2015 YUKON NOISE IN CABIN

Chris M. · February 3, 2016

After following this thread carefully since its inception I bought a new 2016 Tahoe yesterday. I drove several and didn't hear any noises or buffeting with any of them. The dealership was aware of the issues some people are having and they are prepared to deal with any problems.

Best of luck to all of you and I'll be around the forum.

Cl Houn · February 3, 2016

Any results of the survey yet

TOBTEK · February 5, 2016

Well...... After TWO 2015 buybacks, and our new 2016 just spent over two weeks back at the dealership for the EXACT SAME BOOMING NOISE AND EAR PRESSURE. Is it any surprise the issue is still unresolved? What really upsets me is every time a new GM engineer comes out and researchs this particular vehicle, they act like this is the first time they've ever heard about this WELL KNOWN PROBLEM. It's so insulting!

They completely Dynamatted the roof, but they wouldn't do the walls and floor as I requested, or switch out the Bridgestone tires for Michelins. End result, it seems a very little bit better. But still not even close to being satisfied with a 85k Luxury SUV that booms over any road flaw.

sas06 · February 5, 2016

Interesting Findings Below. I hope this will help:

1. I found a 2015 Suburban LS a few days ago which had no buffeting. Very comfortable ride. Did not remember to test booming but will go again to test that. The only difference between this car and my 2015 Suburban LS was the touch screen interface. My car has touch screen that car did not have it.

2. I probably found the cause of booming: If you hit the rear tire with something hard or punch it you will hear resounding going through the body. Now sit inside the car, close the doors, and ask someone else to hit the tire. You will hear the same boom as you hear while driving. So this boom is the resounding in the wheel base occurring from the impact of the tires on the bumps on the road. This can be reduced if the tires are soft but will be very noticeable if they hard. That is why after you have driven miles and tires become softer and warm then booming reduces considerably. If the tires are bad they can be changed but if the whole wheel-base is like that then...

3. There could be several types of buffeting and all could be present at once. Read below.

4. One type of buffeting is due to the strong wind passing through the hollow plastic panels just above the rear lights. These panels are loose and move as well. My dealer used silicon to close inlets into the panels and also made them hard to move. This noticeably reduced cabin noise.

5. If the tires or the wheels are not round then buffeting will occur. The fact that the car buffets at particular speeds and that buffeting speed is different for different cars definitely points to the bad tires or wheels. In my case buffeting occurs more after the car has been parked for long time in cold and then subsides when the tires become soft after driving miles. This is because at night the tires become tough and the parking leaves a flat spot on the tires. Inflating the tires a bit over the 35psi really helped me reduce the buffeting. But tires as well as the wheels should be strictly checked for roundness.

6. The hatch, if it moves, can also cause buffeting. In one case I saw a car going through uneven places and the rear hatch would actually move side ways. No wonder it moves on rough roads and the friction between the door stoppers and the car's body may generate noises. I solved it by putting one felt pad on the door stopper and the other at the spot where the door stopper touches the body, so that the two pads are now super-imposed on each other. This would certainly reduce the hatch noise but the best is to get the hatch properly tightened.

My car now drives much better, it does not buffet too badly. It actually is bearable now. But I still need the wheels and tires to be checked for roundness. And I don't know if the booming can be solved.

Good luck!

FogDucker · February 5, 2016

I've had my Yukon back from dealership visit #3 and am pleased to report that I now enjoy driving my Yukon at all speeds!

To recap, I had booming, buffeting and vibrations. Work done on visits #1 and #2 included:

road force balancing sessions
3 tires were replaced; 20" Continental; more road force balancing
rear axle replacement; rotor to rotor <-- this eliminated all vibration IMHO
headliner removal & inspection <-- bows were intact

Last week's visit included:

hatch inspection/alignment; it now closes with a solid thud; seals were not replaced
3 tires were replaced with 'certified' 20" Continentals; more road force balancing
replacing or installing 6 vibration dampers on the exhaust system; I have no specifics; 3rd hand information

I've driven nearly 400 miles since I picked it up - the buffeting is pretty much gone. I have to actively listen for any buffeting and if I do hear anything, it's barely perceptible. It might even be in my head - more time behind the wheel will ultimately tell. I can't comment on the booming as I haven't driven on snow covered or gravel roads. I will say that it hasn't bothered me in the last week with mixed rural and city driving.

