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MG MGB Technical - BGT too much wind noise?

Hi there,
Just a simple question, would you say it's normal for it to sound like there is a hurricane hitting the car while cruising anywhere above 60mph? If so, does anybody/has anybody found any helpful hints as to reduce the noise? (before you ask, it is experienced even when it is very calm outside!)
L Williams

The GT I used to own was very noisy even in calm winds compared to modern cars. I'm not sure what causes most of the noise, maybe the door mirror.

Clifton
Clifton Gordon

I seem to recall reading recently that someone suggested putting fuel hose in the rain gutters down along the A posts. They said that would reduce the wind noise significantly. I haven't tried it myself (my GT is not yet roadworthy) so I can't vouch for its efficacy...

HTH!
Rob Edwards

Modern cars are a lot more slippery through the air,I recently bought a cgt after a break of 20 years away from mg's,and your right,I got it to about 110 mph(sorry officer!) and the wind noise was bloody deafening.Make sure the quarter lights have a nice tight seal and also those rear windows.Ive noticed a big difference if they are not shut tight,i think the main problem is the raised guttering on the roof,something modern cars don't have.Do what i did,put a big bore single box exhaust on it,you will never hear the wind noise again,just the pure tone of the engine,(and the occasional police siren!)....
m s osborne

Hi all.

Wind noise is quite loud on my GT.

I personally don't object to it, it makes travelling more 'real' than sitting in a modern car that insulates the passengers from the world outside.

Maybe that feeling of 'real travel' is part of the reason that convertibles have always been popular despite their significant practical drawbacks.

Don
Don

I've got a roadster, I found that a lot of noise comes from round the headlights.....fitting Sebring cowls reduced the noise remarkably........I put them on with disk magnets so they can be taken off without damaging the bodywork....no distortion of headlights, and possible improvement in fuel consumption and performance .(also makes the front end look better I think).


Mike
M Barnfather

Wind noise is usualy down to how well doors and windows seal, this is on area where the B shows it's age. I remember in a contempary Motor comparitive test v the 3l Capri (+some others I forget)the V8 MG was trailing the field by a long way on wind noise even then, mind you it was far and away the fastest car.
Stan Best

I found there was a big improvement from replacing all the sealing trim in the window channels and the seals between door[ and door capping ] and windows. A long boring job unless you have other work to do on the doors.

Vic



V Todman

I've got a couple of small, clear plastic hoses down the A-frame channels as suggested above. Cuts down a bit of the wind whistle, but you soon get used to the new reduced level, which is still louder than any modern car.

...but I like it that way! :)

Curtis Walker

My 80 BGT is a noisy car compared to more modern machinery, but do not find it exceptionally obtrusive when cruising at 70-75 on the motorway. I have had to resort to taping up the quarter lights however. Plan to do the door seals in the next few weeks and may well try tubing in the water channels. The major source of wind noise appears to be the sunroof. Can't work out how to improve the seal on the leading edge. Any ideas out there

Graham
G Withnell

Don - I am with you - the noise is part of the 'feel for the road' which keeps you in touch with road conditions and alerts you to the risks.

RMW - 3.9GT
RMW

I have been doing incremental "adjustments" for wind noise on my GT for many years. Of what you can do to cut noise, here is what I have found. I am sure there is plenty else people have done and observed too.

1) Door/window seals on the GT do not function very well at the rear of the door, particularly where the transition between the glass and door occur. There is always a gap (in OE stock form) and quite an obtrusive bit of noise is generated at this point. The most effective seal I have devised so far has been to use a soft, closed cell rubber foam pad at this juncture which extends about a 1/2 inch beyond the upper and lower ends of the gap. The pad is simply glued in place. It works OK and does help, but it could be better. Someday when I have time, I would like to experiment more with this as it is basically copying the special moulded pads many car makers have used since the 1950s for their convertibles and "hardtop" models which have no B pillars.

2) I use the OE style weatherstripping or at least that which comes closest of that available today. Most of what we are offered may have the correct Furflex or vinyl clamp strip, but the cross section of the rubber tube seal always seems to be just a round tube, whereas samples I have of true OE seal is rather trapezoidal in shape, top of which is narrow and bottom about 1.5X to 2.0X that. There is also a small fin at the bottom, most likely to move water away from the sealing surface. I have a little gif. file of the these cross sections if anyone is interested in a picture. My guess is that the original seal may have been designed to wrap around the outside edge of the door rather than simply resting against the vertical surface of the inner door.

3) There was simply not as much attention to noise reduction when these cars were built as there is today. Much noise travels through hollow voids and undamped sheet metal panels into the cockpit, and some materials chosen may actually transmit more noise by what they are, how they were formed, or by their relative lack of rigidity compared to the structures of many cars today. The "oil canning" and "drumming" that our fathers learned to accept as the norm for passenger cars, is not acceptable today. Just the doors on my wife's Hyundai Sonata have Triple rubber seals, much like aircraft, to help isolate noise and smooth the airflow over the bodywork, rather than having gaps that allow air movement into the outside spaces around doors, stopped only by an interior mounted seal (as with our GTs). When I look at my wife's car, there is not the accumulation of fine silt, water, and crud all over the door jambs and hinges that I regularly must wash and wipe off on the GT.

