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Sound Deadening Model 3

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I see the front upper control arms have a "J" suffix in the parts catalog. Tesla SEEMS to increment those suffix letters as their parts get revised (note: I don't think all revisions get released)...still "J" would seem to indicate some revisions occurred along the way. My guess is the part is the same, but the bushings ( a weak spot for Tesla IMO) have likely been revised (i.e. better and/or softer rubber).
 
This part naming convention has been the norm in this industry for at least a decade plus.

Sadly its officially confusing as [choose your explative] since the upticks in alpha numeric suffixes do NOT always represent ANY revision.

Upticks in part numbers happen for at least two other common reasons: a. to identify supplier or subassembly change or source change b. to delineate part batches by calendar or fiscal year

vs the expected third reason c. to designate some part revision.

Sadly the automotive industry mixes all three into their part numbering scheme.
And Tesla staff, aside from the inventory people - will know no better unless some TSB or Recall notice, service campaign spells things out for them.

Fun times.
 
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doing it the whole weekend using 3M stuff...a lot more to go.

View attachment 688287

Just a note that if you are only doing sound deadening and not adding MLV or CCF then you prob won't hear any real difference. I extensively deadened the rear, floor and doors and can't tell much if any difference. Fair warning, I did this during COVID so it's not like I had anything better to do but it was a lot of hours of work for little reward.

Hi
The rough rumble from the (rear) tyres when driving on a rough tarmac is coming through the car's metal body - so the metal rear deck of the M3 is one source of the road noise. My 2021 has no hole in the deck (for bass booster sound?) like some older m3s, but there is a big hole in the soundproofing material in same place where the hole was in the deck. Anyway, it is not only the hole in the rear deck (or in the soundproofing material of the rear deck M3 2021), it is the resonance of the deck itself. I made a bit troublesome job and I covered the rear deck metal surface with 5mm DrArtex Gladen aero mat. I also covered those pillars as much as possible under the wires. The rumble is not totally gone but much lower now. I have also done before some soundproofing inside the rear wheel wells - that lowered down the road noise, but not the low frequency rumble very much.
 

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Hi
The rough rumble from the (rear) tyres when driving on a rough tarmac is coming through the car's metal body - so the metal rear deck of the M3 is one source of the road noise. My 2021 has no hole in the deck (for bass booster sound?) like some older m3s, but there is a big hole in the soundproofing material in same place where the hole was in the deck. Anyway, it is not only the hole in the rear deck (or in the soundproofing material of the rear deck M3 2021), it is the resonance of the deck itself. I made a bit troublesome job and I covered the rear deck metal surface with 5mm DrArtex Gladen aero mat. I also covered those pillars as much as possible under the wires. The rumble is not totally gone but much lower now. I have also done before some soundproofing inside the rear wheel wells - that lowered down the road noise, but not the low frequency rumble very much.
I found that going over road expansion joints in my 2020 caused an annoying loud "whomp". I think the rear deck was contributing to that noise. Just using my finger to tap showed both the rear deck fiberboard? and rear deck metal had a lot of resonance. I did a lot of work sound proofing the car and was able to reduce the "whomp". Unfortunately I did the soundproofing all at once and cant say for sure what had the most effect, but I would guess it was the rear deck (and maybe rear floor).
 
I did my Tesla model 3 soundproofing bit by bit, and I noticed that the rear deck was the ''smoking gun'' when trying to stop this rumbling when driving on the rough tarmac. Other things also helped but not so much. I did very little soundproofing inside the boot.

I did a video about this.
 
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Thank you for this thread, a ton of useful information. I will need to go through some of these steps as everytime I drive my 2021 M3P I am infuriated by all of the road noise coming through the car. Surprisingly on nice roads the car is very quiet, but as soon as you hit even the smallest bump you can hear all sorts of noises and rattles.
 
Thank you for this thread, a ton of useful information. I will need to go through some of these steps as everytime I drive my 2021 M3P I am infuriated by all of the road noise coming through the car. Surprisingly on nice roads the car is very quiet, but as soon as you hit even the smallest bump you can hear all sorts of noises and rattles.
If your new car rattles, you should ask Tesla to fix that. My 40K-mile M3P has zero rattles or squeaks.

Road noise on grainy/textured pavement is my least favorite thing about my car, and unfortunately there’s very little that can be done about it. Sound deadening materials like Dynamat don’t do much and don’t actually even address the source of the noise, which originates at the tires and which is transmitted by the suspension to the chassis.

Adding an extra layer of door weatherstripping made a nice improvement in the overall cabin noise on my car.
 
Fun thread.. the deck is going to be my next project. I can hear it when I punch it.. sounds like a tin car :./ Wind noise was cut substantially with RPM's door kit. I did just two parts.. the B pillar and the A pillar and my wife noticed right away how much wind noise was reduced. I will do the rest in the near future. The frunk didnt seem to do much. I added the mats to the rear of the trunk and Frunk and those did knock down the high frequency noise ( think whine from regen) and softened the road thunks. What really did a fair bit on road noise was an old entry way rubber /wool mat I tossed into the trunk floor as an experiment. In numbers, I went from 74Db to 65Db .. same road.. same speed etc. I was thinking of the replacement wheel well plastic shields but now I'm re-thinking that. I'm not sure there is much payback for the cost.

I also did add a rubber rejuvenation to the doors.. I was surprised at the difference it made. this is the product and you want this applicator bottle.. not the spray bottle. I may have to redo it every few months but its a small price to pay.

