wind noise

My 91 Caprice wagon is the smoothest, quietest, riding vehicle that I have owned in years. However, I have a little wind noise coming from the drivers door. I replaced the door when I first got the car. The weatherstrip appears to be fine. The gap seems a little wrong between the door and the top of the fender, above the beltline. The door sticks out a little farther than the fender, acting like an air scoop, maybe. I hesitate to start bending on the fender or the door. I believe that I will stuff a rag in it or put some tape over the gap, and get in on the passenger side, for the drive home from work this evening and see if the noise goes away.

Let a body man look at it. I've never looked, but there is most likely some easy ways to adjust that a little bit without bending everything. Just a thought!

Agreed. There are elongated mounting holes for several bolts that adjust position of the door in the X, Y, and Z planes to insure correct position in the door opening and latch alignment. You might get it right through trial and error, but it could be a long and frustrating process. An experienced body tech will do the job very quickly, and it shouldn't cost much.

Again, just to be clear,bending=bad.

I have decided that I'm not hearing wind noise only. I'm hearing road noise, as in the tire rolling on the pavement. I will be looking to see if a deflector or some thing is missing on the drivers side and present on the passenger side.

I am also hearing what sounds like air flow noise from the rear of the vehicle at highway speed. I read somewhere that owners complained about the same when these wagons were new. GM's fix was to move the cross rails on the roof to certain places because of wind turbulence, I suppose. Anybody familiar with that?

OK, I did some research and found ... In Feb 1991 Gm said-
Condition- Some customers may comment about windnoise in the roof area on 1991 Caprice wagons when traveling at highway speeds.
Cause- This condition may be due to wind buffeting on the front cross rail of the roof luggage carrier.
Correction- To reduce the potential of this condition, please inform the owner to position the front cross rail fully rearward when not in use.

I will move mine to the rear before the ride home this evening and see if I can tell any difference.

Turn up the radio? Just say'n......

I found that GM later superseded the bulletin that I mentioned earlier with one that said the fix was to replace both front and rear cross rails - front part # 10079694 and rear part # 10079695.
They said that the rail assemblies MUST be replaced as a set due to the slight change in shape.
Also- Incorrect positioning of the new rails still has the potential to cause a buffeting noise. The correct position for the new rails is either completely together, or at least 200mm (8 in) apart.

BigBlackBeaSSt wrote:

Turn up the radio?  Just say'n......  

beat me too it, lol

Take the rails off completely and see if the noise is reduced. It's easy to do.

Roof racks catch wind and make noise, I keep the front bar back on my DD because its really annoying when the sunroof is open.

So are the gaps okay on your door/fender? I agree with the roof rack issue, I would think we've all had that issue with the Chevy wagons.

Just a fyi, when looking at door fitment issues take a little thick silicone grease, and coat the weather striping around the door, then close the door gently, being sure it latches. Open it back up and look for traces of the grease on the sealing surfaces of the body. Light, or no transfer of silicone grease to the body is the area to concentrate on while making adjustments. Use only silicone based grease, petroleum based grease will swell, distort, and ruin the weather stripping.

Finally, after several tries, I have the door adjusted as it should be. No more wind noise.