I'm in my 3rd week of Z ownership here, and enjoying every minute of it. I've noticed however that when driving or changing lanes in the rain or somewhat dirty roads, I can hear debris being kicked up around the back of the car. It makes a distinct sound that makes me think its banging around inside the wheelwells, or under the back bumper somewhere. Just wondering if this is normal for the Z, or if i'm missing some type of fenderwell back there somewhere. I took a quick look under the back and nothing seems to be amiss.

Thanks in advance,

Wheelman

 

Unlike a car with a backseat and trunk, the fender wells are inside the car. So yes it is noisy.

 

Thanks. I'm used to the 2 seater thing, my last car was a Vette, I just didn't notice the same type of noise. Then again with the cam, headers, exhaust, no cats I didn't really hear much of anything.

 

^^^
damn your car must have been loud!

 

+10000 that thing must have been crazy loud.

 

You get used to it after awhile, just turn the music up and it will soon go away...

 

as well as your hearing

 

wait until you drive in the rain and it sounds like water's splashing up inside the hatch.

 

When I bought my car, it was raining. Its rained here pretty much every day since then too.

 

yea its normal, when i first bought my car i thought this car was cursed!!
after cracking my front lip, it still is..

 

try driving over gravel. ull cringe lol

 

I get freaked out by "stealth debris". Sometimes I'm going over what looks to be a perfectly smooth, clean road, when I suddenly hear the sound of something kicking up in the rear wheels.

 

I hear it every once in a while in the back. Its really bad when you gut the interior though.

 

Yes. The Z coupe is very noisy when driving on gravel and wet roadways. That is simply because the rear wheel-wells are inside the car, and road noise transmits directly to the car's interior compartment. The Z convertible runs more quitely in this regard, and that is because the convertible has a trunk that keeps the the rear wheels outside the passenger compartment.

You can suppress this noise in the Z coupe by adding sound deadening over the rear wheel-wells and the floor of the back compartment, but this adds weight that disrupts the front/rear balance-ratio of this car. I notice a difference in handling when I alter the front to rear balance by simply carrying golf clubs in the rear hatch area.

To understand the concept ("wheel-well inside the car's interior=noise transmitted to the car's interior"), you should test drive an Infinti G35 coupe. This car (which is very similar to the Z) is very quiet when you have the rear seat in place (and the wheel-wells are isolated from the passenger compartment), but is noisy when you fold the rear seat down and expose the passenger compartment to the rear wheel-wells.

--Spike

 

Its pretty annoying, i was on freshly paved road and i was hearing little crumbs of road nonstop hitting the wheel well, figured it was because of rwd or because of the tires, but i guess having the wheel wells in the car will do it.

 

Welcome to the world of a hatch back. Yes, it's normal.