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Solved: Road Noise & Front Wind Noise

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Through the last few months, I have been watching and reading up the various posts regarding the many ways many of you all have attempted, as well as the various kits available online, to reduce if not eliminate road noise and wind noise from the Model3. After reviewing all those posts and review of the kits, I figured that since none of you have been able to achieve that elusive goal, let alone even come close to reducing the noise, made me ask the question: What are we missing?

So as I kept driving my M3, I attempted to focus on finding those missing sources ie where is the noise emanating into the cabin from. Turns out they are the 4 corners of the cabin ie the A-Pillars and C-pillars. More specifically, the A-Pillars for wind noise and C-Pillars for road noise.

#1 - The solution for wind noise is the following - Z Weatherstrip down inside the leading edge of the front door, and foam block at the top triangle where the front fender, windshield and door meet.

Z-Weatherstrip

FE752F27-DD36-4C76-975B-39D41FA43CDA.png


Foam at the junction
30509DB7-3101-4B73-A504-E35E4989A336.jpeg




#2 - The solution for road noise is the following - 2" Fiber insulation behind the rear seat side panels that cover the rear wheel wells.
6675D311-F79A-42AD-9928-77D6FA910EAA copy.jpg


F76F1B1B-0F3F-481F-B6A4-185039144B06 copy.jpg


I hope this helps everyone who have been pursuing this goal. Thanks for all the contributions and many thanks to @XPsionic for his constant engagement and interest.
 
Before any installation

Nokian friction winter tires.
Smooth highway concrete at 86km/h (53mph) - 67±2db


Lets see after I install the ceramic fiber, impractical to compare with your setup. Speed limit here is different and I am on winter tires.
More importantly is the frequency that gets attenuated. You may still get the same 67 +/- 2db but the annoying sounds mayhave disappeared or reduced.

And this does not address the sound coming in from the windows.

Keep in mind, this is a sports car and not a wallowing luxury cruiser. The very basic suspension is stiff and is designed to provide feedback.
 
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@zoppp Thanks man, worked great! This saved me a lot of time.

I turned it into a PNG (attached) and cut out a paper stencil with my cricut (total height is 25 7/8 inches). PE foam was already 2x thick (two 4mm sheets stuck to each other). Cuts easily with scissors. There was one small gap towards the top that required a second small piece.

@enemji Thank you thank you. Phase 1 complete, I already hear an improvement. View attachment 918698View attachment 918700
Where did you insert this. Did this require a glue ?
 
Where did you insert this. Did this require a glue ?
Check post #1 - the foam goes in the fender gap. Open your car door all the way and you'll see where it goes.

It's pressure fit in place - no glue needed. Disclaimer: it's only been a few days, not sure if it will shift over time. It's two pieces of foam attached to each other so hoping that helps keep it "rigid" and in place.
 
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This is awesome and greatly appreciated - someone please make a video of this entire process!

@enemji - are there other noise suppression elements that you have added to your car, and do you recommend them?
None. I do not recommend using the heavy butyl rubber like dynamat and equivalent. They are pretty much useless for sound absorption and add unnecessary weight to the car.
 
None. I do not recommend using the heavy butyl rubber like dynamat and equivalent. They are pretty much useless for sound absorption and add unnecessary weight to the car.
Underneath the rear deck lid behind the rear seats seem pretty bare. Not sure how much insulation there is between the sheet metal and the rear deck. I wonder if that'd be a good place for some thick and dense foam sheets with sticky back?

Also... is there any room right behind the front wheel liner for anything insulation/foam?
 
Underneath the rear deck lid behind the rear seats seem pretty bare. Not sure how much insulation there is between the sheet metal and the rear deck. I wonder if that'd be a good place for some thick and dense foam sheets with sticky back?
The fear is insulating that would also affect the lively musicality of the car as the subwoofer will effectively be isolated to the trunk.
 
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Check post #1 - the foam goes in the fender gap. Open your car door all the way and you'll see where it goes.

It's pressure fit in place - no glue needed. Disclaimer: it's only been a few days, not sure if it will shift over time. It's two pieces of foam attached to each other so hoping that helps keep it "rigid" and in place.
As long as you open and close the door, the door edge will push it back in position. That is why I went with this approach. It is self maintained 🤣
 
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Under the rear seat cushion behind the battery connector there's a sizable cavity with nothing inside, there are two of these 3"x1.5" holes going into this cavity. Maybe foam/insulation in there could help a little. But probably won't do much since there's already a seat cushion with foam in the way of any sound that's rattling around in there.

The rectangular hole is on the right side of the photo.
 

