2012 Access cab - excessive road noise

Its that big gap on the access cab doors, when you shut it in the back of the cab there is a huge openeing and most of the road noise resonates from that spot. I had an 05 AC and i put a rubber flap back there and it helped.

 

Some good suggestions. Keep them coming. Does anyone have a link w/photos that describes how to remove the Access Cab rear door panels as well as the rear seat backwall area? I'm thinking of accessing these areas to add some sound deadening material. Thanks.

 

if you search around, you can find pics.

The rear wall is easy - remove all the little plastic doors and it just pulls off. No screws or anything.

The rear doors are a bit trickier. You'll need a size (25, I think. maybe bigger) torx drive, a screwdriver, and a socket. It's pretty easy to get the panel off. Remove a few bolts and it pops off. Getting back on is harder, but not too difficult; the seatbelt is a little tricky to wrangle. Make sure you get all the little plastic buttons back in place before you put it back on.

There are some pictures in my gallery of the door panel off.

 

Yea .... noise in the AC sucks!! I had a Honda Civic before the Tacoma AC so there wasn't that much of a difference. But, after riding in a 2013 Dodge Ram, the difference is incredible!! I have read through a few threads and it's not clear that the double cab is actually better than the AC. I see some people complaining. Some of the noise is wind noise but some is cabin noise. Like I said ... reminds me of my old Civic. WTF??

 

My 08 gets loud with crosswinds. From what I understand the rear door windows don't have weather stripping and the back doesn't have any noise insulation. Otherwise pretty quiet in my opinion, but I also may be a little deaf.

 

My 2011 F150 SuperCab that I had before my Tacoma had a lot of wind noise, especially from cross winds. That made me do a lot of research on these access cabs before I bought one.

I test drove a 2013 Access Cab and it had the wind noise from the doors almost as bad as my Ford. I also heard the road noise from the cabin vent that I believe is in the back of the cab.

The 2012 that I bought has practically no wind noise from the doors or anywhere. All I hear is some road noise through the vent, and most of the time I don't even notice that. I think I lucked out!

Based on my experiences and everything I read, some trucks seem to have more noise than others. I have no idea why, just like some seem to have the driveline vibration and some don't. Mine does have that...

 

I have just purchased a 2013 access cab and right away on the way home from the dealership I notice a whirling noise inside the cab at various speeds. I drove the truck for about a week and then returned to the dealer. They said that there were a couple of reports on this issue and stated that the side mirrors were to blame. They said with a slight design change on the mirrors on the 2012-13 models, more issues with this were reported. How to verify if this is the issue, fold back both side mirrors and test drive. Be careful when doing this test because you will not be able to see without those mirrors during your test drive. If the noise is gone, then you know you have the same issue as I. The mirrors are adjustable within the door, however, I will be letting the dealer make the adjustments or replace the mirrors. Besides, its brand new with a 5 year warranty.

 

Congratulations on your new Tacoma! Nice photo, and welcome to the small club of Tacoma Access Cab owners who have the ‘howling wind noise’ from the back of the cabin. The noise is not from the Duflop tires, storage bins, or from your Rear View Mirrors (my opinion), it is more than a rear door alignment issue. “This is definitely a wind noise particularly noticeable on crosswinds.” To those who say it is just a truck, you do not understand. The buffeting / roaring / whistling sound is as if a rear door or window is partially open. The noise occurs in my truck whether moving or at rest (engine not running) even in the slightest crosswind breeze. But the doors are closed and windows are sealed and not moveable. You can try painter’s tape to try to isolate where the sound originates, but after many attempts by the dealer and myself, no culprit located. Most likely cause is a defective or an improperly installed rear cabin vent that is located in the center rear of the cabin. That is the only remaining item not tested on my Tacoma. The rear cabin vent is near impossible to get to without disassembling the upholstery including headliner or removing the composite bed. Even then you are still troubleshooting. Needless to say, very, very annoying that Toyota Corporate and my dealer have given up on fixing this issue with my and similar Tacomas' (yes, my case number remains active).

