Excessive wind noise from front windshield

[Masospaghetti]

At above 50 mph there is a lot of wind noise that sounds like its from the windshield. I know it's hard to determine direction from sound and I've been fooled before. My guess is either windshield or front windows. Are either of these common problems?


I do notice the windshield is aftermarket but there's nothing obviously wrong with it. Molding looks solid all of the way around.

[80stech]

There have been complaints about aftermarket windshields being thinner than the original and having more wind noise.

[andrewwynn]

Get an objective reading with an FFT program.

I use https://apps.apple.com/app/id298840058

The screen shot above is just me whistling but i can take one driving a certain speed in no wind conditions to compare notes.

I use that program regularly to find cart problems especially trying to figure out which wheel bearing is bad, it works great with a little math to determine CSB or CV joint also.

X5 wheels are 7.6 feet per rev so you can work out feet per second into Hz pretty easily.

3x wheel rev vibration likely inner CV joint for example.

[workingonit]

Originally Posted by Masospaghetti

At above 50 mph there is a lot of wind noise that sounds like its from the windshield. I know it's hard to determine direction from sound and I've been fooled before. My guess is either windshield or front windows. Are either of these common problems?...

I have seldom driven my X above 50 mph, but when I have, I get more wind noise than on my other vehicles. Not at first, in stock condition (wind noise hardly noticeable at 70-75 mph, compared to my pickups with bigger mirrors), but noise increased triple-fold, after I added my home-built "roof rack/hail & tree-debris protector" (made from industrial wire shelving components). The wire rack is a closely-spaced lattice, where nothing larger than a dime can pass through.


The rack has been doing its' job well, protecting the sunroof glass from large hail and falling oak tree branches and limbs (the X is parked in an open area behind the house, in front of the already-filled 3-car garage, surrounded by three large/old oaks, so Texas hail and falling branches are always a thing).

However, the rack fairly sings a tune at highway speeds!
I never added a wind fairing in front, so wind isn't deflected, and whistles through the latiiced wire rack(s).

Though I built the roof rack in September 2021, I haven't gotten around to putting a fairing on it, yet. The wind noise doesn't bother me, but when my wife rides along, I'll just turn on the radio (or play a CD or flash-drive), and turn up the volume, to cover the wind noise.

[80stech]

You can sometimes isolate where the noise is coming from by moving your hand (a rag might even work better) around the window edges.