Extreme wind noise from Corolla doors

[parkerbol]

Here is the post in french :

Less noise from roads and crossed cars and better sound proofing even in tunnels.

[jukie]

cant help but can say the corolla is the noisiest car I have had in years, I had an MG HS (large cheap SUV)on hire a week or so ago and that was quieter than my corrolla

[Woofwoof]

On 3/7/2022 at 4:42 PM, jukie said:

cant help but can say the corolla is the noisiest car I have had in years, I had an MG HS (large cheap SUV)on hire a week or so ago and that was quieter than my corrolla

You clearly haven’t driven the vw golf mk8

[jukie]

1 hour ago, Woofwoof said:

You clearly haven’t driven the vw golf mk8

no never driven any Golf...driven a Seat Leon MK3 ( i dont know the equivalent golf)  and thats way quiter 

[Hardy888]

I had a golf 7 and it was super quiet despite being a diesel

[Cyker]

I think the quietest car I've been in is a VW Diesel PD Passat. It had plushy seats! So comfy!  

 

[TonyHSD]

Is the 8 bad? I will be surprised too. VW actually make or use to make one of the most refined cars in its class, a polo from 2015 was better than any Toyota I had ever been, motorways, speed bumps, the polo was so goo that I forgot I was driving a polo and was thinking it’s a Passat . 👌✅

[Cyker]

Yeah, it's surprising to hear! For all their shortcomings, refinement is usually something the german manufacturers are still top tier...!

[Woofwoof]

17 hours ago, jukie said:

no never driven any Golf...driven a Seat Leon MK3 ( i dont know the equivalent golf)  and thats way quiter 

I find the mk7 and 7.5 golfs were far superior to the mk8 in every regard

Leon mk3 was same gen as the mk7 golfs

[Woofwoof]

16 hours ago, TonyHSD said:

Is the 8 bad? I will be surprised too. VW actually make or use to make one of the most refined cars in its class, a polo from 2015 was better than any Toyota I had ever been, motorways, speed bumps, the polo was so goo that I forgot I was driving a polo and was thinking it’s a Passat . 👌✅

Had a polo recently on rental abroad

actually quieter than the mk8 golf I’ve rented a few times

although the polo was too spec and the golf base spec

both had terrible seats

the Corolla seats are the most supportive in class for the back (could do with better thought support) but the higher spec sport seats are next level

[Persimmon]

31 minutes ago, Woofwoof said:

both had terrible seats

the Corolla seats are the most supportive in class for the back (could do with better thought support) but the higher spec sport seats are next level

Agreed. Corolla's Sport seats are fantastic. Never driven a Golf or a Polo, but standarad Passat seats weren't exactly comfortable. Too flat (like in some Hondas), like a train station bench. 

[clix]

On 2/28/2022 at 10:57 PM, parkerbol said:

Here is the post in french :

Less noise from roads and crossed cars and better sound proofing even in tunnels.

@parkerbol, tnx for your information.

I also checked below two threads on hybridlife forum:
https://hybridlife.org/threads/tutoriel-de-lajout-des-joints-detancheite-sur-une-voiture-toyota.3488/
https://hybridlife.org/resources/tutoriel-de-lajout-des-joints-detancheite-sur-une-voiture-toyota.8/

It looks like toyota has OEM seals that fit different cars. Is there a reason that you went with the "standard" and not original toyota seals? Do you know if these seals also fit corolla? I could find on the hybridlife, that they were successfully fitted on CHR and prius, but no info about the corolla.

[Michael L]

On 7/15/2021 at 8:42 AM, Gerg said:

Whilst I hope it does for you, I am guessing it probably won't affect the noise much, sadly.

But I am certainly no expert on these matters. 

Both front and rear wheels on the Corolla will have an amount of toe-in set at the factory (wheels pointing slightly towards the centre line of the car), this is good for vehicle stability, apparently. 

Obviously there will be Toyota specification which your car will be being set to.   'Excessive' toe-in creates rolling-resistance (drag) and produces uneven tyre wear, usually sawtoothing. If there is little or no toe-in (particularly at the front), then the car can become more susceptible to side winds etc., and the steering can become more vague.  There are probably other considerations/symptoms that I don't know of.

On another brand (Skoda), I have heard of this toe-in figure being officially reduced, eventually, because so many owners were complaining of irregular tyre wear.  It's interesting that that figure can be changed from the chassis designers' original.

Perhaps someone can correct any errors in this?

This is right about earlier Skodas. I had an Octavias which trashed the rear tyres in less than 30,000 miles. There was a lot of arguement with Skoda but they changed the specification in the end and the problem was resolved. It was a common problem at the time.

[mjjferreira]

Tyre noise is too bad in my corolla 2.0 TS (17" wheels). Already swapped the falkens with michelin primacy but the noise remains

The suspension of the corolla is just to stiff!! Almost "track day" ready. It does not absorve harsh roads...noise and vibration is transmitted to the interior of the car.

Sometimes i think the corolla has 4 wood logs instead of 4 shock aborvers. Its really bad...

My old 08' peugeot SW was, far, far better.

