Solved: wind noise

[PNWLeccy]

The trick with the tubing is to start at either end (the one closer to the door seems easier). Use tension in the tubing and a bit of pressure against the A pillar to your advantage. Then wedge the tubing in leaving a bit to fold/wedge under the windshield trim cover.

The idea here is NOT to insert the tubing into the panel gap so that it falls in there and/or wedges itself between the fender outer skin and A pillar inner sheet metal... but to fill the open space panel gap so as to prevent wind from entering.

Best to do a few test fits with slightly elongated pieces and trim to fit AFTER (they stretch).

Re foam or sponge, similar concept but this time from below and you so want to let it expand into the triangular wedge shape directly below the panel gap. I found its best to use 2 pieces of adhesive foam and instead of glueing them to any given surface, glue them to each other, cram in there and let each side expand and fill the gaps perpendicular to the front/back edge of the panel and down toward the little ledge/sill you see in the pics above.

I hope I’m not the only one, but it is pretty hard to follow how and where exactly all this is happening. I hope someone puts a video together showing this fix.

 

[rincewind]

On my 2 week old M3P Tesla are now fitting plastic inserts in here, so no need for foam in the bottom of the A pillar any more.

 

[webbah]

On my 2 week old M3P Tesla are now fitting plastic inserts in here, so no need for foam in the bottom of the A pillar any more.

Those plastic inserts are on mine from a July 2019 car as well. However I inserted some high density white foam (from a packaging material I had when my Ohmmu 12v arrived) and this made a difference. Those plastic inserts dont block all the wind.

 

[Perscitus]

Can you guys snap a photo of the plastic inserts? Perhaps they are one and the same we have on mid/late 2018 build cars, perhaps not.

I hope I’m not the only one, but it is pretty hard to follow how and where exactly all this is happening. I hope someone puts a video together showing this fix.

I think if you attempt it, it (hopefully) starts to make sense.The photos earlier in this thread are all you really need to go by... neoprene tubing in hand, front door/s cracked or wide open.

 

[PNWLeccy]

On my 2 week old M3P Tesla are now fitting plastic inserts in here, so no need for foam in the bottom of the A pillar any more.

Do you have a picture of these plastic inserts? I wonder if I could schedule an appointment at a SC to have these installed...

It seems like these are at least one part of the improved cabin noise reduction in the MY2020

 

[polyphonic54]

I put Neoprene tubing on mine a long while ago:

View attachment 488171

I added this last week. It fit perfectly on the driver's side, but not the passenger side where the gap is much smaller. It reduced a lot of high frequency wind noise, which plagued my particular car.

 

[fabian]

On my 2 week old M3P Tesla are now fitting plastic inserts in here, so no need for foam in the bottom of the A pillar any more.

Can you post pictures?

 

[rincewind]

There you go

 

[destructure00]

There you goView attachment 499555

My March 2019 build also has these. The foam goes behind them.

 

[PNWLeccy]

My March 2019 build also has these. The foam goes behind them.

Yea this is the piece I suspected but my 6/18 build also has these.

 

[Araex]

There you goView attachment 499555

Just to be clear, yellow part is where the foam/tube goes.

 

[dutchchili]

There you goView attachment 499555

Thanks. That piece doesn't really help....although I can imagine that there is a lot of noise without it.

 

[Perscitus]

Yeah that plastic and rubber piece is present on Q3/4 2018 cars as well.

The area which needs blocking with foam neoprene string is as above in yellow and then below the A pillar door skin.

 

[ElectrekPanda]

The 6mm tubing did not fit for my car. But I found a 4mm on ebay and bought it. This time, I was able to easily insert the tubing to cover the gap.

 

[ElectrekPanda]

4 mm

 

[Magnets!]

Intrigued, so jammed some stick on foam weatherstripping in the holes before going out tonight. It really makes a substantial difference! Bravo Dutchchili for figuring this out. A long time ago, I noticed the unsealed bottom of the chrome strip that goes around the window and did the same for that one.

 

[Icenks]

I have a 2020 model with that piece of plastic.
At highway speed majority of the noise is wind noise from a pillar.

going to try this out

 

[Kiprich]

I'm going to try the tubing too, looks promising. But if the tube is stuck between the A-pillar and the fender, will it remain in the gap in a car wash, or will it be pushed out? (and yes ... I sometimes go to a car wash .... )

 

[Altimas]

Tubing likely won't work for everyone as the panel gaps are not consistent both on either side and even within each side. Meaning the panel gap on one side of my car is a bit longer than the other side. Further, the gap on my car is wider closer to the windshield and gets smaller closer to the door.

For me I had leftover rubber from the door seal kit and kind of just cut it to make it fit, I think it will stay put but who knows.

For some reason I don't like the idea of jamming something spongy in the A piller gap. Perhaps what would work best is tubing in combination with some sort of adhesive.

 

[polyphonic54]

Exactly - You'd probably want 4, 5, and 6 mm tubing to see what works best.
Better yet, maybe some industrious aftermarket shop could offer a 3D printed solution for all of the air gaps