$5 foam tube + rubber door seals = less wind noise?

[cliffud]

Hey All,

I just put a set of falken 452 tires on the car and went on a 800 mile road trip. Along that 800 miles, the quiet tires (yes, as quiet as the old michelin ps2 tires) really made me realize how much wind noise is present when driving at speed with no radio. My car is a 1998 with 165k miles on it and although it rides super smooth, the wind noise really bothers me sometimes so I decided to do something about making my rubber door seals tighter. When I did something similar on the trunk of my old Mercedes to keep it air tight for the subs, it worked wonders. I hope it'll do the same for the cabin and if it does, maybe I'll do the same for the trunk lid since I have a sub in the trunk too.

OK - enough talk! On to the "how-to"!

Step 1) Pick up some foam tubing. You can find some at your local Ace Hardware store or some other shop. Take special note of the diameter of the foam tubing to ensure the tube fits.



Here's what it looks like out of the package.


Step 2) Peel back the corners of your rubber door stripping on the frame of the car. Mine for some reason were all cut already. Does it come like this or is this just wear and tear? All four of my corners were already torn.



Step 3) Insert foam into the tunnels of the rubber door stripping. Spray with Aerospace 303 to lubricate the foam and rubber tunnel and slide approximately 18"-20" into the rubber tunnel. I personally ran the foam tubing about 15-18 inches along the top of the door and a good 6-8 inches along the side. It's important that you use some type of lubricant (not that kind... ) to get the foam tube to slide smoothly into the rubber tunnel. I sprayed very generous amounts of Aerospace 303 and it went in nicely.



Step 4) Step back and admire your work. The foam tube should sit flush like this and when you let the rubber flap go, it will cover up the tube and look stock.



Step 5) Repeat for all doors. And maybe the trunk?

I just got done so I haven't had a chance to drive around yet to see how much quieter it will be.

Will post updates later.


-Clifford

[GSteg]

I've done this to my GS driver side door because the rubber seal was so flat. I can't tell if there is any wind noise difference because I have my music up most of the time, but the door does shut better .

[DarKnight]

Does it come in black? Jk, nice write-up Cliff.

[kamikaze04]

yea i have the same problem. alot of wind noise from the driver side door. gonna try this, 1st gonna wait for the results

[kenkaniff]

Sounds good! Nice step by step.

Let us know of any updates.

I might do this if it you see a difference.

[Coco-bun]

I think I see a ghost lol.

good write up, my Avalon needed this badly and looks like a great solution

[ShaneC]

very interesting.. i think i might try this after i hear the outcome

[Blkexcoupe]

This looks very interesting since my car has a lot of wind noise on the driver side.

[DJ TANTRA]

wat are the results cliff?!?!?!

[cliffud]

Hey guys-

So after driving for a couple of days, I've realized that there are multiple sources for the wind noise.

Although the foam tubing helped decrease the wind noise coming from the door, I now notice wind noise coming from the corner of the window and my gf has always said she hears the whistling on her side of the car but I never noticed it on my side. Well, now I notice it when I drive with the radio turned off cruise at 65mph.

Sooooooooooo - I'm pretty sure it helped but it doesn't really solve the entire problem. I'm going to look at the corner section of the window tomorrow and if I feel brave enough or crazy enough, I'll rip out a small tiny section of the foam tubing and jam it up there in the corner along the window track. probably not a good idea but we'll see what happens.

I'll keep you guys posted if jamming the foam up there helps. I just need to find some tweezers first so I can fish it out just in case it doesn't work or throws the alignment of the window off.

[LEXUS_KID]

Very cool what a cheap fix

[gsCrazy]

any updates cliff???


also, just curious, but when it rains do you hear a noise like there's water spraying right at the beam between the front and rear door? i hear it every time it rains.

[MATEOGS]

i did this yesterday but im going to redo it because i didnt get good at it until the third or fourth door...just get a large cup of hout water and soap,cut the length u need, dip the whole foam tube and stick it in quick...your gonna get water and soap on your seats and outside n the windows but its barely anything.

[cliffud]

ok, it's been a good couple of weeks since i've done this and i'm pretty happy with the results. the wind noise cut down with the foam tube fix but it REALLY cut down after i jammed a small piece into the corner. I didn't take any pics but just jam a small piece of foam the size of one die (craps size, not monopoly board size) and you'll be set.

Good luck!

Clifford

[kenkaniff]

You didn't have foam in the corner to begin with?

What if we just slid a long piece of foam, measured it out so it could fit inside the entire tubing, cut it, and take each end and start sliding them down and right simultaneously, so that the foam would cover the whole inner rubber tubing. Would that not work?