Hello all.

After 17 years, I sold my 99 Expedition and picked up a new 2016 with the turbo. As you know, this is an expensive machine.

I can see that Ford spent a great deal of resource trying to make the cabin as quiet as possible, but there really is some significant wind noise from the front of the driver and passenger doors around the mirror areas. The rear doors, tailgate and rear side windows have no noise that I can detect.

This noise sounds just as if both windows were open a bit.

It gets louder and louder based on speed. At highway speeds, it's ridiculous.

When I examine the doors, I made two observations;

1. The curve of the inner door frame around the glass window does not match the curved recess in the body frame that the door fits into (the curves are different). On the outer portion, the door alignment looks fine to me.

2. The weatherstrip on the body that should contact the door, seals nicely up to the curved portion I mentioned and then there is at least a 1/4" gap on the inside part of the seal where there is no contact with the door. I am sure that this is where the curve of the door and the body differ.

I have it at the local dealer and the service writer told me the noise was acceptable and "Hey, what do you want, it's not a rolls royce." (I am sure many of you would say go to another dealer with this alone).

So, of course I am not happy about this at all and it is really trashing the good feeling that I had with this truck.

I escalated to the service manager and asked her to contact Ford engineering in case they know something like an informal TSB or something that their tech might not be aware of. She said sure, no problem. A day later (at 5 minutes to the service manager leaving for the day) I got a call from the service writer and I was told that the truck was fixed and they could not reproduce the problem. When I asked to speak with the service manager she got on the phone, reiterated what the service writer said and then said that Ford engineering won't talk to them without verification of a problem.

So, I am thinking that I can take the service manager for a ride, point out the weatherstrip and door-body difference in the curved portion (as I did with the service writer when I brought it in there) and see what that does, but good grief. How far do you have to go to illustrate that there is something that is not right? I really get the feeling that they know something but don't want to acknowledge it.

In my 17 years of ownership, my previous Expedition didn't have wind noise like this, and seeing how much attention was paid to making that cabin otherwise quiet as can be, I can't help but think that this is not a normal situation. I see that many F-150 owners have a similar issue, but I don't know if that relates to this too.

How about some advice from those in the know?

How should I proceed? I don't want to blast the radio or otherwise let this urk me throughout my ownership when this came so close to being an excellent truck.

Thanks very much!

 

Sorry to hear that. My 2016 is nice and quiet up to about 80 mph. Not sure where you live but I would try another dealer if that is feasible. With the gaps you identified - have you tried getting some foam weatherstripping at the HW store and putting it in there temporarily? Or take some masking tape and put it over the gaps. If that quiets it down you have at least narrowed it down and you have more ammo for the dealer.

 

Mine's super quiet up to ridiculous speeds. I would definitely head to another dealer.

 

I feel for you, my 2014 had horrible wind noise and in certain conditions the sunroof whistled. I noticed it the minute I drove off the lot with it because my previous Expy's were much quieter. I took it to many dealers and got the same type of ignorant comments as you. Thankfully, I had a contact that traded it in on a 2016 which is much quieter. Although I do get a faint whistle on the passenger side but I don't care because I don't sit there.

I feel sorry for the poor sob who bought my old one. The constant problem with service is that they charge you a premium price for a vehicle to purchase it but then treat you like you have bought an economy car, they just don't get it. Sadly the expedition is the best vehicle for my needs and price range so I keep buying them.. Hopefully the 18s will be more aerodynamic! My tailgate should be corroding by then so I will need to trade for a new one!

 

+1..............

 

Hi, and thanks for the replies!

I went there and picked it up, but not before I looked at a new one in the showroom.

Mine is magnetic (like a silver-gray). The one in the showroom was white, so I was able to take a picture to illustrate what I think is the issue or part of the issue due to the better contrast between the white paint and the black weatherstrip.

There is an outer weatherstrip and an inner weatherstrip. What you see in the picture is the inner one. It snaps onto the body seam weld that runs along the door recess. This is the driver's door, where most of the noise is.

Looking forward into the weatherstrip with the door closed and window down, you can see that the weatherstrip at the top and bottom are in place between the body and the door. However, in the middle, the weatherstrip does not align with the door frame and it appears pushed out. Some of the remaining part of the strip does appear to be in contact with the door, but this does not seem right to me, so where there's smoke....

The service manager told me that they are engineered that way.

Please take a moment to look at the attached picture. Does everyone have weatherstrip that looks like this?

Thanks!!!

 

Sorry to hear... Our new Expedition is very quiet No wind noise at all

 

The fact that people say theirs is quiet leads me to believe that there is indeed something wrong. I do wonder if everyone has the weatherstrip in the same location as the picture I posted.

Another thing I found was that the noise gets very bad in crosswinds. That part I really don't understand.

Perhaps someone can shed some light on that and the weatherstrip picture?

 

Drop by the lot and compare it to another expedition... Make sure all the weather stripping is on right and the door closes right. That's the best I can think of

 

That's what I did. The picture in this thread is from another Expedition. They told me that it was engineered that way. I have never seen weatherstrip like that and I think what they told me is bogus, which is why I asked for folks to take a look at their weatherstrip and see if it looks like the one in the picture.

With the window down and door closed. You can see the weatherstrip where it meets the door. I think the weatherstrip is supposed to be "sandwiched" between the body and the door's window frame, unlike what you see in the picture. To me, that weatherstrip is not seated right or installed right.

 

Happy to take a pic I'll try to get one today

 

Quite nice of you. Thanks!!!

 

Not exactly sure what angle you need hope this helps

 

Thank you very, very much for taking the time to post those pictures.

Clearly, the weatherstrip in yours is positioned differently than the one at the dealer and it is also different than mine.

Mine bows out just like the one in the picture I posted, instead of being "sandwiched" between the door and the body the way yours is.

This helps me to pinpoint the cause or a contributing cause for the wind noise I'm getting that others don't seem to have.

Thanks again for your help!

 

Hey, did you find a solution to the road noise? I just bought a used 2016 that has bad road noise in the upper driver window. I've got 35,600 miles on it (the bumper-to-bumper is about to expire) so I dropped it off at the dealership to get fixed. The tech who checked me in took a look and said something like- that's just something you have to get used to and they'd probably not find anything

Just thought if you found a fix, I could help steer them in the right direction.