Happy New Year, and I do wish you better luck with your new Tacoma than I have experienced with this apparently same issue and hope you enjoy a quieter cabin than mine very soon. Please keep us informed regarding your progress.

 

John,
You are absolutely describing what we are experiencing very accurately and no one has come up with a definitive solution. I've had the service manager from my dealership ride along with me on a windy day and has used a sound meter (at Toyota's request) to record noise levels. He has heard what I'm talking about but it seems that there isn't a fix from Toyota. The dealer did change the door and body weatherstripping and also glued down the weatherstripping. They have tried what they can, but basically are saying it's in the design. I'm not buying that entirely as there are many AC owners who aren't complaining. All I can suggest is that anyone who has excessive crosswind noise file a complaint with their dealer and Toyota.
In the Spring when it's warmer I intend to take out the rear interior wall and do some soundproofing as well as look at this cab vent to try to set up some kind of filter or baffle to it.
Meanwhile, if anyone has obtained a satisfactory fix for this from Toyota, please let us know.
John in Ontario

 

That's not true. The vent is accessible by removing the rear wall upholstery. No tools required, just pull all the plastic pieces covering the baby seat anchors and then give a good yank.

You don't need to do anything with the headliner. Although if you want access to it from outside the cabin, you will need to get between the box and the cab somehow.



One of the main culprits in my mind is the storage bins. There isn't much insulation or baffling there. Just for grins pull the storage bins out once and go for a ride - it will be much louder. At a minimum, you could stuff some carpet padding in there - although the Raamat/ensolite treatment would probably yield superior results.

 

Monkeyboy, Thanks for the photos and explanation regarding obtaining access to the Tacoma AC rear cabin vent. I fully agree removing the rear storage bin plastic parts would increase the noise inside the cabin. It is difficult to understand any airflow effect thru or in the rear storage bins or console could create the acoustics I'm experiencing. The airflow noise seems to come more from the upper part of the cabin near the rear shoulder belt openings or tops of the doors. The sliding window does not seem to be a factor. There is a difference between road noise and the apparent intruding airflow (wind) noise that my truck exhibits. Thanks again for the post and photos. I trust your Tacoma has not exhibited this annoying characteristic.

 

Good pics and explanation of how to remove the rear panel...thanks. Can anyone post something similar for the rear AC door panels? Insulating these areas will certainly help with road noise, but that crosswind noise has yet to be identified. This is a good thread. Let's keep the input coming. Happy 2013 all!
John in Ontario

 

I sound dampened the rear doors and back wall. I don't experience the wind noise.

 

Well, I spent the better part of my early twenties attending every concert within 300 miles, so my hearing is pretty well shot anyway. That said, I did find the AC louder than the DC I used to own.

But yeah, the noise sounded a lot like wind noise - my pet theory is that it was caused by turbulence between the box and the cab. I dunno. Noise is a funny thing, though - consider a horn; the noise comes from one place (the opening), but is caused by vibrations from somewhere else entirely (the mouthpiece). Point I'm trying to make is that these things can be tough to nail down, and you should start with insulating or damping the easy spots and then go from there.

That worked really well for me and was a huge improvement. I ultimately did use Raamat and ensolite on pretty much all surfaces, but the back wall and doors gave by far the biggest improvements.

There are guides to removing the rear door panels if you google. It's not hard at all. You'll need a size 25 (or bigger, I forget offhand) torx drive, a phillips head drive and a 14mm socket/wrench. There are 3-4 bolts and screws that need to be removed and then the door panel pulls off, same as the back wall.

The hardest part is putting it back on because the slide for the seatbelt is a bit fiddly.

Here is the backside of the panel :



Here is the door :

 

MonkeyBoy, thanks for the info on removing the back panel. A few of the little blue plastic inserts broke; but I filled the back wall and vent with insulation and all went back together no problem. I put some insulation in the storage boxes also and will see if all is quieter. If so I'll remove the boxes and insulate underneath . Thanks again

 

Bump,

Anybody able to determine source and rectify excessive cabin wind noise as experienced in some Gen 2 Tacoma Access Cabs?