In addition to all the parts & labour listed above, I was able to have GM Canada add additional warranty to my Yukon and my dealership will cover the cost of road force balancing my K02 "snow shoes" which I'm going to keep. Those should be installed in the next week or so, just in time for my 1500 mile drive down to sunny and warm Florida.

As ChrisM. above pointed out, the key is to have a dealership that is ready and willing to support complicated and someone subjective issues that this thread covers. The service manager at my dealership was receptive and great to deal with - I got lucky. The other key was to get GM Canada's "Executive Review Team" involved who ultimately dispatched a knowledgeable field engineer that methodically chipped away at it. I do believe that GM engineers from Michigan got involved at some point too.

All in all, not the ideal car buying experience, but this comes with the territory with buying the first year of a new model.

GM made things right in my books. Fingers crossed that time does not change that.

Zig10 · February 6, 2016

I've had my Yukon back from dealership visit #3 and am pleased to report that I now enjoy driving my Yukon at all speeds!

To recap, I had booming, buffeting and vibrations. Work done on visits #1 and #2 included:

road force balancing sessions

3 tires were replaced; 20" Continental; more road force balancing

rear axle replacement; rotor to rotor <-- this eliminated all vibration IMHO

headliner removal & inspection <-- bows were intact

Last week's visit included:
hatch inspection/alignment; it now closes with a solid thud; seals were not replaced

3 tires were replaced with 'certified' 20" Continentals; more road force balancing

replacing or installing 6 vibration dampers on the exhaust system; I have no specifics; 3rd hand information

I've driven nearly 400 miles since I picked it up - the buffeting is pretty much gone. I have to actively listen for any buffeting and if I do hear anything, it's barely perceptible. It might even be in my head - more time behind the wheel will ultimately tell. I can't comment on the booming as I haven't driven on snow covered or gravel roads. I will say that it hasn't bothered me in the last week with mixed rural and city driving.

In addition to all the parts & labour listed above, I was able to have GM Canada add additional warranty to my Yukon and my dealership will cover the cost of road force balancing my K02 "snow shoes" which I'm going to keep. Those should be installed in the next week or so, just in time for my 1500 mile drive down to sunny and warm Florida.

As ChrisM. above pointed out, the key is to have a dealership that is ready and willing to support complicated and someone subjective issues that this thread covers. The service manager at my dealership was receptive and great to deal with - I got lucky. The other key was to get GM Canada's "Executive Review Team" involved who ultimately dispatched a knowledgeable field engineer that methodically chipped away at it. I do believe that GM engineers from Michigan got involved at some point too.

All in all, not the ideal car buying experience, but this comes with the territory with buying the first year of a new model.

GM made things right in my books. Fingers crossed that time does not change that.

Congratulations, Fog. I know that was a long-time coming for you. Now, GM needs to have that field engineer to train the rest of them and start putting a bigger dent in this issue.

With all of this going on, I wonder what the changes will be going into the next generation. Obviously you can't rely on tire and wheel suppliers to hold the tolerances that are needed for a frame this rigid, so do they change frame mounts and dampers, or design more flex into the body to absorb some of this? I'd love to have a serious conversation with the engineering team on this, just out of morbid curiosity.

sas06 · February 7, 2016

Congratulation FogDucker!

I am going to take a print out of your success story to my dealer. Happy to know that there is a fix.

Snoringbear · February 7, 2016

"design more flex into the body to absorb some of this?"

I think you may be spot on concerning the root cause of the problem. However, the trend appears to be moving towards ever more rigid frames. Ford is advertising that their new frame is twenty times more rigid than GM's , (slight exaggeration, lol) , not gonna bother to look up. Anyway, these super rigid frames with super tight bodies sitting on top of them is somewhat akin to riding on a huge tuning fork; piiiiiinnnnnng............

Elripster · February 7, 2016

Actually this is entirely the problem being that the body flexes too much and is not stiff enough. The stiffer the frames the better as far as ride and handling are concerned. This encourages the suspension to absorb impacts rather than the frame and thus body to flex transferring the force to the occupants. The weight saving measures have clearly made the body sheet metal much thinner and thus it resonates at frequencies typically encountered by vehicles. stiffening the body will raise the natural frequencies above the disturbing frequencies much as it was on the thicker skinned trucks of previous generations.

