Wind/road noise in Pre '97 XJ VS Wind noise in a TJ

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stephenspann27

NAXJA Forum User
Location
College Station, Tx
I've never been in a TJ at hwy speed.. I'm curious how the wind/road noise in a TJ compares to that of a pre '97 XJ..
I have an '87 XJ.. I'm working on cutting down on the wind/road noise. In stalled '97-'01 style weather stripping which helped a great deal, but looking for other ways to improve.

I'm not running any front fender well liners. Did anyone notice an increase in tire noise when they removed their liners (I"m running pool liners)

I'm asking about TJ's.. just because I'm curious.. I want my XJ to be at least as quiet as a TJ..
 
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Just get a cheap stereo and amplifier and BIG speakers, you'll never notice the noise.
 
Heh.. I have a pretty good stereo system. When riding by myself in my jeep i don't mind the noise much.. but its embarrassing when you have a passenger and you have to raise you voice so much to have a conversation. Also.. I hate having to turn my stereo up when I get on the hwy, then back down when I start driving in the city...
I'm dealing less with wind noise and more with road noise now..so I'm hoping some new tires will help. I'm planning on getting General Grabber AT2's which should be pretty quiet.
My XJ gets 20-21mpg hwy, and I get paid 50-55 cents a mile to drive it for my work.. and because of that I'm keep my XJ pretty road oriented. I'm going with 30x9.5's and a 2'' lift. Its perfect for my job because it already has 270k miles on it.. (so who cares how many more I add?) and it has pretty good cargo space, I just wish it were quieter on the hwy..

PS. I"m not running a head liner right now. Has anyone noticed a decrease is wind/road noise when running a head liner?
 
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in my experience xj's are a bit quieter than similarly built hardtop tj's
 
If you're in a TJ you don't have a top or doors, or at least I wouldn't! :D


Not all early body XJs are the same. My 1989 XJ is a lot quieter at speed than my 1996 XJ, ChryCo must have really screwed up the weatherstripping. When I first took my '96 on the Freeway I stopped to check every door and widow it makes so much noise!
 
I've never ridden in a late model at speed. I find it funny that they improved the weatherstripping after screwing it up somewhere between 1990 and 1996 :D

My plan is to get late model front door weatherstripping and then new weather stripping for the other doors in hopes it makes it better. I find it really annoying to listen to wind noise on a long drive.
 
Back in the good (bad?) old days you could buy a spray-on sound deadening material--black, lumpy, and never really ever dried to the point it lost its flexibility or "tacky" surface. Use to spray it into doors and hatches, helped quite things down.
 
GSequoia said:
I've never ridden in a late model at speed. I find it funny that they improved the weatherstripping after screwing it up somewhere between 1990 and 1996 :D

My plan is to get late model front door weatherstripping and then new weather stripping for the other doors in hopes it makes it better. I find it really annoying to listen to wind noise on a long drive.
Click to expand...

I noticed a huge difference when I upgraded to the newer weather stripping, however my old stuff wasn't in great shape. The '84-"96 style is like $25 a door, while the '97-'01 is about $90 :-(

It appears to be worth it though I don't' want to go crazy with sound dampening (B Quiet) until I am confident I no longer have any leaks during heavy rain.. it sux having to dry out carpet insulation.

Right now I"m running some cheap thin carpet, and using "reflectix" from Lowes for insulation.. it dries pretty fast.
 
joe_peters said:
Back in the good (bad?) old days you could buy a spray-on sound deadening material--black, lumpy, and never really ever dried to the point it lost its flexibility or "tacky" surface. Use to spray it into doors and hatches, helped quite things down.
Click to expand...

Maybe I should coat the underside of my jeep with roofing tar. I used it to seal off my welding seams after I welding in "new" floor pans.. It has been holding up great.
 
The headliner makes a huge amount of difference at highway speed. I can barely hear myself think in the MJ on the highway right now, even my 96 XJ on BFG MTs with a shot exhaust system was quieter. My 98 is spookily quiet compared to both, so much so that I thought the motor stalled right after I started it. And that's with no carpet.
 
Your driving a brick into wind at 60+ you can't expect quiet.

stephenspann27 said:
Maybe I should coat the underside of my jeep with roofing tar. I used it to seal off my welding seams after I welding in "new" floor pans.. It has been holding up great.
Click to expand...

Bed liner would probably help.
 
kastein said:
The headliner makes a huge amount of difference at highway speed. I can barely hear myself think in the MJ on the highway right now, even my 96 XJ on BFG MTs with a shot exhaust system was quieter. My 98 is spookily quiet compared to both, so much so that I thought the motor stalled right after I started it. And that's with no carpet.
Click to expand...

I think I'll go glue some reflectix to the roof and see if that helps.
 
I'd throw in a new headliner before I bothered with that, $5-20 at a junkyard and you are in business. I know that some of the local guys have even put the 97-up headliners into their 96-down XJs, the later design headliners are stronger and probably better at sound dampening.
 
Insulation like that reflectix stuff might work (I've seen that in another thread somewhere), and you might also consider the spray on sound-deadeners, and the cheaper stuff like Protecto-Wrap (thin flexible rubber material, plastic sheeting on one side, adhesive on the other). Mine is fairly quiet, especially compared to my friend's older Jeeps, but hail or heavy rain is still annoying. I've toyed with the idea of insulating behind the headliner, but haven't bothered yet. I did use the Protecto stuff in my front doors- I'm not sure that it actually improved things, but I felt like it helped a little.
 
I bought some rubberized undercoating (for the underside of my jeep).. giving that a try. I'm a little skeptical about a head liner reducing wind noise.. I'll get one eventually. I"m thinking about filling the little trough that runs around edges of the roof (on the inside) with "great stuff." I had a friend in the back seat the other day and he said he could hear wind there (probably created by the gutter).
 
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bear in mind that the roof gets real hot in the sun, so don't put anything up there that's going to come unglued in the heat and/or smell.
 
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