Any ear pain/pressure from boomy rumble or road noise?

[PhotonMiles]

I'm wondering if anyone with AWD Mach-E's are experiencing any sensations of ear pain/pressure from boomy rumble & road noise in the car? Basically is the car painfully bass-y on rougher roads?

This is a huge problem in my Tesla Y and apparently also the Audi E-Tron, and I'm wondering if the Mach-E suffers as well. See this thread at the Tesla forums:

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/ear-pain-pressure-help.205783/

I guess it has something to do with the engineering choices for dialing in the "noise, vibration, harshness" characteristics of EVs with subframes that are hard-bolted to the main body without any bushings or buffers of some kind. The road noise is passed straight into the frame which starts resonating like a subwoofer.

"Simulating and Optimizing the Dynamic Chassis Forces of the Audi E-Tron"

"Reduction of Body Boom by Optimizing the Dynamic Axle Forces"

The noise is often super-low frequency, around 35Hz or so, which means you often "feel" it more than you hear it. In the Model Y the noise can be 95-100dB at even slow speeds! NOT good!

So at this point I'm wondering if this is inherent in all current SUV/crossover-style EVs or if the Mach-E is better in this regard.

If anyone wants to measure it with a decibel meter or an app on a phone, be sure to use the dBC scale which detects low frequencies better than dBA scale.

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[macchiaz-o]

Wow, crazy. I've not experienced this issue. I have the rwd model.

 

[krafty81]

Nope.

 

[ARK]

I had seen that thread on the Model Y forum before I got my Mach-E. I was concerned that this might somehow be caused by some design necessity that all electric cars are susceptible to because as you mention some people with the E-Tron have also reported it, and also the Model S if you get into that thread.

But I have never felt this on my Mach-E. I had been ‘on alert’ for that phenomenon ever since coming across that thread, but have never felt that sensation in my Mach-E.

 

[RedStallion]

Nope, never experienced that. I've got AWD.

 

[Ajpeo3]

Nope.

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

Never heard of this, nor experienced it in Mach-E. I know my F-150 has a painful pressure wave if one of the rear windows is down (air hits the vertical back glass with nowhere to go). But my Mach-E doesn’t seem to have any such thing in any driving condition I’ve found. I also haven’t tried any sound monitoring devices other than a simple decibel meter to see how quiet it truly is while driving.

 

[louibluey]

also AWD, nope. I like to measure things as much as the next guy, but if sensations of ear pain/pressure from boomy rumble & road noise is a problem, you don't need a SLM to detect its presence, ears work just fine

BTW some gen 1 Volts had this problem even if you just cracked the windows. It was literally painful to the ears. To GMs credit, for those who asked, they installed new mirror covers painted to match with aerodynamic features at no cost, which actually fixed the problem.

 

[Ponypower50]

Not here!

 

[Ciero]

I was aware of this before taking my car and I was concerned because I'm pretty sensitive to that sort of thing as well. I had a cold the first week and I swear I got a headache every time I drove and I got really nervous about it being a long term thing. It doesn't give me any issues any longer, although I can kind of sense it happening at times, but it's not bad enough to bother me.

 

[Major]

Only on certain roads. When I first heard it I kept attempting to determine exactly from where it was originating. I have been unable to pinpoint it. I have the AWD.

 

[Totallyford]

Nope, not here and AWD

 

[JBA]

I fear I have exactly this issue with my RWD SR allthough not to the extend that it's becomming painfull but it's still annoying as hell. This noise/rumble gets my attention each ride I make and frankly I hardly enjoyed any ride due to it.

It's a sort of tire noise being transferred to another hollow part of the car. We have very good tarmac in the Netherlands but this rumble is there 95% of the time. The rougher the tarmac (and rough is relative here) the more noise it makes. Speed doesn't seem to affect it, low speed or fast, I keep hearing this low frequency rumble from the front as if the tire noise gets into the frunk and resonates there. This isn't the actual case as i put the frunk full of blankets but it didnt make any difference. Lowering tire preasure from 3.0 bar to 2.4 doesn't help. My new 20inch set with pirreli p-zero's and noise canceling foam unfortunately didn't help either to reduce the noise.

Today I went to the garage and the mechanic heard the noise straight away and without me telling what i thought he instantly said is sounded like tirenoise being transferred to the front axel which causing this noise. We got into a RWD SR demo but that one broke down after 200meters (big warning of overheating batteries....) so we had to abort. That being the only RWD they had that ended my comparison test.

He will be checking if it's a known issue and if not he will try to figure out what could be wrong and/or make a complaint. He said if its a car "feature" they didn't do a good job as this shouldn't be like this but i'm not sure what any good that will do to me.

In the meantime I'm trying to get a ride in another RWD to figure out myself if it's a "feature" or a "bug" but either way i'm currently not happy....

 

[Mach-e4x]

I hear it too on my AWD Premium X- Some roads are OK but most are noisy, low frequency, hollow sound.

 

[cab]

I noticed this on my Model S (older model - 2013), and on the Model Y Performance I both test drove and then another Model Y Long Rage I rented for 2 days (Turo). Hatch stopper adjustments definitely help, but do not fully alleviate. I also noted it on the Polestar 2 I rented for a day (but to a lesser extent).

Finally, I did not experience it on my Chevy Volt (3 year lease), or on the Chevy Bolt AND Tesla Model 3 test drives (one of which was for a full day - Turo again). I think the hatchback cars are definitely more susceptible to this, but it isn't a hard and fast rule...you even see other ICE hatches with the issue too though.

I agree there does seem to be SOMETHING happening in the EV space here. I'm sure the weight of these cars is coming into play and as most are trying to keep the already high costs down, few come with high end suspensions (am very interested to hear about the magneride on the GTPE cars).

Note: I've done more research on this than I care to admit. The worst example: last gen Tahoe/Yukon (check out this 183 page post: https://www.gm-trucks.com/forums/topic/162779-2015-yukon-noise-in-cabin/

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