[TonyHSD]

1 hour ago, mjjferreira said:

Tyre noise is too bad in my corolla 2.0 TS (17" wheels). Already swapped the falkens with michelin primacy but the noise remains

The suspension of the corolla is just to stiff!! Almost "track day" ready. It does not absorve harsh roads...noise and vibration is transmitted to the interior of the car.

Sometimes i think the corolla has 4 wood logs instead of 4 shock aborvers. Its really bad...

My old 08' peugeot SW was, far, far better.

What trim level is the car? Have you checked the tyre pressure on cold to be within recommended psi? Sometimes when dry cold outside with air temperature around 2-4 C° these cars for some reason feel like they have rounded stones directly fitted to the chassis instead of tyres on suspension. Older Toyotas may have bushes hardened a bit but interestingly same happens to new cars too. 

[mjjferreira]

My TS 2.0 is a 12/2021 model.

The trim, here in Portugal, is called "Exclusive" and is almost the higher and most expensive trim (the top one is called "Luxury")

Currently the average temperature is 15°. In the next months it will be rising slowly until it reaches temperatures of 30º to 35° in June, July and August.

Tyre pressure is 2.5bar.

[Cyker]

Might be worth raising or lowering the tyre pressures by a few PSI to see if it makes any difference, but yeah it does seem anecdotally the TNGA cars are a bit worse for road noise on roads that aren't glassy smooth compared to older platforms.

[Kental]

3 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Might be worth raising or lowering the tyre pressures by a few PSI to see if it makes any difference, but yeah it does seem anecdotally the TNGA cars are a bit worse for road noise on roads that aren't glassy smooth compared to older platforms.

There has to be a downside to the 50% extra rigidity.

[mjjferreira]

I think it has something to do with the suspension setup.

if i was doing a blind test, i would tell the car was equiped with coilovers, ready to race.

Maybe replacing current springs and shocks with smoother ones could give more confort and less noise.

 

[clix]

I did some more investigating, where most of the wind noise comes from in my corolla, while driving it. I used some phone app, that acts as a stethoscope and amplify sound from microphone and you can listen it trough headphones.

While I was moving the phone next to the door seals, the wind noise was not that bad, it looks like door seals are doing it's job. Also windows itself were not the worst offender. Noise was higher, but was not the worst. I measured my windows thickness, and the front is 4mm and the rear is 3.2mm. I have the non acoustic front windows. According to some thread on hybridlife (cant find it right now, but users measured glass thicknesses of different cars) it is actually not that bad. For example, e-golf, that is much quieter car in comparison, has 4.1mm front and 3.3mm rear, which is only 0.1 mm difference to my corolla. Corolla with the acoustic windows was also measured, and the front, laminated, were 4.5mm, and the rear the same, at 3.2mm.

The worst was actual windows and doors seal / interface. It was bay far the loudest part that I found in the vicinity of my head. My first idea is, if the seals were designed for 4.5mm windows, they would probably not seal as good, if windows are 4mm. Don't know if the seal is the same and if performance would degrade with thinner windows, but this is possibility.

I than checked windows-doors interface on other cars, and majority of all other cars in the similar price range has additional seal in this place.

here is a bad drawing of how it looks. Orange is the seal that corolla (and all other) cars have, and red is additional seal that is probably in place to reduce wind noise.

Maybe this is the reason for additional wind noise?

I was thinking about two solutions, but was not able to find seals that look like that:

1. weird L shaped seal:

2. tear drop shaped seal:

 If anybody has any idea what seal could be DIYed, post your idea here. 😄

[lukikow]

@clix  really like your investigation. Could you say where exactly the noise increasing, is it the top corner? I found on some forum that lexus users with similar issue put something under top corner of the seals. The rubber seal  which is between the window and the door, the one on which the glass pane runs. This allows the glass to press against the seal more firmly.

 

Edit: 

From the other hand, maybe something like this would help: https://a.aliexpress.com/_uICAxZ

[p1610]

I've noticed my MY21 Excel is noisy (certainly noisier than my previous car) but it seems to be excessive on certain road surfaces so I have put it down to the tyres. 

I also have the pan roof so not sure if that's noisier than a non pan roof car? 

[TonyHSD]

3 hours ago, p1610 said:

I've noticed my MY21 Excel is noisy (certainly noisier than my previous car) but it seems to be excessive on certain road surfaces so I have put it down to the tyres. 

I also have the pan roof so not sure if that's noisier than a non pan roof car? 

Tyres does effect noise level indeed especially those like Corolla has 18” low profile with Falken tyres., and perhaps pan roof adds to the issue too. 👍

[mjjferreira]

9 hours ago, p1610 said:

I've noticed my MY21 Excel is noisy (certainly noisier than my previous car) but it seems to be excessive on certain road surfaces so I have put it down to the tyres. 

I also have the pan roof so not sure if that's noisier than a non pan roof car? 

It's not the tyres. Its the chassis+suspension setup.

[TonyHSD]

1 hour ago, mjjferreira said:

It's not the tyres. Its the chassis+suspension setup.

Also true 👍