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Soundproofing The P85+

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we have made our way to the P85+. we love the way it handles and are thrilled with the vehicle overall, it feels rock solid. I added my own all weather mats from Costco and without thinking about it, I took out the OEM mats and then went on a weekend trip to Portland. This was the first time I really noticed the road noise, it dominated the stereo. our concrete highway's here get to be like creek beds and that sound seems to get worse in the winter, not sure if it's the denser air or the hardening of the performance rubber or what. When I put the OEM mats back in, under the rubber mats, the sound diminished but was still quite noticeable at higher speeds.

I am wondering if anyone has a decent solution for reducing the road noise. I am switching over to 19" for the winter, and maybe for good with some Michelin primacy's, hoping to find the right balance of dry grip and wet performance out of a single tire for year round in this northwest climate. Presuming the breakthrough sound is still an issue after the new tires, I don't want to spend a wad of cash on lining the car if it's not going to take care of the issue. I haven't found a review that suggests sound proofing really helps high speed sound. I am wondering if there is something I can add on top of the carpets as most of the sound appears to be coming from the front wheels/wheel wells. curious if there is a simple solution, not looking for perfection, but if there were something simple to apply that reduced the noise even 20% in the 70-80 mph range, it would be something I would probably get used to and not notice. to do something more extensive, like having all the carpets and seats pulled and the entire floor coated, I'd need to be pretty convinced that it would make a big difference. any feedback appreciated!
 
Al & Ed's Autosound have completely redone a Model S with soundproofing. I would give them a call for detals.

I purchased their mats which are simple outstanding.

---Kent


Al & Ed's Autosound
Address: 2518 Lincoln Blvd, Marina del Rey, CA 90291
Phone:(310) 697-8916
Hours:

Monday 9:00 am – 6:00 pm - See all
 
100th: The only thing I can add is several folks have said that the parcel shelf actually helps reduce sounds from the rear of the car.

I wonder if there is any noise cancellation software that you can download and pump through the stereo?

Would be interested to hear more about the comparison between your prior cars and the +. The road noise at highway speeds is keeping me from pulling the trigger.
 
I did a little work on reducing the road & wind noise in my signature as well. The cargo shelf definitely helps but there was still some detectable road noise coming through from the back. I mainly installed 3M thinsulate sound insulation around the drafters. These are the trapezoidal black things mounted into the lower rear quarter panels on both sides. You can see them in the Tore up the cargo area post pictures. I alsod did a little wind noise work around the front passenger side window as well. Since you are in the area PM me if you would like to see if it is detectable quieter.

The Michelin 19's are definitely quieter.
 
100th: The only thing I can add is several folks have said that the parcel shelf actually helps reduce sounds from the rear of the car.

I wonder if there is any noise cancellation software that you can download and pump through the stereo?

Would be interested to hear more about the comparison between your prior cars and the +. The road noise at highway speeds is keeping me from pulling the trigger.

The parcel shelf is not an option for me because we frequently use the jump seats. my list of previous cars wouldn't be helpful, nothing I've owned comes even close to the SS, the P or P+. where at this interesting juncture of fulfilling high end sport car itch crossed with needing a family minivan. If high road noise is my penalty with everything else being so amazing, I'm pretty sure I can work around it with a mod of some sort. I personally wouldn't let the noise hold you back, the handling is so superb and the noise only gets obtrusive at high speeds, the rest of the time the car is a dream machine!
 
I wonder if thicker carpets all around would help at all? Like the ones Lloyd's makes? I thought I read somewhere too that window tint may slightly improve the wind noise. Maybe a lot of little things may add up to a slight quieter interior. I too would be interested in some mods in that regard.
 
I am planning to take my P85+ (metallic grey with black interior + carbon fiber) to Benchmark Motoring (http://benchmarkmotoring.com/) in Bellevue for sound abatement therapy right after I take delivery at the end of November as I noted intrusive road noise during all 4 of my test drives. Benchmark told me they've done mods to several Model S (sound deadening, subwoofers, etc.) and had positive results. It might be worth calling them with specifics of where you're hearing noise emanate from and ask if their materials/approach will solve.
 