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Under the rear seat cushion behind the battery connector there's a sizable cavity with nothing inside, there are two of these 3"x1.5" holes going into this cavity. Maybe foam/insulation in there could help a little. But probably won't do much since there's already a seat cushion with foam in the way of any sound that's rattling around in there.

The rectangular hole is on the right side of the photo.
Correct. The seat cushion is ~3” thick rubber foam.
 
Check this out. Someone did a full sound deadening using 30lbs of materials. Check the graphs out. Barely any impact if you look at the graph at face value



teslay65mph-jpg.909584
 
Check this out. Someone did a full sound deadening using 30lbs of materials. Check the graphs out. Barely any impact if you look at the graph at face value



teslay65mph-jpg.909584
Looks like they put something like dynomat everywhere. Which is helpful in reducing resonance from panels, but doesn't do a whole lot in blocking out road noise.
 
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Looks like they put something like dynomat everywhere. Which is helpful in reducing resonance from panels, but doesn't do a whole lot in blocking out road noise.
Bjorn also have done full soundproofing and result were not impressive, it cost almost 2k€. The 2 things that they didn't do were the ceramic fiber and the front door liner that @enemji describe here. That's why I am compelled to try. I am still waiting for the material and the fiber will arrive before the foam so I think I can do the db measurement separated (fiber, fiber + trunk foam and fiber + trunk foam + front door foam).


This weekend I took a taxi from the airport which happens to be a model 3 long range. I got to experience the road noise from the back seat and it is much worse then from mine on driver seat. I don't know which kind of tires he had and maybe his suspension were more worn then mine, but the road noise was super harsh and clearly coming from the back wheels.
 
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Bjorn also have done full soundproofing and result were not impressive, it cost almost 2k€. The 2 things that they didn't do were the ceramic fiber and the front door liner that @enemji describe here. That's why I am compelled to try. I am still waiting for the material and the fiber will arrive before the foam so I think I can do the db measurement separated (fiber, fiber + trunk foam and fiber + trunk foam + front door foam).


This weekend I took a taxi from the airport which happens to be a model 3 long range. I got to experience the road noise from the back seat and it is much worse then from mine on driver seat. I don't know which kind of tires he had and maybe his suspension were more worn then mine, but the road noise was super harsh and clearly coming from the back wheels.
Exactly!!!!

I had to think about what have they all NOT done.
 
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Bjorn also have done full soundproofing and result were not impressive, it cost almost 2k€. The 2 things that they didn't do were the ceramic fiber and the front door liner that @enemji describe here. That's why I am compelled to try. I am still waiting for the material and the fiber will arrive before the foam so I think I can do the db measurement separated (fiber, fiber + trunk foam and fiber + trunk foam + front door foam).


This weekend I took a taxi from the airport which happens to be a model 3 long range. I got to experience the road noise from the back seat and it is much worse then from mine on driver seat. I don't know which kind of tires he had and maybe his suspension were more worn then mine, but the road noise was super harsh and clearly coming from the back wheels.
The problem with Bjorns approach is that every door has two halves. The top (Glass) and bottom (sheet metal). Soundproofing the sheetmetal will now make the glass appear to be more noisy ie the NVH balance is now distorted/lumped to one side. I find that extremely annoying.
 
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Just received the 1" thick thermal ceramic fibers, had a quick test in front of my desktop speakers, it does seem to do a pretty decent job absorbing sounds.

I don't have access to a jack where I live right now or I'd take the wheel arch liners out and see where insulation or foam could go to.

Do you guys think there's any point in blocking or sealing up the approximately 3" long body panel gap between the bottom of the A pillar and the fender?
 
The problem with Bjorns approach is that every door has two halves. The top (Glass) and bottom (sheet metal). Soundproofing the sheetmetal will now make the glass appear to be more noisy ie the NVH balance is now distorted/lumped to one side. I find that extremely annoying.
Not sure if I'm off to the wrong track with this thought, but would a better approach to noise reduction than just putting on dynomat everywhere be 1. Look at the noise on a spectrum analyzer to find the peaks 2. Test the panels to see if they vibrate in those frequencies (is that possible to do at home?) 3. If they do, add dynomat, if they don't, add sound absorbing materials?

I find it a bit curious why so many of these Tesla sound proof videos focus on dynomat type materials, I thought this method is most effective for reducing resonance from giant sub woofers blasting 2000w, and not very effective in reducing road noise since they're usually higher frequencies.
 
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All this extra insulation is useless. When it comes to noise there is no easy solution when you can cover 1% of the body and get noticeable effect. You should understand that the whole car body (metal structre) retranslates the road noise. And thats is why luxury cars have thick (inches) of insulation everywhere. And moreover they don't have open glass roofs that reflect sound without any dampening. So safe you time, money, and rivets on plastic panels - enjoy your model 3 as is.