Hard top wind noise

[Kenc]

I have had 2 JKs and 2 TJs all with hardtops and one TJ with the softop. My JLUR is awesome and the best Jeep I have owned but it is much louder than my JK. The noise is around the windshield surround. There are no leaks, water or otherwise. I have adjusted everything. We wouldn’t have a thread with 21 pages if something wasn’t going on. Where there’s smoke there’s fire. It is a Jeep, and it could just be that this is what we will have to live with. That’s fine. But let’s not just assume people are stupid. I can live with it. But it isn’t as quiet as the hardtop JK. Period.

I agree 100%!

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[SaintNick]

I have had 2 JKs and 2 TJs all with hardtops and one TJ with the softop. My JLUR is awesome and the best Jeep I have owned but it is much louder than my JK. The noise is around the windshield surround. There are no leaks, water or otherwise. I have adjusted everything. We wouldn’t have a thread with 21 pages if something wasn’t going on. Where there’s smoke there’s fire. It is a Jeep, and it could just be that this is what we will have to live with. That’s fine. But let’s not just assume people are stupid. I can live with it. But it isn’t as quiet as the hardtop JK. Period.

Yeah the extra noise will be a deal killer and lets hope they find a fix for it. 10 years to wait for another Wrangler will be tough. I need to jump on a JK Rubicon or Recon.

 

[OnlyOne]

Yeah the extra noise will be a deal killer and lets hope they find a fix for it. 10 years to wait for another Wrangler will be tough. I need to jump on a JK Rubicon or Recon.

Just because it’s a little louder doesn’t mean it’s not light years ahead of the JK. Just as the JK was ahead of the TJ. I wouldn’t go back to a JK from this JL. Night and day difference. I just wanted to shed some light on the noise issue. It’s annoying knowing I spent big money on it without an upgrade in the noise department but I can live with that because of all the other upgrades compared to the JK.

It’s a give and take no matter what you buy. It’s just what someone can live with. I’m not putting the JK down in any way. It’s an awesome Jeep. I’m just telling the truth as I see it.

 

[SaintNick]

Just because it’s a little louder doesn’t mean it’s not light years ahead of the JK. Just as the JK was ahead of the TJ. I wouldn’t go back to a JK from this JL. Night and day difference. I just wanted to shed some light on the noise issue. It’s annoying knowing I spent big money on it without an upgrade in the noise department but I can live with that because of all the other upgrades compared to the JK.

It’s a give and take no matter what you buy. It’s just what someone can live with. I’m not putting the JK down in any way. It’s an awesome Jeep. I’m just telling the truth as I see it.

It may be light years ahead in some aspects but others its not much different and I'm sorry, but saying its a Jeep is a stupid statement from some. At the end of the day if it a Jeep then it should cost $26K like my first Rubicon. Surely these idiot Italians didn't overlook the noise component.

 

[OnlyOne]

It may be light years ahead in some aspects but others its not much different and I'm sorry, but saying its a Jeep is a stupid statement from some. At the end of the day if it a Jeep then it should cost $26K like my first Rubicon. Surely these idiot Italians didn't overlook the noise component.

I get it. I understand where you’re going and I agree with most everything you said. It’s a lot of money. We can hope that they will have a fix for that for peeps like yourself that make that particular part a priority. Totally understandable.

 

[SaintNick]

I get it. I understand where you’re going and I agree with most everything you said. It’s a lot of money. We can hope that they will have a fix for that for peeps like yourself that make that particular part a priority. Totally understandable.

It didn't use to be a priority, but I'm old now and noise is annoying to me. I don't want to have to drive a TrailHawk. For me a $50K+ vehicle has to be almost perfect. Its one of the reasons I think I will hold off for at least a year and see if they can fix it. I've had 4 JK's and a TJ and 3 soft tops and none were as loud as my original JK hardtop test drive. Now I realize some are quieter than others, but the salesman said he noticed it in all the ones they have had on the lot.

 

[OnlyOne]

It didn't use to be a priority, but I'm old now and noise is annoying to me. I don't want to have to drive a TrailHawk. For me a $50K+ vehicle has to be almost perfect. Its one of the reasons I think I will hold off for at least a year and see if they can fix it. I've had 4 JK's and a TJ and 3 soft tops and none were as loud as my original JK hardtop test drive. Now I realize some are quieter than others, but the salesman said he noticed it in all the ones they have had on the lot.

Good plan. Wait and see. I think a lot of the problem is in the thin windshield surround. That and it doesn’t seal against the actual surround. The JK has a one piece surround. They had no choice but to make them thinner with two separate parts. I mean, they put in a whole lot of time in a folding windshield, which is freaking cool, that 99.9% of people will NEVER fold down.