Air noise would probably be very reduced if our cars had this type of air sealing process, sound dampening, and attention to noise travel through the structure that modern cars do. Some folks I have talked to have done many of these things and have reduced road noise, drivetrain noise, and heat considerably. But wind noise still seems to be the one gremlin hardest to eliminate, even when people have shaved the gutters off. Shaving them might help IF there was also a decent sealing action at the doors as we have today. The best I seem to be able to offer anyone on that score is to suggest you seal that rear gap and then think up a good and decent looking cure for the air gaps around the doors. I don't think we can do that very well as long as our door windows have no outer frame to create one long, contiuous, and total seal at the surface of the sheetmetal.

Bob Muenchausen

I'm not so sure that the door seals are that basd Bob. Certainlt if they are new and properly fitted and doors well adjusted then intrusion in this area is minimal. The quarter light is a pain though and we are latgely stuck with it. I don't know about the drip rails as I heve never experimented with these but what I do know is that a lot of noise comes from the windscreen which is far too vertical. In addition the heavy rubber surround accentuates this as the wind travels up the screen and hits this and I guess there's not much we can do here. It's an old car and whilst I have tried hard to make mine run like modern cars we are never going to get even close to it.
Iain MacKintosh

I've been working my way across the bulkhead and footwells and transmission tunnel, sticking a laminate of board/foam and foil in place to soften the engine noise and reduce heat penetration. This has been quite effective but has made the wind noise seem worse.
I don't expect the side mirrors help either
I find the GT is relatively quieter when driven with the windows open than our modern cars; these produce an unpleasant flutter inside the cabin. Maybe this is a result of the dirtier airflow around the screen?
Vic
V Todman

Iain,
There was much talk about this on this BBS sometime back (a few years ago) and you might want to check through the archives on it. The experiments done by some with tubing and with actually shaving off the gutters did not seem to accomplish as much as was hoped for. The weather strip we get today is very good at keeping out the weather, but I am not convinced it is capable of killing the noise all by itself. Your comments about quarter window seals and windshield seals is well taken altho I found that the effect of new windwing seals on the GT were actually better than the new seals I put on the GMC pickup truck I have.

Door fit is part of the equation, and I am reasonably sure that if we were to be able to seal the air flow along the door openings at the skin, we might be surprised at how much better they seal out noise.

My wife and I rented a Chrysler convertible a couple of months ago and they seem to have discovered ways of sealing out wind noise fairly well with no upper window frames attached to the doors. My guess is that backing for the upper window seal on the ragtop frame was shaped closely to the window glass for a snug fit. Our GTs only seem to seal across the face of the glass, and not much over and across the edges (the glass actually pushing into the seal along the edge, not just the door closing against the tubular seal), and that might be something to look into.

Bob Muenchausen

Put in a good stereo and turn it up!!You can't expect a 30+ year old car to be as quiet as a new car My roadster makes a lot of different noises and so what? The tappet noises,the gear whine all are part of the MGB experience
I find it amusing when someone asks about wind noise or "can I put air bags on my MG?" or anything that is trying to change the character of our beloved old cars.
If you don't like it then buy a new soulless car and sell yours to someone who enjoys your GT They were noisy when new and nobody complained about it then.
Pat in Tehachapi
patrick bailey

I wonder if double pane glass could be cut to fit the side windows of a GT? That along with a proper fitting rubber seal (even if not original) could cut down a huge amount of wind noise.
Steve Simmons

The other point is that modern cars have very flush fitting glass meaning that the side of a vehicle is now very smooth and slippery. The glass on the GT is fairly deeply recessed so the wind can hit the front face of the B and C post hard with subsequent noise. Mechanical noise is also fairly high and at the end of the day we will just land up chasing our tails.
Iain MacKintosh

Pretty true.
As small as these cars are and in as close proximity as we are to the sources of many of these noises, it may well be an exercise in futility to try to duplicate modern sedan practice with an almost 45 year old car which is also this small. I really don't and never have expected to be able to make my GT into a car as quiet as a Honda Accord or Toyota Avalon. But to kill at least as much as possible noise and heat as possible has seemed to have made the car more enjoyable on longish trips, and made conversation with a passenger closer to approximating a normal one than was possible before any work was done. The GT is relatively quiet compared to the open cars and especially the older MGAs and T series. At least I can hear the radio and not have to yell across the cockpit as tho I were in some Curtis Jenny or open Stearman.
Bob Muenchausen

Bob

I just installed the Bristlflex door seals that Martin MacGreggor sells. They appear to work better than the Moss seals I originally purchased. He feels they are very close to the originals. I believe he worked for MG in the trim area.


Most of my noise is wind noise from the side wings. New rubber and I still can't get them tight. Guess I can always revert to my childhood. I remember most of the cars that had side wings had a little something to shim the side wing latch so it pulled tighter.
Bruce Cunha

This thread was discussed between 11/12/2005 and 14/12/2005

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