2015 YUKON NOISE IN CABIN

20Sierra14 · January 4, 2015

*** FYI-- I just completed my 2nd theory as to what was creating the pressure and I think I'VE NAILED IT!! ***

I tried the AMP fuse pull.. It helped, but didn't completely get rid of the pressure... Failed.. for that idea... So let's move on to the next theory --

100% -- It's the noise cancellation system!!! Forget the roof separation.. Forget the tires... Forget the shocks... Forget EVERYTHING GM *thinks* is causing the pressure. The noise cancellation system is creating the pressure that I (and I would assume, everyone else) is feeling!! GM was determined to make this the quietest SUV in the market, but while doing so, I think they implemented an extremely harsh noise canceling system to achieve this!

To test my theory, I decided to go after the system that GM has YET to even consider -- NOISE CANCELING.

Our 2015 Yukon Denali has "cabin mics" covering the interior roof of the truck... There are 2 "mics" on each side of the driver's and passenger grab-handles, one directly above the driver's side sun-visor and one dead-center of the 2nd row seating... I removed the plastic grilles that designated these areas and replaced them w/ cotton balls and masking tape... Yes... Cotton balls and masking tape -- all with the hopes of "desensitizing" the sounds these "mics" are hearing... After having headaches on New Year's Eve, to feeling absolutely no issues after the "cotton ball" test, I've determined it is totally the Noise cancellation that is creating the pressure!!

It took me literally 10 minutes to locate the "mics", pull the grilles and tape them up!!

Anyone else w/ the pressure willing to try?

calgator73 · January 4, 2015

Did you hide the cotton balls behind the grilles?

20Sierra14 · January 4, 2015

Nope.. To just test the idea, I doubled up the cotton balls over the mics and sealed the entire hole w/ a few strips masking tape.. It looks horrible, but its doing the job

austingta · January 4, 2015

It's going to be weird if that is causing the whole problem. It would seem rather obvious that it might be something like that, and GM should have caught it during development.

20Sierra14 · January 4, 2015

I'm really hoping it is something that simple. It seems to be the solution for me!!

I know I sound crazy, but all the other "repairs" aren't eliminating the pressure... And the fact it only effects certain people could be how they missed it during development..??

TOBTEK · January 4, 2015

I'm really hoping it is something that simple. It seems to be the solution for me!!

I know I sound crazy, but all the other "repairs" aren't eliminating the pressure... And the fact it only effects certain people could be how they missed it during development..??

That's what I've been saying this whole time. How could this get through the R&D teams? I know I'm a very discerning person, but someone had to pick up on this. I'm in So-Cal, I see those masked pre production cars running around all the time. Who do they have in those cars testing them out?? I need to call the Caddy dealer Monday morning and have them call the field Engineers on this latest cotton ball test. Will be hilarious if it something this Ez. Makes sense though. The caddy doesn't have the V4-V8 droning, more of the slow speed tunnel effect over any and all bumps in the road. The large paver section in my employers parking lot is like nails on a chalk board.

Need to call the Brain Surgeons tomorrow morning and make sure they don't rip the head liner off my 85k Eacalade with 300 miles on it. What a total joke this all is !!!!

austingta · January 4, 2015

I'm really hoping it is something that simple. It seems to be the solution for me!!

I know I sound crazy, but all the other "repairs" aren't eliminating the pressure... And the fact it only effects certain people could be how they missed it during development..??

It seems like a very likely cause to me.

Wrench589 · January 4, 2015

I just did a test on our Denali. I pulled the fuse for the RSE, the Radio, and the Amplifier, hoping to completely de-energize the entire sound system and all sub-components. Took it for a short test drive and definitely made a huge difference. No pressure on the ears, although I still can hear a low frequency "thud" whenever the tires go over any kind of bump, big or small. More noticeable at very low speeds since there is little other noise.

Only had a chance for a short test drive at 80 kph, but I am fairly sure the classic "buffeting" is not present. My first impression is that without the sound system working,many small thuds caused by bumps in the road are heard and gone, instead of before when those bumps seemed to result in a pressure to the ears. In other words, the ANC was over compensating and making things worse. The other thing I noticed is that the sense of sound energy that was present right down to about 10 kph is no longer there. I mentioned this in an earlier post that the sound energy was present and then would suddenly be gone below 10 kph, almost like the engagement threshold was reached and the computer turned something off. Would make sense if the ANC is the culprit, and it is only active when the vehicle speed is above some threshold. I've always been suspect of the ANC system all along, so won't be surprised if it ends up being the culprit in this issue.

That all said, I still find this vehicle tends to transmit sound different then most vehicles. It's hard to explain, but it's almost like it is so quite inside, you hear stuff that you never did before. Best analogy is if you've ever been driving on the highway and 100 or 110 kph with a 70 kph tailwind. All the normal wind noise is gone and the mechanical sounds from the vehicle at that speed can be heard for the first time, and can be quite alarming! Stuff you've never heard before, like something is wrong. But it's not, it's just mechanical power train and suspension noises never heard before.

With the Denali, I was sitting in our driveway with the vehicle running, in park. I was turning the steering wheel back and forth and the tires were scrubbing back and forth on snow packed surface. You know the sound tires make on packed snow? Kind of a squeezing, crunching sound? Well, that was very loud inside the vehicle. So it is like the stiffness of the suspension, frame, cab/body along with being so quite even when the engine is idling, I could hear that sound more clearly without other background noise and it sounded very loud. Likely on a dB level, it is lower then any other vehicle if ever been in, but without a bucnh of other background noise, it's more noticeable. And of course, you can't do this test without the engine running, right, so most vehicles would mask it.

Still, this thing seems stiff and rigid, and noise seems to transmit through it.

