My Experience with Noise Reduction

[jsalerni]

There are a lot of threads detailing various noise reduction tactics. I've finally gotten my 2023 M3LR to a good point, so I thought I would summarize what I've done in the hopes that it might simplify the research for someone new to Model 3. I have the original Continental tires (4K miles) at this point, so I can't speak to whether different tires would help even more. I don't hear a lot of tire noise on normal roads. At this point, the car is very quiet at speeds up to 70 or so.. Above 70, there is some low frequency wind noise that is likely the result of poor aerodynamics and unfixable I think.

10 piece Road noise Reduction kit - Seemed to help with noise from many sources and not very expensive at $55

Fender Noise Reduction Kit - Did not come with instructions and I couldn't find any video, but not too tricky to install over plastic fender liners using same clips (although I added a few extras to minimize panel-to-panel vibrations). Again, seemed to have a significant effect on road noise for about $125

Insulation for rear wheel wells - 1" ceramic fiber added underneath panels left and right of rear seat. Seemed to minimize rear wheel well noise for only $27. Driver side pictured below.

Window Wind Noise - as delivered, the car had a significant whistling wind noise at the upper corner of driver's side window at speeds of 45 mph and up. I submitted a service request and Tesla came to my house and changed the door gasket. Noise was worse, so I submitted a second ticket. Second gasket replacement fixed the problem. From what I can see, the gaskets are a bit erratic in shape and the weak point for leaks is this spot.

Frunk and Trunk liners - I looked into these, but it didn't seem like they would make much difference since 2 gaskets now buffer the frunk noise and the rear seat buffers the trunk noise. Maybe someone else has had fantastic results and can share.

Adhesive Sound-dampening - Some people have raved about this, but I can't imagine that it makes that much difference and the work involved (taking doors apart and windows out, etc.) and costs seemed very high to me (taking doors apart, etc.)

Anyway, this summary may be redundant, but I hope it provides a jumping off point for anyone who wants to try to improve their noise situation without spending too much.

 

[XPsionic]

There are a lot of threads detailing various noise reduction tactics. I've finally gotten my 2023 M3LR to a good point, so I thought I would summarize what I've done in the hopes that it might simplify the research for someone new to Model 3. I have the original Continental tires (4K miles) at this point, so I can't speak to whether different tires would help even more. I don't hear a lot of tire noise on normal roads. At this point, the car is very quiet at speeds up to 70 or so.. Above 70, there is some low frequency wind noise that is likely the result of poor aerodynamics and unfixable I think.

10 piece Road noise Reduction kit - Seemed to help with noise from many sources and not very expensive at $55

Fender Noise Reduction Kit - Did not come with instructions and I couldn't find any video, but not too tricky to install over plastic fender liners using same clips (although I added a few extras to minimize panel-to-panel vibrations). Again, seemed to have a significant effect on road noise for about $125

Insulation for rear wheel wells - 1" ceramic fiber added underneath panels left and right of rear seat. Seemed to minimize rear wheel well noise for only $27. Driver side pictured below.

Window Wind Noise - as delivered, the car had a significant whistling wind noise at the upper corner of driver's side window at speeds of 45 mph and up. I submitted a service request and Tesla came to my house and changed the door gasket. Noise was worse, so I submitted a second ticket. Second gasket replacement fixed the problem. From what I can see, the gaskets are a bit erratic in shape and the weak point for leaks is this spot.

Frunk and Trunk liners - I looked into these, but it didn't seem like they would make much difference since 2 gaskets now buffer the frunk noise and the rear seat buffers the trunk noise. Maybe someone else has had fantastic results and can share.

Adhesive Sound-dampening - Some people have raved about this, but I can't imagine that it makes that much difference and the work involved (taking doors apart and windows out, etc.) and costs seemed very high to me (taking doors apart, etc.)

Anyway, this summary may be redundant, but I hope it provides a jumping off point for anyone who wants to try to improve their noise situation without spending too much.

View attachment 992414

So in your opinion, the front fender liner kit did the most to reduce noise?

I've put in the ceramic fibre in the same place + more inside the rear wheel well and above the rear shock towers (accessed through the trunk by removing the trunk side liners), it made a small but noticeable difference. In my car it's no longer the road noise that really bothers me, but the interior panels in the rear that rattles and reverb over big sharp bumps that do. There were also a lot of small ticking noises from the rear bench area from the seat material moving and rubbing against each other, but I've managed to stuff enough foam and plastics to make the rear bench close up tight against the rear bulk head, and those have almost entirely gone away.

 

[jsalerni]

I don't feel like any one change had a huge effect. The end result is pretty good, but it is the the result of the cumulative effect of all of these small things. You still hear bumps on a rough road, but they are more soft, dull thud then loud, sharp noises. You still hear some slight wind and outside noises, but they are muted. Between my own trials and what I've read, it seems that you can't get much farther with this even if you spend a ton of time and/or money; so I'm satisfied with how it is now since it didn't cost me much time or money. I guess I'm also lucky in that my car doesn't seem to have the panel squeaks or rattles that some people have to deal with. Overall, the build quality is pretty good on mine; I have no big complaints. Good luck with yours.

 

[KielG]

I don't feel like any one change had a huge effect. The end result is pretty good, but it is the the result of the cumulative effect of all of these small things. You still hear bumps on a rough road, but they are more soft, dull thud then loud, sharp noises. You still hear some slight wind and outside noises, but they are muted. Between my own trials and what I've read, it seems that you can't get much farther with this even if you spend a ton of time and/or money; so I'm satisfied with how it is now since it didn't cost me much time or money. I guess I'm also lucky in that my car doesn't seem to have the panel squeaks or rattles that some people have to deal with. Overall, the build quality is pretty good on mine; I have no big complaints. Good luck with yours.

If your car starts squeaking sounding like a spring mattress with turning and bumps then you need to add grease to your upper control arm ball joint boot. You can find good YouTube videos on it. It costed me 40 bucks for the grease gun, grease, needle. Squeaks have disappears and Tesla only fix is to charge you 300-800 to change out the control arms. Thanks for the info on reducing in cabin noise I will add these to my 2020 Tesla Model Y Performance.

You don't need to take the wheel off to do this. Here's the video I used on it.

 

[enemji]

Between my own trials and what I've read, it seems that you can't get much farther with this even if you spend a ton of time and/or money;

Exactly! The only other thing, and that is very important, is the rubber that meets the road. In that regards, I went for the 18” Michelin Primacy Tour A/S tires 94V and that basically closed my efforts on noise reduction. This is as good as it can get.