E70 X5 Road/Wind Noise from Rear Area

[U235]

All,
While diagnosing the dreaded trunk rattle which now appears to be fixed by padding the u-hooks on the lower tailgate, I noticed from riding in the backseat that there appears to be reasonable road and wind noise coming from the rear of the car. It's audible from the backseat (2nd row), but not really audible from the front seats (so it's not that bad).

It becomes audible around 50ish mph, and it seems to be coming more from the rear driver's side corner, but I haven't thoroughly diagnosed that.

The tires are new, Bridgestone RFTs with around 4k miles on them, but it doesn't sound like tire noise, more like slight wind. It's also possibly a wheel bearing, but I don't know enough about the sounds and haven't spend enough time to diagnose it.

It's pretty faint, and I doubt most people would know, I'm just anal about things like this. Any known areas I should check? I noticed the rear quarter window seal on the drivers side seems to have a slight area about 1cm wide where the seal isn't exactly perfect, but it's so minor that I don't know that it could be the source.

Here's a picture, and to clarify this is the backmost glass on the side of the car (the window in the trunk).



Any other things I should look into.

[mswaz]

curious how did you pad the u hook in the back

[U235]

Originally Posted by mswaz

curious how did you pad the u hook in the back

Electrical tape. I've browsed forums and had other discussions with people, and it seems people use a felt tape, but one guy recommended to just try electrical tape, so i did, and that had the largest impact. Next time I'm at the craft's store, I'll get some felt tape and do it proper, but the 3M electrical tape actually works well. I just wrapped all four points of it, looping each of the three sides twice and just put two pieces on the back side of the D hook since you can't loop around the back.

[GKyri]

U235 I must admit I had tried electrical tape on and around the striker as well. My issue was the latch would somehow catch on the tape when the tailgate would open causing the electric motor to sound strained. When the power tailgate refused to close properly I had no choice but to remove the tape.

The wind noise I am not familiar with but I don't ever sit in the back.

The bearing noise you refer to is quite often the tire but if they are relatively new it should not be the case. Nevertheless worth checking as the tire might have been incorrectly balanced.

[U235]

Originally Posted by GKyri

U235 I must admit I had tried electrical tape on and around the striker as well. My issue was the latch would somehow catch on the tape when the tailgate would open causing the electric motor to sound strained. When the power tailgate refused to close properly I had no choice but to remove the tape.

Maybe we're confusing two different things. There is the actual latch mechnism the hatch goes into. I did NOT tape that, as I can only imagine that there would be all sorts of problems.

On the bottom tailgate that is like a pickup truck piece, there are two u-brackets on the left and right side that the tailgate closes into (again not the big hatch with glass, just the lower piece). Taping that should have no effect on the motor of the hatch.

Below is a random picture, but look on the far left and far right where the two black hooks stick out. That's what I taped, and it had an immense improvement. This morning I found some rough speed bumps in my wife's parking lot, and the for the first time ever, there was no trunk noise going over it.

[GKyri]

I hardly ever open the lower tailgate (although I still think the split system is great idea) so I totally forgot that those two "D" strikers even existed. Very good U235.