Frank

Wrench589 · February 7, 2016

Actually this is entirely the problem being that the body flexes too much and is not stiff enough. The stiffer the frames the better as far as ride and handling are concerned. This encourages the suspension to absorb impacts rather than the frame and thus body to flex transferring the force to the occupants. The weight saving measures have clearly made the body sheet metal much thinner and thus it resonates at frequencies typically encountered by vehicles. stiffening the body will raise the natural frequencies above the disturbing frequencies much as it was on the thicker skinned trucks of previous generations.

Frank

At this point, none of us owners have enough scientific data to know exactly what's going on. There are many, many, many factors potentially at play; including whether or not we're dealing with a critical speed, what the mode is, if it's a localized mode or complete structure mode, if there is any coupling or not, if it's purely structural or if it's acoustic-mechanical, if it's frame, body, both, coupling between them or not..... to name a few.

I'm reluctant to think it's simply the thin roof sheet metal (which I agree is ridiculously thin) because there have been several vehicles that have had the inside surface of the roof stiffened with Dynamat, mine included. And , it did nothing to improve the buffeting. Dynamat is a very proven product and definitely stiffens thin sheet metal. So why doesn't it help here?

Likely because it's not simply the roof sheet metal flexing/bouncing. It may be more something like the quarter panel and door pillar structure is flexing in/out, which then "pops" the roof. So, adding some stiffness to the roof isn't enough to resist such flexing. That would be more likely bad on the fact that re-attaching the roof to the bows, and adding Dynamat, has not fixed any vehicles (except one). And one out of hundreds is likely an out-layer in the data set.

IMO

jm7097 · February 7, 2016

Being new to this site, which appears to have a lot of resourceful, intelligent, and helpful users, I must say this particular thread is of concern to me. We just took delivery of a leftover '15 Yukon Denali at the end of the year.

We've put on approx. 700+ miles. The only thing that I've noticed from the beginning is a, what I feel is a driveline vibe, most noticeable at highway speed (50-60 mph). Felt in steering wheel and seat. It's the same vibe felt when a u-joint is starting to fail, or an unbalanced driveshaft, but doesn't do it all the time. This is the best way that I can describe it. As for the cabin boom issue, thanks to this damn forum , I've noticed that slightly also. Nothing even close to what's being described by other users (yet).

This is very disappointing to me. The amount of money that we pay for these vehicles IMO should equal a top quality product. Don't get me wrong, I'm realistic. I understand that all vehicles/manufacturers have their issues, but this too me, seems to be a major issue for GM, for whom I've been loyal for almost 30 years. That may change now.

I just cringe at the thought of my new vehicle and other users' vehicles being used as "test" vehicles to "research" possible fixes. Disassembling of a vehicle interior is usually never a good idea unless you know a responsible, caring, dealership technician. All it does is cause more problems with panel fit, noise/rattles, dirt/grease marks. This is all UNACCEPTABLE.

Did they not spend enough time on R & D? I'd hope that GM didn't release these vehicles knowing of these issues, gambling that only few would complain.

Ok, that's enough venting for now. I'm going to hold off on my vibration issue until there is proof of a definite fix. I'll keep an eye on GM's bulletins and this forum, of course. I'm also going to remain hopeful and optimistic of GM's commitment to quality and customer satisfaction. Time will tell.

Thank you for your time - Jack

Elripster · February 7, 2016

Critical speeds, modes, etc... are really getting to far into the weeds here. Vehicles must be tolerant to disturbances to provide acceptable NVH characteristics. We engineers are very familiar with this. The flimsy body simply moves the resonant frequencies into that of the disturbances. It nod impassable to eliminate all disturbances hence why stiff well damped structures are necessary.

As for the Dynamat comment, Dynamat in no way stiffens anything thus it stands to reason that it would not address buffeting. It is much more effective at higher frequency noises like the booming. It works by adding mass and damping those higher frequencies.

My truck's buffeting was completely addressed by the roof bows and the booming by the Dynamat. Then the bows came detached and the buffeting returned but the booming is much reduced. The roof is definitely key to the buffeting to the point that driving the truck with the headliner removed one could observe the buffeting via roof movement and place ones hand on the roof and make it stop.

Based on the tone made by tapping the sheet metal below the rear window I believe booing could be further addressed by Dynamat there.

Frank

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

Anon2015 · February 8, 2016

Being new to this site, which appears to have a lot of resourceful, intelligent, and helpful users, I must say this particular thread is of concern to me. We just took delivery of a leftover '15 Yukon Denali at the end of the year.

