Roof Wind Noise *Fixed*

[agoldman]

Anyone have an amazon link to the appropriate foam cord for this?

Grainger 3/16" foam cord. Just search amazon for this.

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[RonTCat]

Just measured the gap on my FE. Almost exactly 1/8" all the way across. We have very little wind noise, and then only well above 60 MPH. I'm not surprised that filling that gap with foam may end a wind noise problem, but I suspect the gap isn't the core problem. Perhaps the rubber that the windshield lays on, and butts up against the roof glass has some other issue on the noisy cars?

No.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

It's possible the folks on the assembly line aren't getting the roofs in exactly the right place now that they are cranking cars out quickly. The design may be fine but a slight difference in positioning during assembly could be an issue.

Not only likely @ChasingCoral, but that's also highly probable.

 

[SoriceConsulting]

Just an FYI. I did a test drive today - had a Premium AWD ER for about 4 hours and drove it about 2 hours. The only wind noise I heard was what seemed to come from windows - but only at about 70-80 MPH. I'd kind of expect some wind noise at those speeds. Up to about 70 it was really quiet. It must be a defect in some that Ford needs to address.

 

[louibluey]

My roof had subtantial wind noise. ... I bought the product below from grainger and it reduced reduced the noise by 50-70%. My only issue is I may need a slightly larger product (probably 1/4 inch) if it is to stay in place long term.

Wow, I did the fix today and the results are nothing short of stunning. I used .25" (USA Sealing, purchased from McMasterCarr) Neoprene Sponge Cord. Thank you @JSW!

After several difficult attempts, by different methods, I remembered the Tesla guy saying to use dish soap with a bit of water. That did the trick. I was able to just push it in guided by my thumbnail, which is a bit sore now. But, it just dropped right into place. I would say about 60% to 80% improvement for my car, which was not terrible to begin with. Wind noise was pronounced, just not as loud as others have reported. A bit of wind noise remains if you listen for it, but now road / tire noise is dominant.

One possible metric might be if we can find a tone or noise source that we can all play in a "sort of" calibrated way? So, just turn it up, watching the radio volume numbers until the sound matches or just masks the wind / road noise. Not sure if android auto and/or car play on different devices would allow for that kind of "gross" calibration between users?

 

[RyZt]

I used a 3/16" EPDM rubber cord (from here). It took me almost half an hour to push it in. I haven't driven it around to see the noise reduction yet.

Thanks to @JSW for sharing his experience, and to @louibluey for mentioning soap and water.

How much time did it take for the two of you to fit the cord in there? I remember that @JSW mentioned that some materials are harder than others. I wonder whether EPDM is harder than Neoprene.

 

[JSW]

I used a 3/16" EPDM rubber cord (from here). It took me almost half an hour to push it in. I haven't driven it around to see the noise reduction yet.

Thanks to @JSW for sharing his experience, and to @louibluey for mentioning soap and water.

How much time did it take for the two of you to fit the cord in there? I remember that @JSW mentioned that some materials are harder than others. I wonder whether EPDM is harder than Neoprene.

I initially tried rubber. 1/8 was way too small. 3/16 was snug enough to work in some places, and too loose in others. I needed a material that would compress by at least 50% so that it could fill the gap along the entire leading edge of the roof, even though the gap was not of uniform width.

 

[RyZt]

I initially tried rubber. 1/8 was way too small. 3/16 was snug enough to work in some places, and too loose in others. I needed a material that would compress by at least 50% so that it could fill the gap along the entire leading edge of the roof, even though the gap was not of uniform width.

Does the foam cord you quoted in the initial post allow 50% compression?

 

[JSW]

Does the foam cord you quoted in the initial post allow 50% compression?

Yes. It is MUCH softer than the other (rubber) materials I tried.
So much so that I needed to buy a larger diameter to ensure a good compression fit.

 

[eltonlin]

EPDM is pretty dense. Neoprene is almost half the density.

I got a 3/16" EPDM and a 1/4" Neoprene to try out. My gap looks to be pretty consistent @ 1/8". Also purchased some trim tools off of amazon that will hopefully aid in the installation.

 

[louibluey]

... How much time did it take for the two of you to fit the cord in there? ...

Trying all the ways that did not work, trim tool, pulling to make thinner and working in, going under and pulling back up, all 45 minutes+. The marks in the cord are from all of my failed attempts.

Dish soap and a bit of water, 10 minutes or less, just drops right into place without falling into the abyss below.

I chose this Neoprene [sponge cord, a foam cord] because of the -30 F rating (others were 0 F min). No idea how important that is (we get at least a few mornings of -25 F here most winters), or more importantly, how long it will last. For now, all is good, and I have enough for at least one, if not two replacements.

Hey Ford, if you are listening, not only do you need to fix this, but you should send @JSW some perk!

 

[Trede]

Someone (somewhere? another thread?) mentioned wanting pictures of not-out-of-spec panel gaps. I just quickly took my digital calipers around the Mach-E and found that the gaps I measured (frontdoors/fender, windshield/roof, rear-hatch/fender) were all 5mm +/- ~.5mm.
Once my wife and I are done with work today, I'll get her assistance to get pics while I measure so folks have something to reference.

 

[benk016]

Well, I ordered some foam cord and it came in today. I took a drive on the highway next to my house and used a decibel meter app on my phone to track it. Then came back home, put the foam in, actually went all the way around the windshield with it. Then took it back out to the same spot on the highway.

I actually thought it sounded worse with it in there for me. The biggest difference is that I feel like the sound is more localized to right and left top corner of the windshield, where that gap is considerably bigger. Before the foam you could hear wind noise all across the top of the windshield.

At low speeds, it did seem to be a little more quiet than before. But I didn't measure low speeds.

Before with no foam. Highway Speed (75mph)

After foam cord installation. Same mile section of Highway. (75mph)

 

[eltonlin]

I received my foam cord today. Definitely go foam over rubber cord; I can see why it can take forever to get rubber cord into the gap - that stuff is dense!

3/16" diameter Foam cord worked quite well for me, installation wise. Will need to drive it around tomorrow to see if there is a difference.

 

[VegStang]

I noticed wind noise at the roof (above 35 mph) as others have with my delivery last night. Thanks to the members testing “temporary“ solutions to the issue, I may need to address this myself. Will know more once I get the vehicle on the freeway and able to test with tape etc.

Comparing the windshield to roofline with my Pacifica shows the MME to be quite a bit different in that the step up is much more pronounced. I'm sure it's easier in assembly to align a windshield to metal frame, than two glass panels that come together (albeit on a metal frame.)

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