Wind Noise?

[ganstar]

I just read this today in a first drive review: Drive - 2013 Volkswagen Golf Review

"The more time you spend behind the wheel, the more you notice that it's slightly quieter than before - except for some wind noise coming from the window frame of two of the three cars sampled in Sardinia this week.This will likely be fixed on production models by the time the car reaches our shores."

The dealer should agree a new Golf should be serene to drive at speed. Hopefully they don't give you the run around.

I saw that review too. Went to the workshop yesterday to look at the engine bay rattle and wipers and mentioned the wind noise. They

'checked all seals, test drove' but there will always be some wind noise according to the service advisor.

[wai]

No way... mine is quieter than my sister's Lexus IS250 & my brother's new Accord Euro. And wind noise is non-existent. There was a big improvement going from a mk5 to a mk6 and that has happened again.

All I can do is report what I experienced.

[LMF]

Not much wind noise that I can notice but the road noise is obvious.

[ganstar]

Not much wind noise that I can notice but the road noise is obvious.

that's true. if only they had reduced the amount of road noise, the refinement would be amazing.

[team_v]

that's true. if only they had reduced the amount of road noise, the refinement would be amazing.

They could do that but then more people would complain that the oem supplied tyres are not grippy enough

[Diesel_vert]

For optimum comfort, the level of cabin noise heard by the occupants should not only be minimised, but its characteristics should also be pleasing to the ear (well, as far as cabin noise goes anyway).

The quieter the cabin is, the easier it is to perceive differences in sound pressure - so even if the total level of noise is objectively lower, undesirable resonance frequencies will be perceived as sounding louder or more irritating.

For instance, early prototypes of the Nissan Leaf were said to be noisy due to the absence of a combustion engine, because it wasn't there to balance out the frequencies normally generated by wind and road noise (since the electric motor operates in near silence).

This meant the engineers had to go back to the drawing board and re-evaluate the car's aerodynamics, cabin insulation, etc.

I suspect the Mk7 Golf is suffering from this phenomenon, to a lesser extent.

Teething issues on a new platform I suppose, but one can always jam up the radio volume and drown it out.

[pologti18t]

that's true. if only they had reduced the amount of road noise, the refinement would be amazing.

It all costs money. I suppose if you want extra refinement you need to step up a class (Passat etc). The current Golf is considered, probably, the most refined car in it's class.

Our coarse road surfaces stretch the NVH of most imported cars. The locally designed/modified cars do lots better.

[cktsi]

When i test drove the mk7 it was quieter than my mk6... Not to mention leagues ahead of my BMW 328i 2013 build. If you think your car is noisy it might be your specific vehicle. In this case ask the dealer to test drive another golf - it helps if it is close to the roads you are familiar with.

If you have an issue with the Golf overall, then i suggest test driving against a mazda 3 or Cruze... Even a BMW 1 series and you will see the Golf is streaks ahead. It even puts my 3 series to shame in NVH.

[ganstar]

When i test drove the mk7 it was quieter than my mk6... Not to mention leagues ahead of my BMW 328i 2013 build. If you think your car is noisy it might be your specific vehicle. In this case ask the dealer to test drive another golf - it helps if it is close to the roads you are familiar with.

If you have an issue with the Golf overall, then i suggest test driving against a mazda 3 or Cruze... Even a BMW 1 series and you will see the Golf is streaks ahead. It even puts my 3 series to shame in NVH.

Thanks for that input.

[GoSlow75]

I've just got a Comfortline DSG Sunset Red, and last weekend took it on a freeway doing 100. I was suprised at the amount of wind noise. Driving today up to 70kmh it was also present, though nowhere near as bad. My 10 year old 3 had no wind noise. Anyone else notice excessive wind noise?

I had the exact same thing on my Golf 7. Took it in to the dealer but they could not solve it. After a 5000 km vacation trip from sweden to croatia and back I had enough. I decided to investigate on my own. The wind noise only came from the left door. Driver side here in sweden. I compared the left and right side window seals and discovered some differenses. I will try to explain what I did. Hopefully this will help you too. The horizontal rubber seal at the bottom of the window on the driver door did not completely tighten towards the vertikal seal at the front end of the door (near the mirror base). There was a gap of 2mm or so. I pushed the horizontal seal (takes some power) so it tightened against the vertikal seal. And thank God, the irritating wind noise was gone! I really hope this will help in your case too.

[ganstar]

Thanks GoSlow shall look into it. A quick look at it this morning on the way to work it looked okay, but will investigate this weekend in detail.