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Model X 2019 Raven Sound Deadening Doors Project

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Does anyone know if there are shops that are doing this sort of thing? I'm not very mechanically minded, but I'd be willing to pay ~$1000 for someone to do this to my car.
There is nothing really complicated to do it yourself but you have to take your time. I did it too 2 months ago but went a bit different route in order to avoid weight gain and the main reason was to fix panels rattling.

I have completed all doors’ panels including trunk lid panel, hands’ rest between front seats, and decoration plastic under the front seats.

Now the interior is solid and quieter than before also made some improvements for sound deadening.
 

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There is nothing really complicated to do it yourself but you have to take your time. I did it too 2 months ago but went a bit different route in order to avoid weight gain and the main reason was to fix panels rattling.

I have completed all doors’ panels including trunk lid panel, hands’ rest between front seats, and decoration plastic under the front seats.

Now the interior is solid and quieter than before also made some improvements for sound deadening.

I appreciate the words of encouragement, but I'm just not interested in taking apart my car, fiddling around with the doors for hours on end, and learning it all as I go. I'd rather just pay someone someone skilled to do it. The problem is I've never really seen this offered at any shop I've been to - would it be more up the alley of some custom/mod shop rather than a normal service shop?
 
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I appreciate the words of encouragement, but I'm just not interested in taking apart my car, fiddling around with the doors for hours on end, and learning it all as I go. I'd rather just pay someone someone skilled to do it. The problem is I've never really seen this offered at any shop I've been to - would it be more up the alley of some custom/mod shop rather than a normal service shop?
Any shop that makes sound systems will do.it for you for about $4k
 
Hi DoctorVenkman,

You might want to try Tesla mobile service to see if they would do something like this....
They are really good at removing panels that we are afraid to break.

Way back when, I had Tesla mobile install a very complicated sound reduction package
in my Roadster - To look at it, it looked like the car exploded - there were so many parts
everywhere... He finished and all was good.

It might be worth an inquiry,

Shawn
 
Great write-up to the OP.
I did the same thing with Dynamat on the front doors of my raven MX as well and understand your commentary on some of the hassle and acrobatics. Definitely experienced many of the same things. Was hoping to get a good reduction in road noise, but i think the reduction was marginal (maybe 1-2db reduction when i was baselining it with a sound meter app, so take that with a grain of salt on how well calibrated a app would even be), but the audio did sound a bit better for me with the stock system (still planning out a good aftermarket install, and the dynamat was all in prep eventually) and the more deadened sound when knocking the panels is apparent.
I actually did dynamat on the front wheel wells in hopes to reduce further road noise in addition.

All in all, not too hard a project if you know where the key points to take apart the panel (Definitely buy some extra clips that may break when doing this, which i think i had maybe 2 or 3 clips i ended up replacing) which i think the OP took good photos for all interested to key in on. But was a fun saturday afternoon project for a few hours to get real close and intimate with my car.


to the OP (or any other followers on this thread) on this:

  • Have you gotten around to doing your falcon doors yet? It's been awhile since i dug around DIY on disassembling the falcon door panels to see any good write ups on it (which i was unsuccessful at). Would love to see a write-up on how you approach disassembling it if you got around to doing it.
  • Also, were you planning on doing sound deadening on the floor or the rear trunk panels? There's a number of write-ups i've seen with the MS and M3 on dynamat on the floors. Wasn't sure if that was worthwhile to further reducing road noise or if the battery itself is solid enough with the MX, although others have shown some big open cavities on the MS, so i suspect we may have that on the MX. Again, would like to know if there were anything to watch out for in trying to remove seats, etc. (i have a 7 seater) and how best to avoid causing scratches or damage trying to remove seats.
 
I’m interested in the rear doors. Great write up. I’m an engineer so have to get a db meter and see what’s up.
For me our dog is crying in the back of the MX, so I’m out to get (or make) a a special microphone that can measure sounds between 20khz and 67khz, which is in the dog hearing range we can’t hear. Most db equipment has filters to block sounds above that range. Not sure how far down that path I’m going to get...
 
I’m interested in the rear doors. Great write up. I’m an engineer so have to get a db meter and see what’s up.
For me our dog is crying in the back of the MX, so I’m out to get (or make) a a special microphone that can measure sounds between 20khz and 67khz, which is in the dog hearing range we can’t hear. Most db equipment has filters to block sounds above that range. Not sure how far down that path I’m going to get...