303 Rubber Seal Protectant - Protects And Conditions Rubber Seals On Doors, Windows, Hoods, And Trunks - Rejuvenates Color On Old Seals, 3.4 fl. oz. (30324)​


 
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Fun thread.. the deck is going to be my next project. I can hear it when I punch it.. sounds like a tin car :./ Wind noise was cut substantially with RPM's door kit. I did just two parts.. the B pillar and the A pillar and my wife noticed right away how much wind noise was reduced. I will do the rest in the near future. The frunk didnt seem to do much. I added the mats to the rear of the trunk and Frunk and those did knock down the high frequency noise ( think whine from regen) and softened the road thunks. What really did a fair bit on road noise was an old entry way rubber /wool mat I tossed into the trunk floor as an experiment. In numbers, I went from 74Db to 65Db .. same road.. same speed etc. I was thinking of the replacement wheel well plastic shields but now I'm re-thinking that. I'm not sure there is much payback for the cost.

I also did add a rubber rejuvenation to the doors.. I was surprised at the difference it made. this is the product and you want this applicator bottle.. not the spray bottle. I may have to redo it every few months but its a small price to pay.

303 Rubber Seal Protectant - Protects And Conditions Rubber Seals On Doors, Windows, Hoods, And Trunks - Rejuvenates Color On Old Seals, 3.4 fl. oz. (30324)​


bumping this thread... how did the rubber sealant work?
 
Just heads up to folks looking to apply sound dampening to their trunk area. Please disconnect your 12v battery before moving the subwoofer/amplifer set. I somehow shorted my computer and it will need to be replaced. This replacement is not covered under warranty because I moved the subwoofer and applied sound dampening in the area. A $2k learning lesson.

 
Fun thread.. the deck is going to be my next project. I can hear it when I punch it.. sounds like a tin car :./ Wind noise was cut substantially with RPM's door kit. I did just two parts.. the B pillar and the A pillar and my wife noticed right away how much wind noise was reduced. I will do the rest in the near future. The frunk didnt seem to do much. I added the mats to the rear of the trunk and Frunk and those did knock down the high frequency noise ( think whine from regen) and softened the road thunks. What really did a fair bit on road noise was an old entry way rubber /wool mat I tossed into the trunk floor as an experiment. In numbers, I went from 74Db to 65Db .. same road.. same speed etc. I was thinking of the replacement wheel well plastic shields but now I'm re-thinking that. I'm not sure there is much payback for the cost.

74 dB to 65 dB is very significant. What mat did you use for the rear trunk?
 
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Just heads up to folks looking to apply sound dampening to their trunk area. Please disconnect your 12v battery before moving the subwoofer/amplifer set. I somehow shorted my computer and it will need to be replaced. This replacement is not covered under warranty because I moved the subwoofer and applied sound dampening in the area. A $2k learning lesson.

What were the symptoms? Your screen couldn’t turn back on? What was the part that failed?
 
Completed my sound deadening project for my car. I’ve been having rear rattling issues so I decided to tear the rear down and sound deaden along the way. Going in I knew the rear trunk and wheel wells were the loudest areas resonating sound.

Stripped rear trunk liners and seats. Notice how little oem sound deadener there is. Most of the sound deadening in the rear is from the bottom seat and liners. Tesla uses acoustic foam under the seat and liner.
View attachment 617339View attachment 617345
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Subwoofer out
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Added Second Skins damplifier to dampen vibrations and resonating panels. When you knock on the trunk floor it sounds like a drum!
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Added Second Skins Luxury Liner Pro and mass loaded vinyl for sound blocking on the wheel wells.

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Complete. Mass loaded vinyl and decoupler in the trunk wall. Luxury Liner Pro on motor and floor of trunk.
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I took a drive at various stages during the process since this took a few days to complete.

With the rear completely stripped to the metal, the car was LOUD. There was no dampening from the oem seats and liners. The sheet metal was the only barrier to the outside. You can hear the tire noise resonate all over the cabin. The motor was also crazy loud.

With the sound deadening damplifier sheets applied, the car was still very loud. Not much has changed in term of road noise. “Dynamatting” doesn’t do anything for road noise but helps with vibrations.

Went for a spin after applying mass loaded vinyl to the wheel wells and trunk. This made a difference. Road noise was noticeably reduced even with the car still stripped. I can compare it to how the car normally is with the seats folded down.

Went for a drive again with the liners and rear seat in. The car is considerably quieter. The tires used to resonate sound all over the cabin and sound droney on the freeway. Now that drone has been considerably muffled. The difference is very noticeable. I’m convinced most of the road noise is from the back and resonates up the shock towers and wheel wells into the cabin. I don’t plan to do the doors or anywhere else since the car is pretty quiet now. I also heard doing the doors, floors, and front wheel wells made little effect. The best bang for buck has to be the trunk and rear wells. I highly recommend properly deadening the rear if you want to quiet road noise down. Rattling is still there when I go over bumps and I’m pretty sure it’s the rear deck. Just going to bring it in and see what they say about the deck.
What is the update of this setup as far as rough roads and freeways at high speeds? Has sound truly been nullified to be considered "normal"? I am looking to have this done to my car as well sometime. Also, was it difficult to disconnect the 12V battery or just the same as ICE cars before removing the sub and amp? Any issues when connecting sub, amp, and 12V back in?
 
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