 

[bmoney5813]

Has anyone with the hardtop tried the Hothead headliner with the sound Assassin strips? I stumbled across these on a quick search and wondered if they would make any difference.
https://hotheadheadliners.com/products/2018-jeep-wrangler-jl-4-door-hard-top-headliner

Or any other headliner for that matter?

 

[agordon117]

Good plan. Wait and see. I think a lot of the problem is in the thin windshield surround. That and it doesn’t seal against the actual surround. The JK has a one piece surround. They had no choice but to make them thinner with two separate parts. I mean, they put in a whole lot of time in a folding windshield, which is freaking cool, that 99.9% of people will NEVER fold down.

This is kind of what bothers me. They put all of this work into making the windshield easier to fold, the freedom panels lighter, and easier to take off. But now we have these complaints that the JL is louder on the highway than the JK was. The JK is already pretty loud at highway speeds. It's a jeep first and something for everyone else second. But that doesn't excuse making things that were already tolerable less so for the 100 people that will fold the windshield so they have to take 4 bolts out instead of 6 or 8.

 

[Dynomite1371]

The hard tops are 20% lighter and I assume thiner as wel, that's my guess as to why the rain sounds louder or why more outside mouse gets in. Thanks Alpine!

 

[rallydefault]

Hey guys - I have a JLU Sport with the hard top, and this is my first Wrangler. So, I cannot compare to a JK, but for someone totally new to this, I'm not really noticing anything I wasn't expecting. I was expecting more wind noise than my Renegade, and there is, but nothing alarming. Certainly nothing that would make me think something is wrong.

My wife and I have gone on a few highway journeys with the new Jeep of roughly 20 miles or so in each direction at speeds consistently around 70mph. Really nothing in terms of wind noise to write home about. For reference, I only have the normal audio system, and my volume was at 15 on the Uconnect system for a rock channel, and I could hear the music totally fine. Didn't even have to crank it or anything. Conversation in the cabin was also totally fine - no need to raise voices or anything crazy.

Like I said, I never owned a JK, so I can't compare. But being totally new to this, I haven't noticed wind noise beyond what one would expect when traveling at 70mph with essentially a removable, really thick, high-quality styrofoam roof lol

 

[OnlyOne]

I think for most who were kind of expecting it, it’s fine. It’s fine for me. I think the issue is most people coming from a JK, knowing all the upgrades that were done, were expecting noise to have been addressed. All this talk about angling the windshield back, etc. I was expecting a quieter cabin. And for the most part it is. But the wind noise at the surround is noticbly louder.

I think Jeep dropped the ball. I do think they will address it at some point. It doesn’t make it a bad vehicle. They just missed the mark I think.

 

[Brianmac53]

I didn’t come from a JK. It’s not fine. I was loving the noise level tooling around at 35 mph. Finally got on the freeway then “what the heck”. Straining just to talk to your spouse over the wind noise. I was sure at first that one of the windows wasn’t rolled up. Nope, Just a lot of air rushing in around the panels and windshield.

 

[SaintNick]

I think for most who were kind of expecting it, it’s fine. It’s fine for me. I think the issue is most people coming from a JK, knowing all the upgrades that were done, were expecting noise to have been addressed. All this talk about angling the windshield back, etc. I was expecting a quieter cabin. And for the most part it is. But the wind noise at the surround is noticbly louder.

I think Jeep dropped the ball. I do think they will address it at some point. It doesn’t make it a bad vehicle. They just missed the mark I think.

As long as they fix it, then I'm in the market and really liked the vehicle otherwise. If they don't fix it then I'm out. I will test drive another back to back with a Recon. Capability wise they are not far off. The main reason I like the JL is for its ability to run 35's on a stock suspension.

 

[OnlyOne]

I didn’t come from a JK. It’s not fine. I was loving the noise level tooling around at 35 mph. Finally got on the freeway then “what the heck”. Straining just to talk to your spouse over the wind noise. I was sure at first that one of the windows wasn’t rolled up. Nope, Just a lot of air rushing in around the panels and windshield.

True. I had the same thought. But as I said earlier. I am ok with it. It just really sits in the garage. There were so many advances to the JL it’s really so far ahead of the JK it’s not even a close comparison. All the good things overshadow this one for me. Everyone’s situation is different.

I completely understand and respect yours. I would just wait for them to do something different in your case. It definitely is a good amount of money to spend on something that’s annoying.

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