Model Y Buffeting Noise (Annoying base sound) - Solution

[Niccaman]

Hopefully this post will help any of my fellow new Model Y owners...

Just picked up my new MY AWD LR 19" a couple days ago. Something was bothering me. There's this aggresive "base" sound inside the cabin when I go over any kind of uneven road. It was completely ruining my new car experience! After some research into it, I think the most likely cause is "Buffeting" noise from the boot hatch. Here's another post on the topic, with an interesting YouTube video for Model S owners. Model Y Buffeting

Note - I was also wondering if it was my choice of 19's over the 20's wheels, but I don't feel I can afford to run that experiement.
Also Note - I did NOT have this issue with my 2020 Model 3 at all, which furthers my suspicions as to this being the cause because most of the M3 hatch is isolated from the main cabin

I also happen to be quite ill at the moment which has caused my sinuses to be blocked / ears to be unequalised. I can't tell if this is amplifying the issue, or even if it's the only reason I can detect it in the first place. Therefore I've taken it upon myself to try to fix it while i'm unwell.

I took a small cup of water with fairy liquid in it. Dab that liquid with some tissue onto all 4 of the adjustable contact points of the rear hatch. If you see a full circle on the opposing contact points after having closed+opened the hatch, then you have full contact!

Note: i did NOT have full contact out of the factory. I had only partial contact on at least one of the points.

I made it my goal to achieve full contact whilst being as far out as possible. This was just my educated guess, but if anyone out there has a better methodology, please let me know.

Now that I have done all of this, my experience feels much better, though I am not convinced i have eliminated the issue entirely. Please share you're experiences if you can, am I missing something? Do you even detect the issue at all? Will the 20's resolve my issue? My wife says she can't even hear what I'm on about!!

 

[Tony Hoyle]

Just done mine.. it wasn't too badly out just one side needed adjusting.

 

[Tony Hoyle]

As a followup, did a nice long journey and it still wasn't quite right. Buffeting was less but I was getting the pressure wave problem (documented elsewhere, same cause) it was uncomfortable on my ears.

So I redid the adjustment using the folded paper/envelope method and was able to get much closer - I'd overadjusted last time. That was so successful I didn't notice anything at all today.. although not a full motorway run so still need to test further.

 

[Niccaman]

As a followup, did a nice long journey and it still wasn't quite right. Buffeting was less but I was getting the pressure wave problem (documented elsewhere, same cause) it was uncomfortable on my ears.

So I redid the adjustment using the folded paper/envelope method and was able to get much closer - I'd overadjusted last time. That was so successful I didn't notice anything at all today.. although not a full motorway run so still need to test further.

Interesting, thanks for sharing that update. Can you help me understand the difference between the two noises? You said you overadjusted, does that mean it was too far out and you needed to bring it in a bit?

 

[Durzel]

What's this "folded paper/envelope" method?

I must admit all I've ever done with the stoppers that you can rotate to raise or lower is just guesstimate where they need to be, I've not been scientific with it at all, which I ought to be really.

 

[Tony Hoyle]

It's here

My remaining issues seem to be related to other things and I've got a service request for those, as the buffeting is as far as I can tell cured.

 

[Yperformance]

Tried the above with some improvement, strangely when I added wheel spacers and a harder rear anti sway bare 90 % of the buffeting sound at 70 plus went away, still have the tire noise of course.

 

[Toblerone]

Hopefully this post will help any of my fellow new Model Y owners...

Just picked up my new MY AWD LR 19" a couple days ago. Something was bothering me. There's this aggresive "base" sound inside the cabin when I go over any kind of uneven road. It was completely ruining my new car experience! After some research into it, I think the most likely cause is "Buffeting" noise from the boot hatch. Here's another post on the topic, with an interesting YouTube video for Model S owners. Model Y Buffeting

Note - I was also wondering if it was my choice of 19's over the 20's wheels, but I don't feel I can afford to run that experiement.
Also Note - I did NOT have this issue with my 2020 Model 3 at all, which furthers my suspicions as to this being the cause because most of the M3 hatch is isolated from the main cabin

I also happen to be quite ill at the moment which has caused my sinuses to be blocked / ears to be unequalised. I can't tell if this is amplifying the issue, or even if it's the only reason I can detect it in the first place. Therefore I've taken it upon myself to try to fix it while i'm unwell.

I took a small cup of water with fairy liquid in it. Dab that liquid with some tissue onto all 4 of the adjustable contact points of the rear hatch. If you see a full circle on the opposing contact points after having closed+opened the hatch, then you have full contact!

Note: i did NOT have full contact out of the factory. I had only partial contact on at least one of the points.

I made it my goal to achieve full contact whilst being as far out as possible. This was just my educated guess, but if anyone out there has a better methodology, please let me know.

Now that I have done all of this, my experience feels much better, though I am not convinced i have eliminated the issue entirely. Please share you're experiences if you can, am I missing something? Do you even detect the issue at all? Will the 20's resolve my issue? My wife says she can't even hear what I'm on about!!

Cars made after June/July apparently have a rubber sealing strip on the bootlid. I guess we will see this when the latest cars arrive.

Speculation is this is to prevent the issue. Perhaps you could try similar with an aftermarket sealing strip.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1552723757159960576

 

[kaih23]

Tried the above with some improvement, strangely when I added wheel spacers and a harder rear anti sway bare 90 % of the buffeting sound at 70 plus went away, still have the tire noise of course.

Do you have links or pictures or anything on what you did? I have a 2023 Model Y and it's making that buffeting noise and hurts my ears. I drove the Model Y with the hatch open and no buffeting noise, so I'm 100% sure it's the hatch.

 

[Tony Hoyle]

Mine did the same to the point it hurt my wifes ears, and I fixed it by using the method above, bits of paper and adjusting the stops. Doing that mostly got rid of it then a bit of settling later (and over a year of driving) and it's all gone.

I wouldn't expect a modern car to have the same issues though.. it was mainly poor adjustment from the factory of the first models, which presumably got fed back to Tesla as the age of this thread shows it hasn't really been an issue for a while.