In preparation for a long drive (to Omaha and back) I felt like taking another shot at fixing an annoying wind-noise from the driver door. ('88 LSC)
Previously, I tried the "dollar bill" thing, where any gap in the weatherstripping allows the bill to easily slip out, but the door stripping is perfect all the way around with the door closed.. And it's always been water tight.
I read or heard of someone pressurizing the car interior.. to find a water leak? I forget why exactly.. but figured it was worth a try.
So, I lowered the passenger window a couple inches, used cardboard and packaging tape to seal that opening, poked a hole in the cardboard to insert a Shop-Vac exhaust hose, and pressurized the car's interior.
No luck.
Dragging a lit cigarette around the driver window and door perimeter, there wasn't the slightest disturbance to the steady stream of smoke.
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I tried reversing it.. instead of using pressure.. and putting the car under vacuum. Maybe smoke would be sucked into a crack.. ?
Bingo.. All the smoke from the cig was sucked into the lower forward corner of the driver window, next to the mirror. There's a big gap there.. about a half inch wide.. almost wide enough to stick a pinky finger in.
Shine a light and you can see where two ends of weatherstripping are supposed to come together inside that cavity.
My weather strip must have shrunk lengthwise, and the ends shrunk away, and allow the wind to enter. Water entering at that spot would channel down into the door and out the bottom drain holes, but 70 mph air might go in any direction, like upwards..
From there, the air got under and behind the window weatherstripping, moved up and across the top of the window, and came out near my left ear. Very disturbing
-------
Anyway, I packed a balled-up paper towel into that gap and took a ride on the freeway.
Silence... Well, I do hear a new sound... the mild buzz of my tires on the road.
Now I gotta figure a permanent fix for that gap... probably resort to slopping a mess of black weatherstripping adhesive all around the area..
Previously, I tried the "dollar bill" thing, where any gap in the weatherstripping allows the bill to easily slip out, but the door stripping is perfect all the way around with the door closed.. And it's always been water tight.
I read or heard of someone pressurizing the car interior.. to find a water leak? I forget why exactly.. but figured it was worth a try.
So, I lowered the passenger window a couple inches, used cardboard and packaging tape to seal that opening, poked a hole in the cardboard to insert a Shop-Vac exhaust hose, and pressurized the car's interior.
No luck.
Dragging a lit cigarette around the driver window and door perimeter, there wasn't the slightest disturbance to the steady stream of smoke.
-----
I tried reversing it.. instead of using pressure.. and putting the car under vacuum. Maybe smoke would be sucked into a crack.. ?
Bingo.. All the smoke from the cig was sucked into the lower forward corner of the driver window, next to the mirror. There's a big gap there.. about a half inch wide.. almost wide enough to stick a pinky finger in.
Shine a light and you can see where two ends of weatherstripping are supposed to come together inside that cavity.
My weather strip must have shrunk lengthwise, and the ends shrunk away, and allow the wind to enter. Water entering at that spot would channel down into the door and out the bottom drain holes, but 70 mph air might go in any direction, like upwards..
From there, the air got under and behind the window weatherstripping, moved up and across the top of the window, and came out near my left ear. Very disturbing
-------
Anyway, I packed a balled-up paper towel into that gap and took a ride on the freeway.
Silence... Well, I do hear a new sound... the mild buzz of my tires on the road.
Now I gotta figure a permanent fix for that gap... probably resort to slopping a mess of black weatherstripping adhesive all around the area..