There is the rear motor in the back which can be very whiney. There's a layer of foam/mass loaded vinyl/carpet. Without those layers it's very irritating to humans. Possibly the dog can hear frequencies we can't that aren't blocked by those materials.
 
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I highly highly recommend NOT to put those foam bags in the a pillar and the fenders. I recently took mine out because I wanted to see if they caused any problems as I started to get some creaking noises in that area. It was pain to get out, my hands have cuts and bruises all over. Secondly they were WET. They were soaked somehow, I think this could cause long term damage and even mess up the electronics, I do not recommend it!
 
But as a side note ,I think I isolated some of my wind noise to this panel. when I looked up into the A pillar, there was quite a gap, and this was totally open, I could see light coming in from the outside, so i put some gorilla tape inside in that area. I think it helped, but who knows, lots of placebo effect too.
 

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Yep, I found some good IOS apps which can sample above 96khz so I can examine the sound above human range. I can now see 20khz-50khz, had a $36 external lightning mic, but I bent it and it’s broken now :(. That mic was attenuated but I captured up to 50khz.
Need to replace the mic and gather data. Then start looking at foam.

[could also be that our boy is getting older and mechanical vibrations hurt his joints. He’s 8. We’re watching for that too. The Husky doesn’t like the car. Dauchsund doesn’t mind it at all.
The last snowshoe trip the Husky was in visible distress. So we’re limiting his travel in the car until we figure this out.
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Ultraviolet, can u share with us a bit more detail on the upper window seal that you put? It looks like u just put a small piece of seal into the existing seal to make the window touch better when you roll it up?
Thanks
Sorry for the late reply. It has been a while since I've been on here.
You are 100% correct. I just wedged the rubber tubing into the molding area where the window meets the top of the door frame.
 
I have a few boxes left over from another car I was doing a test run with. Unfortunately, I didn't find that it added much sound deadening. What it did seem to do was reduce some noises. Not sure if I would spend the time to do it on the X. Maybe...?
 
The door panel is a bit harder to get back on and needed some heavy hip bumping to get some clips to snap in due to the extra material between the panel and the door frame.
I had a little bit of material left over, so I placed it the the crevice of the front edges of each area between the doors and wheel well area.
If you open the door completely and put your hand in the gaps between the metal you can actually feel the thin carpet covering that surrounds the tires in the wheel well. There is hardly anything at all blocking tire/road noise coming through this area.
It's hard to tell in this picture.
Just open your door all of the way and look here to see what I am describing. I always used one hand to hold the door open while I put my fingers into this area. Something made me a little uneasy thinking that the door would time out and force close snapping off my precious digits and keeping me from being able to type up this project here.

In the end, I am very happy with the results.
I may order another pack and do the falcon doors at some point, but I am going to just enjoy the car for a while before thinking of another project to do to it.

After completing this, i did the following.
1) I went around to knock on the outside of the doors (after I completed the first door) to hear the difference. It sounds completely different. The door that I finished sounded solid and had a very dull muffled thud. The other door had a loud hollow chamber sound when I knocked on it.
2) I tested the auto driver side door opening that happens when you walk up to the car with your keys to make sure the sensor worked.
It worked as it always did. The door barely opened while I approached the car, and it finished opening after it sensed that I had walked past it and cleared the way for it to open.
3) I drove close enough to objects to make sure the sensors picked them up on my screen, and they all worked fine.

Please give any good/bad feedback about this project.
I'd love to know I helped people out with this, and I'd also like to know where I went wrong or could have done better.

Thanks!

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Greetings Ultraviolet75! I finished replicating your project, FABULOUS! Our 2020 X LR is much quieter now. I used the the Kilmat, but only one layer, just on the skin behind the panel. I spent better part of the day doing each door(several hrs. per door, I'm slow). Just the front doors. A remarkable improvement, my cell ph decibel meter is telling me about 10, 75dbl down to 65dbl. and lower, unscientificly. I know that's huge, but it's what I got. Would do it again without hesitation. I first went to the Tesla parts department to buy some clips in case I broke any, (only broke one).25 cents apiece. The parts guy was super helpful, knew about the Kilmat etc. That gave me even more confidence. Thank you UV75 for taking the time to photo all the steps, I could never do that, I'm slow enough! I'm attaching a pic of the non-scratch plastic tools about 15 bucks at the local auto parts store. Thanks again, really appreciate your efforts and humor!
 

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