything is screwed in tightly - rubber stop and plastic nut. Then on the road to school, I thought the booming was louder than ever. I may have just been frustrated and had my sensors on high though. The rigid stops are off for now. I'll try the felt pads soon.

Of course there may just be a glitch in the matrix or I am crazy (or getting there ).

Thanks for the comments everyone.

 

[Bp25]

Some amount of road noise will always be transmitted in this car, I have accepted that. The buffeting and low frequency resonance issues can be solved but this will never be Rolls Royce quiet, and lack of engine noise makes every other noise more noticeable.

 

[Johnny Vector]

1. I actually bought the $130 Amazon special of insulation you had success with before I read about the rigid stops and tubing. I thought those would be easier, quicker fixes, so I tried them first. Butyl and foam are for next weekend.
2. Most roads in my area are fine. The road in my neighborhood and the "boulevard" to my kids' school is asphalt that has been "repaired" with stripes of oil every year. I drive these roads every day and they are "tha-bump", "tha-bump", "tha-bump" that I interpret as the booming. The road I take to work was repaved last year (asphalt) and they are fine.

I did the 5/16" tube first. The hatch would not close on it's own. I forced it to close and the gap was huge. Upon reopening the hatch popped so loud I dared not close again. I removed the tube. I then bought 1/4" and 3/16". I figured the 3/16" would be easy to install, so I tried that first. The gap was better, but it still popped upon opening so I knew there was rigid seal contact. Driving still had the booming. Then I made the rigid stops, sanding off a millimeter at a time until it fit perfectly. Everything is screwed in tightly - rubber stop and plastic nut. Then on the road to school, I thought the booming was louder than ever. I may have just been frustrated and had my sensors on high though. The rigid stops are off for now. I'll try the felt pads soon.

Of course there may just be a glitch in the matrix or I am crazy (or getting there ).

Thanks for the comments everyone.

There are a number of very-low-cost or even free-with-ads spectrum analyzers for your phone (well, iPhone for sure; I assume the same is true for other kinds). Probably what was used for the various spectrum photos shown in this and related threads.

The microphone on your phone is of course not calibrated hardly at all, so the absolute amplitude numbers you get out of such an app are probably only good to a few dB. However! The frequency calibration is based on the master clock, which is good to better than 0.01%. And more to the point, the amplitude calibration is unlikely to change significantly over the course of a few weeks, so comparing the output of the app before and after modifications is likely to quite accurately represent the changes.

I mean, you probably don't want to bother removing the fixes just to check, but if you do, this would be a way to help quantify the change.

 

[Electric700]

You should report this to Tesla, and show them your fix (those of you that have a working solution). May be they will give you a discount on service or your next Tesla!

 

[Noflash]

My guess is that there is still a hair of clearance between your caps and the car when closed. The hatch doesn't have to move much to make a lot of noise. Mine are preloaded some. I suggest putting a chair leg felt pad on the bottom of each to test. You may need to push on your hatch a bit to get it to latch for this test.

I tried this and didn't see any improvement. I made sure the rubber post was screwed all the way in and the plastic nuts were tight against the metal. Added the felt pads. I was surprised the hatch closed with the pads. There was a huge panel gap. There was also a loud pop when opening the hatch. Made me want to take them off right away.

Now that I look at the pic, I wonder if there is a gap between the pvc and the nut. LOL. Well I am working on butyl and foam today. Maybe when that's all done I'll try and remake these.

 

[salix]

Reading this thread with interest. Got my new MYLR7 last week and the booming over bumps is definitely ruining my enjoynment of the car. Have been half thinking about selling it if it can't be fixed. My old car (2006 Honda Fit) was i'm sure objectively louder inside but that was a kind of 'full spectrum' of road noise. Somehow having all road bumps translate into a constant 'boom' of a certain frequency makes it much more annoying.

FWIW, I had some issues on delivery so took it to the service center last week and mentioned the boom issue. Took a ride with a tech who said he heard nothing, but they promised to look at it. In the service notes:

Confirmed higher than average pressure changes in the cabin over bumps. Performed adjustment on the pressure relief holes in the rear body of the vehicle to maximize the allowable pressure change within the cabin. Test drove and verified that pressure was not as poor as during initial test drive. Verified Proper Operation.

So it was interesting that they confirmed the issue, and after their adjustments rated it "not as poor" as before... but apparently not good either?

FWIW, after their adjustments it seemed like the frequency (pitch) of the boom was changed a bit (got lower) but was fundamentally still there.

I'm not looking forward to putting in a bunch of rubber inside the car but will probably start by experimenting with making the hatch stops rigid and also maybe the vinyl tubing inside the gasket to firm it up...

 

[ilovecoffee]

Reading this thread with interest. Got my new MYLR7 last week and the booming over bumps is definitely ruining my enjoynment of the car. Have been half thinking about selling it if it can't be fixed. My old car (2006 Honda Fit) was i'm sure objectively louder inside but that was a kind of 'full spectrum' of road noise. Somehow having all road bumps translate into a constant 'boom' of a certain frequency makes it much more annoying.