We've put on approx. 700+ miles. The only thing that I've noticed from the beginning is a, what I feel is a driveline vibe, most noticeable at highway speed (50-60 mph). Felt in steering wheel and seat. It's the same vibe felt when a u-joint is starting to fail, or an unbalanced driveshaft, but doesn't do it all the time. This is the best way that I can describe it. As for the cabin boom issue, thanks to this damn forum , I've noticed that slightly also. Nothing even close to what's being described by other users (yet).

This is very disappointing to me. The amount of money that we pay for these vehicles IMO should equal a top quality product. Don't get me wrong, I'm realistic. I understand that all vehicles/manufacturers have their issues, but this too me, seems to be a major issue for GM, for whom I've been loyal for almost 30 years. That may change now.

I just cringe at the thought of my new vehicle and other users' vehicles being used as "test" vehicles to "research" possible fixes. Disassembling of a vehicle interior is usually never a good idea unless you know a responsible, caring, dealership technician. All it does is cause more problems with panel fit, noise/rattles, dirt/grease marks. This is all UNACCEPTABLE.

Did they not spend enough time on R & D? I'd hope that GM didn't release these vehicles knowing of these issues, gambling that only few would complain.

Ok, that's enough venting for now. I'm going to hold off on my vibration issue until there is proof of a definite fix. I'll keep an eye on GM's bulletins and this forum, of course. I'm also going to remain hopeful and optimistic of GM's commitment to quality and customer satisfaction. Time will tell.

Thank you for your time - Jack

Jack...you must bring this matter to both your dealer and to the GMC CustomerNoCare group if only to go on record at your current mileage.

Wrench589 · February 8, 2016

Critical speeds, modes, etc... are really getting to far into the weeds here. Vehicles must be tolerant to disturbances to provide acceptable NVH characteristics. We engineers are very familiar with this. The flimsy body simply moves the resonant frequencies into that of the disturbances. It nod impassable to eliminate all disturbances hence why stiff well damped structures are necessary.

As for the Dynamat comment, Dynamat in no way stiffens anything thus it stands to reason that it would not address buffeting. It is much more effective at higher frequency noises like the booming. It works by adding mass and damping those higher frequencies.

My truck's buffeting was completely addressed by the roof bows and the booming by the Dynamat. Then the bows came detached and the buffeting returned but the booming is much reduced. The roof is definitely key to the buffeting to the point that driving the truck with the headliner removed one could observe the buffeting via roof movement and place ones hand on the roof and make it stop.

Based on the tone made by tapping the sheet metal below the rear window I believe booing could be further addressed by Dynamat there.

Frank

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

OK, so if Dynamat only adds mass, why will it only work at higher frequencies? Adding mass will change the resonant frequency regardless of what the original frequency was. Makes no sense to say adding mass only works at high frequency.

So, what are the frequencies of the "booming" and the "buffeting" that you have measured? Because I

Unless you have actually measured these responses with a spectrum analyzer (as I have, by the way), your claim that the booming is at "higher frequencies" is not all that credible, is it?

I'm glad reattaching the roof bows solved your buffeting problem. You are the only one out of many others that it did work for. No scientific explanation for that. Again, usually when we analyze data we ignore the single out-liar. But I guess it's possible that all the rest of us are wrong and re-attaching the roof bows actually did solve the buffeting and we are simply hearing things. Hmmm. No, don't think so. Even the dealer still heard it after re-attaching the roof bows. Weird, eh!

Actually, automotive NVH is definitely "in the weeds". Some engineers have made an entire career out of it. There is an entire industry out there devoted to analyzing it, measuring it, studying it, and developing controls for it. So, one may not want to minimize it as something "simple". It's anything but "simple". If it was, you and many others on this site would have solved this months ago.

But seriously, Frank, I would really like to find out what frequencies you have measured the booming and buffeting at to see how it compares to what I have measured.

Edited February 8, 2016 by Wrench589

Jbardram · February 10, 2016

Dealer called me regarding the suburban z71 i posted about a couple months back. Now how bonus cash on the hood and lease deal is pretty attractive. I was convinced to wait for the '17s to hopefully benefit from both the 8spd and a production fix for the issues many of you have been dealing with, but this is tempting me. Really struggling with what to expect ... seems from your experiences that a high percentage of these suv's are affected, but given the sales numbers and relatively low number of complaints online I am thinking of rolling the dice..