Have you noticed that your car makes a terrible wind sound buzzing noise every time you drive at higher speeds?
If so, you must be looking for solutions to stop those noises and find out what causes them in the first place.
These noises are not pleasant at all. Sometimes, it can go even beyond a point where you feel irritated and want to get rid of it completely.
You must be thinking that it is because of the high speed of the car that collides with the wind to cause the noise but actually, it is often created due to technical faults that cause them. These will be discussed later in the article. There are very quick fixes to solve the noise problem that you can do yourself or with some help.
What causes wind noise in cars?
Since all vehicles experience resistance while moving, wind noise is a very common problem. In order to reduce some of the sound reaching you while driving you, will have to understand the causes of the wind noise in the system.
- Aerodynamics: Certain vehicles are designed in a specific way to face lower resistance while cutting through the air than most others. Those cars are less prone to wind noises and this is known as aerodynamics.
A sports car compared to big vehicles like trucks produce less noise as it has better aerodynamics while the larger vehicles create more wind noises while moving.
- Air pressure: When a car moves, it is pushing through the air which leads to pressure change. The air inside the car will have higher pressure and will start finding ways to escape outside where the pressure is low. This creates sounds of winds when driving.
There are openings in your car to allow the air to flow outside to stabilise the pressure. These openings are situated in places away from the people to make sure that the noises do not disturb them. When the air cannot escape through those openings, it tries to escape through other ways that produce more noise.
How To Reduce Wind Noise In Cars?
- Locate the source
The first step to reducing the wind noises is to identify the source of it. Drive in a quiet place and keep listening to your car. Make sure that no background noise or music is playing during the time or you will not be able to hear properly.
You can also carry some people to help you identify the source of it. Pay attention to all the doors, windows, exterior of the car body. The wearing out of the seals and weather-stripping in your car doors or windows may also be resulting in the wind noise. You can look for any deformity on the part that the noise is coming from, once you locate the root cause of it and inspect it properly.
- Inspect car doors
Doors are one of the most crucial components of your car and hence should be frequently checked if they are in good condition or not. If a door is damaged, it can leave some space even after closing which can turn out to be a space for the air inside the car to escape causing wind noises.
If you feel like you cannot fix the problem or do not have the skills to fix it, you can take the car to a professional to get the deformities on the door checked out. If you feel like the problem is too complex, leave it to a professional to fix it as trying to fix it yourself can damage your car even further.
- Replace car door seals that are worn out
Worn-out seals and weather-stripping on car doors can have holes or gaps on them which may be a way for the air to escape.
Another possibility that could be is that your seal is okay but it has fallen from its position which gives way for the air to pass. It is very easy to fix the seal and you can do it yourself. Some weather-strip adhesive will help reseal it to the frame.
Press the seal to the door frame after applying some automotive adhesive to it. You can also purchase a new one if the old one has worn out.
To install the new seal, you will have to remove the old seal and clean the area to remove any previous adhesive. Now, apply some adhesive or if your door seal has an adhesive backing already, just put it on the door frame in the proper position and hold it for some time to ensure proper installation.
- Inspect the exterior car body
If all the doors and windows are okay, you can try to check the outside body of your car.
Check for rust or damage from any accident, holes, or cracks in the window shields or any tiny gap at all.
Even the tiniest of cracks can provide space for air to escape by producing wind noise. If your car windows have cracks on the glasses, consider taking your car to a professional.
- Install wind deflectors
One of the easiest and cheapest methods of reducing wind noise is by installing a wind deflector. These are made up of plastic and cover the top of the window to reduce the amount of wind that reaches the part where the weather stripping is attached to the window.
Some deflectors are specially designed for specific cars and so you can easily find one that suits your car.
The installation of these reflectors is very easy and does not take more than a few minutes. Peel the adhesive backing and then from the outside insert the lip on top of the window frame. Push the lip up the frame and exert some pressure for the adhesive to stick.
- Use sound absorbing mats
Sound absorbing mats are made up of thick material and they can be used to reduce various noises inside the car cabin. These can deaden the sounds entering the car.
You will have to stick them to the bare metal like on the floor of the car. You will have to pull the carpet up to fix it properly. It is effective in reducing any noise that reaches your car cabin.
You can also use these on the doors or floors of the car to absorb noises such as loud engines, wind noises, muffler problems or road conditions. There are a variety of mats in the market and these can be easily installed in car door panels too.
These mats also come with their own adhesive so you don’t need to make an extra purchase to install them. Its installation is very simple and you can just apply the adhesive on both the metal part as well as the back of the mat and stick them to the part you want to.
- Clean car doors drain holes
While trying to think of how to minimise the wind noise in cars, you should also be thinking of the causes that can be creating the noise. Many times the car wind noise is created by either damaged car doors or worn-out seals or vents. But, sometimes the reason behind the noises can also be the car door’s drain holes.
These holes are present in every car and function in draining out the excess water whenever the car is washed or caught in a rainstorm. These holes can indeed be a reason behind the loud and uneasy wind noises inside the car when it is being driven at a very high speed.
These drains can become cluttered with dust that makes the air circulation through them very poor when there is no water running through them. The air gets trapped in the clutter of dirt and automatically makes a noise as it doesn’t get a place to pass properly. Cleaning the car door drain hole at some regular interval will help reduce the wind noises inside the car.
- Install acoustic windshield
Another easy solution to reducing the wind noise is by choosing the proper windshield.
The normal windshield provides good coverage from the wind noise created by the air pressure inside and outside of the car but the acoustic windshield provides more benefits in controlling the wind noise than the regular windshield.
These can be a little more expensive than normal windshields, but they can save you a lot of irritating wind noise while you drive your car at a higher speed.
Many windshields also provide coverage to the sunroof and backlights apart from the windows. Hence, installing an acoustic windshield is a proper solution to protect yourself from the annoying noises inside the car.
Read more about outdoor category: How To Reduce Noise From Return Air?
Conclusion
Most people who drive cars regularly know that driving at higher speeds can cause different types of wind noises that can be very annoying at some point. If you are going on a long drive or an enjoyable trip it can be a buzzkill.
There is no way to prevent it from happening as you cannot stop the wind from creating the noise but you can prevent the noises and reduce it to an extent where it is not annoying anymore.
You can use acoustic windshields or sound-absorbing mats or any of the different methods mentioned above or even combine two or more of them to get better results. If you still see that these methods are not working for you, you might want to get your car checked by a professional as they will tell you which part needs fixing or replacing.
Lastly but most importantly,
Drive safe and drive noise-free!