2013 Infiniti JX35: Unusual Wind Noise
June 17, 2012
Ed Hellwig came to my desk shortly after our 2013 Infiniti JX35 arrived. He asked me if I'd check for a faint wind noise he thought he'd heard on the driver's side.
"It's very subtle. Kind of reedy. I think it's coming from the top of the windshield on the driver's side," he explained.
I drove it home over the next weekend and heard nothing. Well, maybe a whiff of a peep, but nothing I could be sure of. I checked all the moldings and everything looked OK. The top corner he'd been suspicious of looked more or less like the above photo on both sides.
That was a few weeks ago.
This weekend I drove it again, and this time there was no doubt. The sound was clear and constant at speeds in the 70-plus mph range. Clearly, things had progressed since my last turn at the wheel.
My daughter, riding shotgun, looked at me funny as I turned my head this way and that trying to pinpoint the location. Sure enough, the top corner of the windshield on the driver's side was the clear culprit.
And then I got out at a gas station and saw this...
The cap rail on the driver's side has pulled away at the leading edge, and it now moves freely when compressed with a finger. There can be no doubt that this is what's fluttering about at speed.
We'll let you know what the solution turns out to be, but a dealer visit seems like the first line of defense. First-year assembly hiccups of the molding/wind noise variety are not unheard of, especially on an all-new model like this, so Infiniti may already know about this.
Still, it's more than a little disappointing.
Dan Edmunds, Director of Vehicle Testing @ 2,685 miles
