Hello

In keeping with the GT nature of the F Type we are planning a 9 day road trip to Ireland in a months time. While I have confidence in enjoying the car on the country roads, the motorway trip to get there could be hard work due to road noise.

On motorways the car sits at about 1700rpm. Opening or closing the exhaust valves (ASR Controller) make little difference. The fake engine noise (NGPTSQ) pipped through speakers has been disable. Tyres are P-Zeros.

Has anyone made a significant reduction in road noise from their F Type? Was it worth the effort? Or any recommendation for earplugs 😊

(probably should mention this is the coupe &#128522

 

Unless you wanted to swap out the tyres for supersports which I thought ride very nicely as well, I'd just turn up the stereo, but in my experience it is best not to do that when your lovely wife is in the middle of a story.

 

I'd imagine it's worse because of the aftermarket cats you have on the car? I don't think they make crazy noise at a nice cruise like that.

Overall it's not a GT car, it's a sports car. You could pull paneling and add insulation, but I don't know if that would really give the desired results. One downside of aluminum unibody cars is they transmit noise in weird ways. You could be hearing powertrain noise transmitted through the body structure that would be tough to reduce.

 

Both you and your wife should simply wear earplugs. I wear them on long highway drives and they do wonders to reduce stress and fatigue.

 

The cats are definitely the issue. My MY23 is plenty quiet at cruising speed on the highway--even with the VAP valvetronic exhaust (valves closed). Absent swapping the cats, your only solution will be turning up the stereo or ear plugs.

 

Thanks for all the comments. @cwisenheimer Yes I tend to use AirPods on long solo drives which make a big difference in noise cancelling mode. Its looking like earplugs for both of us is the way forward for the trip. If anyone hears a couple shouting at each other at a service station it might be us having forgot to take then out!
@Thunder Dump and @RoverJoe . Respectfully I am pretty sure the main source of noise while cruising is road noise. The different road surfaces can makes a big difference, and it sounds like road noise. Was looking for an easier solution than crossing the UK using only freshly laid smooth tarmac roads.
That said the F Type has less road noise than the 992 I have previously. But rather more than our Land Rover. Tinnitus is one of the curses of aging and not helped by spending hours in the Jag on a motorway.

 

If it changes with road surfaces then yes it's going to be the junk Pirelli tires. Tough to compare the jag to a big Rover, as they are so much quieter inside, and yet we still have tire noise issues in the new ones using the 23" Pirelli tires.

 

There may be something to gain with better sound deadening in the boot. I noticed when I had all the panels out it was definitely louder, but I'm not sure how much the real-world benefit would be. I expect some, but would it be enough? I don't have that answer.

 

Check local laws before wearing Airpods while driving. In my state doing that will get you a ticket. Not sure I agree as I can crank up the stereo as loud as I want with no issues. I am not sure if wearing earplugs is allowed.

 

There's not much one can do and as said most of the noise is road noise, especially from the rear of the car. I did a multi layer sound deadening of the doors to improve the stereo sound which I think helped a bit. I also added sound deadening to parts of the trunk floor and the rear wheel arches when I stripped the trunk for some leak sealing. I think that helped a bit too but it's not night and day. Having the trunk full of luggage also helps a bit.

The road surface really makes a huge difference in a car like the F-Type with hard fat tyres and limited sound deadening. I do a lot of road tripping all over continental Europe on mostly very smooth roads which is fine. French, Dutch and Italian highways are some of the best in terms of smoothness and minimal road noise. I also took it up to different parts of England once and those were some of the worst and noisiest roads I've ever experienced. I'd probably need ear plugs on any longer journeys on English or Scandinavian roads.

By the way, how did you manage to disable the NGPTSQ?