Of course, one other thing to consider when it come to noise. Sometimes making an environment too quiet can be a double edged sword. Think about your house at night. When all the normal noises of the day are gone, all of a sudden you can hear things tht you wouldn't have heard because it so quiet. Can be quite annoying, and those sounds seem very loud when in fact they are minuscule. But the human ear can hear such low dB at the threshold of hearing that getting rid of all the background noise can be problematic.

In fact, a buddy of mine has a 2014 pickup and he was commenting about how he heard a weird whistling sound that was annoying. He discovered that one of he dash vents had been closed and the air was rushing out the closed vent and he could hear that quite prominently because the rat of the background noise had been reduced so much. Another example of what I'm talking about.

Anyway, sounds like I'm trying to make excuses for GM. I'm not. Just trying to point out some observations that can be helpful.

I will do some further testing with the fuses pulled as well as the cotton ball setup, and report what I find.

TOBTEK · January 4, 2015

In the 2015 YUKON I can only see the one mic that's located above the drivers sun shade. Do not see any mic's by the grab handles or the 2nd row seats?? The Escalades in the shop so can't check that one right now.

TOBTEK · January 4, 2015

Can someone with a Yukon check yours to see if you have these other Mic's by the grab handles and 2nd row seats. cant see them in ours ???

Edited January 4, 2015 by TOBTEK

austingta · January 4, 2015

In the 2015 YUKON I can only see the one mic that's located above the drivers sun shade. Do not see any mic's by the grab handles or the 2nd row seats?? The Escalades in the shop so can't check that one right now.

The mic above the shade is the Bluetooth mic.

20Sierra14 · January 5, 2015

In the 2015 YUKON I can only see the one mic that's located above the drivers sun shade. Do not see any mic's by the grab handles or the 2nd row seats?? The Escalades in the shop so can't check that one right now.

I believe that is the only one in the Yukon (w/o active noise cancelation) will have. My personal car is a Denali w/ the actual option code for the "active noise cancellation".. Your Escalade will certainly have all the "mics" I've mentioned.

20Sierra14 · January 5, 2015

The mic above the shade is the Bluetooth mic.

While doing the cotton ball test, the mic you mention certainly looked different, but I thought the bluetooth mic was located near the home link (garage door opener) buttons??

20Sierra14 · January 5, 2015

I just did a test on our Denali. I pulled the fuse for the RSE, the Radio, and the Amplifier, hoping to completely de-energize the entire sound system and all sub-components. Took it for a short test drive and definitely made a huge difference. No pressure on the ears, although I still can hear a low frequency "thud" whenever the tires go over any kind of bump, big or small. More noticeable at very low speeds since there is little other noise.

Only had a chance for a short test drive at 80 kph, but I am fairly sure the classic "buffeting" is not present. My first impression is that without the sound system working,many small thuds caused by bumps in the road are heard and gone, instead of before when those bumps seemed to result in a pressure to the ears. In other words, the ANC was over compensating and making things worse. The other thing I noticed is that the sense of sound energy that was present right down to about 10 kph is no longer there. I mentioned this in an earlier post that the sound energy was present and then would suddenly be gone below 10 kph, almost like the engagement threshold was reached and the computer turned something off. Would make sense if the ANC is the culprit, and it is only active when the vehicle speed is above some threshold. I've always been suspect of the ANC system all along, so won't be surprised if it ends up being the culprit in this issue.

That all said, I still find this vehicle tends to transmit sound different then most vehicles. It's hard to explain, but it's almost like it is so quite inside, you hear stuff that you never did before. Best analogy is if you've ever been driving on the highway and 100 or 110 kph with a 70 kph tailwind. All the normal wind noise is gone and the mechanical sounds from the vehicle at that speed can be heard for the first time, and can be quite alarming! Stuff you've never heard before, like something is wrong. But it's not, it's just mechanical power train and suspension noises never heard before.

With the Denali, I was sitting in our driveway with the vehicle running, in park. I was turning the steering wheel back and forth and the tires were scrubbing back and forth on snow packed surface. You know the sound tires make on packed snow? Kind of a squeezing, crunching sound? Well, that was very loud inside the vehicle. So it is like the stiffness of the suspension, frame, cab/body along with being so quite even when the engine is idling, I could hear that sound more clearly without other background noise and it sounded very loud. Likely on a dB level, it is lower then any other vehicle if ever been in, but without a bucnh of other background noise, it's more noticeable. And of course, you can't do this test without the engine running, right, so most vehicles would mask it.

Still, this thing seems stiff and rigid, and noise seems to transmit through it.

Of course, one other thing to consider when it come to noise. Sometimes making an environment too quiet can be a double edged sword. Think about your house at night. When all the normal noises of the day are gone, all of a sudden you can hear things tht you wouldn't have heard because it so quiet. Can be quite annoying, and those sounds seem very loud when in fact they are minuscule. But the human ear can hear such low dB at the threshold of hearing that getting rid of all the background noise can be problematic.

In fact, a buddy of mine has a 2014 pickup and he was commenting about how he heard a weird whistling sound that was annoying. He discovered that one of he dash vents had been closed and the air was rushing out the closed vent and he could hear that quite prominently because the rat of the background noise had been reduced so much. Another example of what I'm talking about.

Anyway, sounds like I'm trying to make excuses for GM. I'm not. Just trying to point out some observations that can be helpful.

I will do some further testing with the fuses pulled as well as the cotton ball setup, and report what I find.

Exxxxactly! The noise canceling is essentially hearing those road noises and trying the conceal the sound to your ears... If the frequency isn't just perfect for everyone's ears, I would assume it could/would cause some folks to have the pressure sensation... So meaning, its the damn noise canceling system that is causing all the problems - not everything GM is trying to "fix".

Edited January 5, 2015 by 20Sierra14