Certain highway road surfaces (concrete in particular for me in my locale) and the Michelin PS2 (P+) are extremely noisy. After a while on this combination when the road changes to blacktop, the sudden absence of tire roar makes me feel I've gone deaf.
 
You'd think Tesla would have come up with a solution for this by now...

I don't know why, but some people (and apparently Tesla too), just don't seem to pick up on the loud tire noise. I can't imagine selecting this tire for their top trim level unless they were deaf or just absolutely committed to this size (very limited choices in this size). I have driven 3 or 4 other P+ and the all are the same (i.e. bad tire noise, really bad at highway speed on concrete). The odd thing is that, in my experience with my ICE and other cars, other Michelins in general are very quiet tires.

I have the cargo shelf installed and don't think it helps much with this particular noise. Maybe I will stuff a mattress in the cargo area and see how that goes :)
 
Certain highway road surfaces (concrete in particular for me in my locale) and the Michelin PS2 (P+) are extremely noisy. After a while on this combination when the road changes to blacktop, the sudden absence of tire roar makes me feel I've gone deaf.

I believe this is definitely the case. FWIW, I drove a P85+ in Vancouver last week and while it was a bit noisy, I didn't think it was intrusive. I was also driving without the sound system on to help mask the sound. Normally I would have the music blaring and likely wouldn't notice anything.

Concrete and rough-coat pavement seem to be the worst offenders as far as generating tire roar. Fortunately, here in Saskatchewan, we have very little of the former. Quite a bit of the latter, though. :crying:
 
The parcel shelf is not an option for me because we frequently use the jump seats. my list of previous cars wouldn't be helpful, nothing I've owned comes even close to the SS, the P or P+. where at this interesting juncture of fulfilling high end sport car itch crossed with needing a family minivan. If high road noise is my penalty with everything else being so amazing, I'm pretty sure I can work around it with a mod of some sort. I personally wouldn't let the noise hold you back, the handling is so superb and the noise only gets obtrusive at high speeds, the rest of the time the car is a dream machine!

I'm in the exact same boat and so happy that the stars have aligned with the MS: I can haul three young kids and their stuff, commute to work or take a senior exec to a meeting in a high tech luxury sedan. Then when it's just Daddy, I can fling it around like I was at Laguna Seca!
 
I have installed a complete interior dynamat and upgraded stereo system on my P85+ because of such harsh road noise. After spending 6K on the stereo/soundproofing, the stereo sounds great.
The soundproofing may have helped by about 15% only...not sure if it was work the 3K to do it.
 
You'd think Tesla would have come up with a solution for this by now...

I think the "solution" is to run the 19"/primacy combo. I have a P85+ and while I would love for it to be quieter, I don't know if it's fair to criticize tire noise on a machine tuned for high performance. Most high performance cars likely have tire noise but its masked by all of the mechanical noise of the drivetrain.
 
Soft compound tires are always noisy. There's some variation based on brand/model, but if you're choosing a high-performance summer tire, it's going to be noisy. You could step down to an all-season similar to what's on the 19"s (if they make any in the + sizing, not sure), but you'll lose the performance benefits.
 
I think the "solution" is to run the 19"/primacy combo. I have a P85+ and while I would love for it to be quieter, I don't know if it's fair to criticize tire noise on a machine tuned for high performance. Most high performance cars likely have tire noise but its masked by all of the mechanical noise of the drivetrain.

Soft compound tires are always noisy. There's some variation based on brand/model, but if you're choosing a high-performance summer tire, it's going to be noisy. You could step down to an all-season similar to what's on the 19"s (if they make any in the + sizing, not sure), but you'll lose the performance benefits.

+1

simply put there are tradeoffs. max performance has always been detrimental to road noise. what's amazing is how little the ride suffers. it's amazingly well damped.