Reducing wind noise.

billoddie

Active Member
Like most older cars, a lot of the noise in the cabin comes from the wind passing over the car, in particular around the door frames, as these "catch" the wind; leading to that rustling/buffeting sound that increases as speed rises.
In an effort to somewhat reduce this, I have made attempts to strategically place extra sealing strips around the inner/outer door bodies and frames.
TBH, I have no idea if it has worked one iota, as I haven't had the car up to any appreciable speed yet, and I have nothing to compare it to.
I do know that the doors are quite considerably harder to open, due to a "vacuum" like effect...they close in the same manner...very vault like.
Anyways, have attached some pics for perusal.
My aim was to add sealing without it being appreciably noticed or intrusive.
So far, no one has noticed them enough to comment.
 

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HI Brenten

Intrigueing and sensible. Essentially you've simply filled the panel gap around the door frames? Now why hasn't anyone else thought of that?

What did you use for the rubbers - any specific source?

Chris
 
looks good brenten, fills in the door gaps nicely, just to go off topic a little, but did you ever get to look at the door weather shields that were manufactured near you??

Scott
 
Hi guys.
Yes, I have filled the gaps between the door frames (trimlock)...but it extends to a lot more then that.
If you look at the last few pics, you can see that I have also attended to the the bottoms of the doors, the inner shut lines and the inner spaces between the INSIDE doors and the body.
It got down to a lot of trial and error.
Firstly, I sat in all the seats and looked and felt/prodded where there were spaces where I felt I could put sealing foam.
I started and basically put it everywhere I could...and then the doors wouldn't close properly.
From there, I took/added bits and pieces until the doors opened and closed properly..I tried to get it to the centimetre...absolute maxxed it out.
They now close very solid like, but are sometimes are a little hesitant to open...not through friction, but from a sense of having an "airlock"

One of the areas I targeted was the the perimeter of inner doors...where they close against the body... particularly the rear doors.
If you get under the rear door, and open and close it, you can see that there is quite a lot of room in various spots where it closes against the body...sealed these.
This picture is of that area...its a bit of an ugly job...with a bit more time and care, I could make it more aesthetically pleasing.
In normal use, you really don't see this area, so I was a bit lax on the looks

Also...sit in the rear seat...look at the gaps at the front of the rear door, between the body pillar and the door card...foam placed on an angle fills this nicely, and yet remains virtually invisible.
The material I used was a combination of three types of foam. (trimlock and self adhesive seal.)
It is all proper sealing foam from a place called Ovesco.
I joined it where needed with super glue (which kind of "melted" it nicely to each end), and in spots where the trimlock ended, I filled the end "hole" with black silicone which made it look more "factory", as well as providing a degree of extra "compressability"

http://www.ovesco.com.au/index.php?catn ... trip&cat=4

I used both widths of trimlock and also the self adhesive seal.
It wasn't an easy job...tedious, and with quite a bit of trial and error. (Took about 2 weeks working intermittently)
I hope though that it just makes that bit of a difference to the quietness of the car and cuts down some of that wind noise...time will tell.

P.S... Haven't made up my mind about the door shield thingy yet...not sure if it will add to or reduce the wind rustle quotient.
 

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That is very inventive Brenten... :)

I do quite a lot of highway speed driving and I have noticed that when it is a windy day the level of wind noise heard within increases noticably.

Except for windy days I tend to hear the V8 roar quite clearly, which is far more evident than with the original 3.5, so wind noise I tend not to notice... 8)

A friend of mine was in a Rover dealership quite some years ago chatting with the owner, they discussed wind noise and general mechanical sounds that you might hear in a Rover. The dealer who was a bit of a wag said..."that is what the radio is for... :p "

Anyway I digress, I do like what you are doing,..have you had a chance to test them at highway speeds yet to see if you can detect a difference?

Ron.
 
Hi Ron.
I do feel the extra sealing has been of some benefit, but not by vast amounts...rustling etc is still quite evident, just the degree is a little less.
Overall, I would say that the radio/stereo is still a useful "noise abatement" instrument.
When you consider that the Rover was regarded as a quiet car, it makes one appreciate the galactic advances modern cars have made in wind noise suppression and general NVH.
I remember about 10 years ago, riding in a Jag MK2 and being astonished how noisy it was; the same with an 80's Roller.
It was disappointing to my preconceptions; born from the superlatives of contemporary road reports.
Even base model Falcodores are massive massive improvements over all those "silent" cars of yesteryear.

Be great to have the money and the resources to do a Rover like this cat has done with his Mk1 Jag. (Gotta doff ya hat to him...super effort.)

http://jaguar.fiboy.com/Mk1.htm

(Scroll down about half way for noise suppression, although I am sure you will intrigued by the whole project anyway)
 
I'm of the understanding that the gutters cause most of the wind noise, hence modern cars not having any. Some of the P5 & P4 owners have experimented by masking them off & report that the difference is notable.
 
Obviously you have put quite a bit of thought and effort into this - hope it makes a difference. As well as door seals and gutters, I had kind of assumed that the windscreen seal was a big source of wind noise? Rather than the windscreen being recessed like it is on a P6, modern cars have flush bonded screens which I assume reduces noise and drag?

To be fair to the P6, I suspect that it was very quiet when it was designed 50 years ago. I was driving at speed this weekend with the kids in the car and, though noticeably louder than a modern, it struck me that we could still easily have a conversation. I can remember some old British cars of yesteryear where, even if you managed to get it up to 70mph, you pretty much had to shout at the other passengers :) .

Anyway, all that wind noise gives me an excuse to ignore the Missus :) :) .
 
JVY said:
anyyway, all that wind noise gives me an excuse to ignore the Missus

:D

I was 'requested' to slow down because it was too noisy a couple of weeks ago on the A1. We were going quite well (4500rpm in top). I need to look at the door seals as the passenger can see the sky if they look up next to the passenger door, so I might as well give it a go and seal it all off properly. Thanks for the idea!
 
I don't think so. :)

Only discovered it when I took my Grandpa for a ride and he pokes at EVERYTHING :roll: ; he poked at the seal round the stainless surround and went "I can see the sky, does it not leak?"
 
:LOL: You need to stop giving your Grandpa rides - then you can carry on in a sate of blissful ignorance.
 
I read a serious article about wind noise in cars that suggested all wind noise was a result of air being sucked out of the car via gaps in the door seals.
I think its much more as a result of turbulence round sharp angles or anything like a wing mirror,aerial or other addition that disturbs the flow of air over or around the vehicle.
Probably the resultant noise is louder if there are gaps round the rubbers.
 
Just to revive a very old thread. This seems like a spectacularly good idea. Has anyone taken this any further. I Noticed while (gently) jet-washing the car the other day that there is a gap at to top of the dividing strip between the main front window and the quarter light which lets in water. A little bit of bathroom silicone here also seemed to stop some whistling.
 
Have been contemplating replacing my door seals for some years but not sure if the repros will last. (I have had the windscreen seals for some time and not fitted them).
But I do recall that in 1971 after my first long run on an Autoroute there was a lot of wind noise and I had the front passenger door seal replaced in Brussels - was hoping they would do it under warranty but they charged for it. Didn't make a lot of difference then!
Now of course the seals are very much compressed and with everything shut the car is quite noisy, so I tend to crank open the front quarter vents and at least there is a proper reason for the noise.

Liked the earlier reference to the radio, but my experience is at freeway speeds the noise drowns it out.
 
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