I have been doing the noise reduction game since I bought my Model 3 in December. I've done these common items:
- Trunk and frunk floor liners
- Trunk and frunk lid liners
- Sun roof seal
- Door and trunk and frunk seals
- Window tilt adjustments
None of these really helped with the tire roar coming in at 70mph. We have a lot of grooved concrete in Houston, which makes a lot of tire noise. When the road switches to smooth concrete or asphalt, the OEM 19" tires are very quiet.
When I got the car, my steering wheel was tilted to the right, like many others. I took it to Tesla, and they made it tilt to the left (thank you). So I took it to an alignment specialist, and they made it tilt a little to the right, and told me everything else was off, but they fix it. I took it back to have the steering wheel centered more, and they made it a little less to the right, but still not perfect.
So I got annoyed, and ordered my own laser total toe measuring tool so I could adjust the alignment on my own. It's actually very easy, but if you don't have an accurate alignment tool, you could be introducing tire wear even though you got the tire to track straight. This is the one I bought (it's out of stock now, but I will sure they will have more):
Trackace, DIY Laser Wheel Alignment Tool, Car Truck Front End Tracking
Anyways, I found out that there was a a high amount of toe in on my front wheels (on the high end of the Tesla spec) and way high toe in on my rear wheels (way out of spec per Tesla).
These darn alignment shops are just so lazy, and I am convinced they know how to play with the machines to fake the printouts.
So I adjusted the alignments myself, got them so they are just slightly toe in on front and rear, and the steering wheel is perfectly straight.
Surprising, not only did the car feel better going down the road, but the tire noise is way less. I also dropped the tire pressures to 36psi cold from the factory 41psi cold, and that may have helped the noise too.
I'm not going back up to 41psi, because the car went from a very harsh ride to a much nicer ride. My last car, a Jaguar XF weighs about the same with similar 19" tire sizes and it rode great at 36psi, so that's what I am sticking at regardless of any slight reduction in range. I think I picked up range by fixing the front and rear tire alignment.
So the alignment and tire pressures end up being the biggest gains for me. I am much happier driving my Model 3 now.
On a final note, I wasn't too impressed with how easy it was to loosen the bolts for the rear alignment. Since I bought the car, I felt like it would get a little squirrely on full acceleration, and I mentioned that to both Tesla and the alignment shop. It didn't improve after they both worked on the car. But when I finished adjusting the alignment, I put some good torque on those bolts, and now the car tracks solidly under full accelerations.
Tesla is not know for attention to detail, and others have found loose suspension bolts, so it makes sense. I would not expect that your alignment is good from the factory, and I would not expect alignment shops to do it right. I am happy to have my own tool.
Final note for those more advanced at home alignments, if you want to check left and right toe, you have to use the string method, and for the Model 3, AWD, the rear tracking is 1/4" less than the front. So you have to set up the strings with 1/8" more distance on the rear hubs to get the strings square. The specs of the car say the front and rear track are the same, but they are not.
- Trunk and frunk floor liners
- Trunk and frunk lid liners
- Sun roof seal
- Door and trunk and frunk seals
- Window tilt adjustments
None of these really helped with the tire roar coming in at 70mph. We have a lot of grooved concrete in Houston, which makes a lot of tire noise. When the road switches to smooth concrete or asphalt, the OEM 19" tires are very quiet.
When I got the car, my steering wheel was tilted to the right, like many others. I took it to Tesla, and they made it tilt to the left (thank you). So I took it to an alignment specialist, and they made it tilt a little to the right, and told me everything else was off, but they fix it. I took it back to have the steering wheel centered more, and they made it a little less to the right, but still not perfect.
So I got annoyed, and ordered my own laser total toe measuring tool so I could adjust the alignment on my own. It's actually very easy, but if you don't have an accurate alignment tool, you could be introducing tire wear even though you got the tire to track straight. This is the one I bought (it's out of stock now, but I will sure they will have more):
Trackace, DIY Laser Wheel Alignment Tool, Car Truck Front End Tracking
Anyways, I found out that there was a a high amount of toe in on my front wheels (on the high end of the Tesla spec) and way high toe in on my rear wheels (way out of spec per Tesla).
These darn alignment shops are just so lazy, and I am convinced they know how to play with the machines to fake the printouts.
So I adjusted the alignments myself, got them so they are just slightly toe in on front and rear, and the steering wheel is perfectly straight.
Surprising, not only did the car feel better going down the road, but the tire noise is way less. I also dropped the tire pressures to 36psi cold from the factory 41psi cold, and that may have helped the noise too.
I'm not going back up to 41psi, because the car went from a very harsh ride to a much nicer ride. My last car, a Jaguar XF weighs about the same with similar 19" tire sizes and it rode great at 36psi, so that's what I am sticking at regardless of any slight reduction in range. I think I picked up range by fixing the front and rear tire alignment.
So the alignment and tire pressures end up being the biggest gains for me. I am much happier driving my Model 3 now.
On a final note, I wasn't too impressed with how easy it was to loosen the bolts for the rear alignment. Since I bought the car, I felt like it would get a little squirrely on full acceleration, and I mentioned that to both Tesla and the alignment shop. It didn't improve after they both worked on the car. But when I finished adjusting the alignment, I put some good torque on those bolts, and now the car tracks solidly under full accelerations.
Tesla is not know for attention to detail, and others have found loose suspension bolts, so it makes sense. I would not expect that your alignment is good from the factory, and I would not expect alignment shops to do it right. I am happy to have my own tool.
Final note for those more advanced at home alignments, if you want to check left and right toe, you have to use the string method, and for the Model 3, AWD, the rear tracking is 1/4" less than the front. So you have to set up the strings with 1/8" more distance on the rear hubs to get the strings square. The specs of the car say the front and rear track are the same, but they are not.
