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Subject:Re: Wind Noises 'round the doors
From:Mark Tuovinen
Date:Mon, 5 Jun 2006 17:30:15 -0800

Speaking of noises around the doors has anyone had a sound that resembles a bee trapped in their door??   We have just such a sound that comes and goes usually only at highway speeds but sometimes less.  It seems to be from the lock knob and/or lower rear corner of the passenger door window area on our `87 Westy Syncro.  It is not always present making it difficult to locate the source, I suspect that I will have to get the duct tape out the next time it appears see if it can be found.

Mark in AK

----- Original Message -----
From: John Bange <jbange@GMAIL.COM>
Date: Monday, June 5, 2006 3:01 pm
Subject: Re: Wind Noises 'round the doors
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM

> > I chased several issues before finally fixing the "highway
> whistle" on my
> > driver's door. It turned out that the felt channel (where the
> top and back
> > edge of the glass rest when the window is up) was missing it's
> outer flap.
> > That is to say, the "U" of the channel has a flap on each side
> to seal the
> > glass, and mine was broken. Replacing that channel took all of 5
> minutes,> and now my cabin noise is greatly reduced...to the point
> where I can start
> > worrying about all the *other* noises I can now hear!
>
>
> I had the same thing. The whistling mirculously vanished when I
> replacedthe top/rear felt channel. That little lip inside being
> there apparently
> plays a critical role in noise reduction.
> One "gotcha" to watch out for when replacing this is cutting it to
> fit. It
> comes a few inches longer than necessary and I got a little
> enthusiasticwith the first one and "eyeballed" the cut by holding
> it up to the door.
> Turns out it has a tendency to compress ever so slightly as you
> put it on
> and also "fills the radius" at the back a bit more than it looks like.
> Subsequently, my driver's side has a 1/8" gap now (argh). For the
> passengerside, I ended up just putting it on "uncut" and spending
> 10 minutes or so
> nibbling away at the far end a little at a time until it just fit.
>
> --
> John Bange
> '90 Vanagon - "Geldsauger"
>