FWIW, I had some issues on delivery so took it to the service center last week and mentioned the boom issue. Took a ride with a tech who said he heard nothing, but they promised to look at it. In the service notes:


So it was interesting that they confirmed the issue, and after their adjustments rated it "not as poor" as before... but apparently not good either?

FWIW, after their adjustments it seemed like the frequency (pitch) of the boom was changed a bit (got lower) but was fundamentally still there.

I'm not looking forward to putting in a bunch of rubber inside the car but will probably start by experimenting with making the hatch stops rigid and also maybe the vinyl tubing inside the gasket to firm it up...

Just a note to re-iterate that you will have to do the vinyl tubing first, or you will have to re-do your rigid hatch stops after doing the vinyl tubing.

I wonder what he changed about those rear vents. I know what/where they are...just not aware of what could be changed about them.

 

[ahhlun]

Sorry I must disagree about Tin can. Our Tesla has a great built and no such experience present. That is why it should be fixed by SC if you experience such a thing.

I just came back from the SC today,
the tech said this is a common problem among Model Ys, and he said he has seen this occur on every single model Y he has driven.
He also said thats the design and there's no fix he can do.

 

[WhiteWi]

I just came back from the SC today,
the tech said this is a common problem among Model Ys, and he said he has seen this occur on every single model Y he has driven.
He also said thats the design and there's no fix he can do.

Weird. Every single model Y has it while not every single person experience it.

 

[DanDi58]

I just came back from the SC today,
the tech said this is a common problem among Model Ys, and he said he has seen this occur on every single model Y he has driven.
He also said thats the design and there's no fix he can do.

Nonsense. Every single MY? Then why doesn't everyone complain about it? I have no issue with it at all and I have had vertigo due to Meniere's Disease so am particularly sensitive to things like this.

 

[salix]

I would believe that some people are just not sensitive to it. The first tech I showed it to said he heard nothing and my wife also doesn't find it problematic.
I think some people are just sensitive to pressure changes and certain low frequency noise. I'm a musician and what particularly bothers me is that its a specific frequency, like a specific note, that booms... i start to notice the tone and then can't stop obsessively listening to it over every crack and bump.

 

[MyEarHurts]

I would believe that some people are just not sensitive to it. The first tech I showed it to said he heard nothing and my wife also doesn't find it problematic.
I think some people are just sensitive to pressure changes and certain low frequency noise. I'm a musician and what particularly bothers me is that its a specific frequency, like a specific note, that booms... i start to notice the tone and then can't stop obsessively listening to it over every crack and bump.

When you mentioned selling it, you should. The market is hot right now and look at the Ioniq 5, I just got one and that noise is not there. Much smoother car with more features, plus you'll get a $7,500 tax rebate. I tried everything to include 19'' with Michelin tires, 4-5 layers of butyl followed by closed cell foam, stuffed the rear wheel wells with foam and insulated the outer wheel wells and the rigid stops/tubing. It reduced it significatly but it was always there still. Everytime I see a unperfect road coming up I know that the boominess was coming and that's no way to live with the money you paid for the car.

 

[WhiteWi]

Yeah definitely should. Ionic has less range, less performance, less cargo space. Mediocre charging network. Sounds like a best EV to me.

 

[WhiteWi]

Enjoy your Ionic.

 

[MyEarHurts]

Enjoy your Ionic.

I'll also enjoy it with my MY when the Ioniq runs out of charge and I can't find a charger due to the mediocre charging network. Or when I have a bag of grocery that I can't fit due to the smaller cargo space, I'll take the MY or when I want to go really really fast to the grocery store because the Ioniq 5 has less performance....that why I gotta keep the Y, I think maybe I should just throw the Ioniq away.

 

[WhiteWi]

I'll also enjoy it with my MY when by Ioniq runs out of charge and I can't find a charger due to the mediocre charging network.

I actually like the design of it. But don’t like the other minuses.

 

[ahhlun]

Nonsense. Every single MY? Then why doesn't everyone complain about it? I have no issue with it at all and I have had vertigo due to Meniere's Disease so am particularly sensitive to things like this.

Well that's what the tech at the Bellevue, WA SC said.
He works there after all and he sees lots more model Ys than we do.

I'm in my early 30s and the tech looks like he is in his 30s too and I know I have really good hearing, maybe that's why?

 

[ahhlun]

Weird. Every single model Y has it while not every single person experience it.

I mean people have different levels of hearing sensitivity, how weird is that.

Age or environmental factors can affect hearing for example.

 

[DanDi58]

Well that's what the tech at the Bellevue, WA SC said.
He works there after all and he sees lots more model Ys than we do.

I'm in my early 30s and the tech looks like he is in his 30s too and I know I have really good hearing, maybe that's why?

Perhaps the tech is someone that is sensitive to these sounds. That doesn't mean it bothers everyone.

 

[MY-Y]

The low frequency sound bothered me enough to analyze the root cause, design a fix, and start this thread. My wife and kids didn't notice the sound at all. It depends on the person.