Sound Deadening FAQ

^Probably

 

go to home depot get a roll of ice and water mat for roofing 400sqft or something like that for 100 bucks you can do 6 cars with it and still have some left only downfall is it smells a bit like tar for a few days. i used it in my old blazer running 4 12's and had almost no odd noise rattle outside.

 

Do not do this.

Gotcha.

Thought I would reference sounddeadenershowdown.com here. It's a good read on the how and why of sound deadeners.

 

I've recently ordered some B-Quiet Ultimate and mass loaded vinyl. The MLV, or similar equivalents like composite products such as Luxury Liner, are what you need to really soundproof your car from road, suspension, or exhaust type noise. That is my primary goal now, to make the car nice and quiet for road trips etc. (in addition to making the stereo sound better).

 

I'll do the install sometime in May - I'll probably do the doors before then, but I'm planning to do the full floor of the car on the May long weekend.

Thought I would reference sounddeadenershowdown.com here. It's a good read on the how and why of sound deadeners.

 

I've recently ordered some B-Quiet Ultimate and mass loaded vinyl. The MLV, or similar equivalents like composite products such as Luxury Liner, are what you need to really soundproof your car from road, suspension, or exhaust type noise. That is my primary goal now, to make the car nice and quiet for road trips etc. (in addition to making the stereo sound better).

 

I'll do the install sometime in May - I'll probably do the doors before then, but I'm planning to do the full floor of the car on the May long weekend.

 

Let us know how that goes. Please take pics if it's not too much.

Did my doors this weekend - lengthy writeup is here

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/mass-loaded-vinyl-soundproofing-very-133782.html

I've been doing a bit of research since I will be replacing a blown midbass speaker in my front door soon. A question I have so far: does the sound deadening material aide in reducing door rattles when the speaker hits a certain frequency and vibrates? I've noticed the louder I have my music, the more door rattling I hear.

It could, but you will likely have to find the source of the rattle and coushon it.

Reduces, yes.

I've been doing a bit of research since I will be replacing a blown midbass speaker in my front door soon. A question I have so far: does the sound deadening material aide in reducing door rattles when the speaker hits a certain frequency and vibrates? I've noticed the louder I have my music, the more door rattling I hear.

 

As Town says, it will help. Ideally you find where the rattle is and deal with it directly.

Question--->? What has anyone done for the compass self dim mirror? Thats the only rattle I have. Did gluing the seal around it stop it from rattling? When I grab it, the 2 sections(was gonna say halves but they are nowhere near the same size) stop vibrating instantly.

Question--->? What has anyone done for the compass self dim mirror? Thats the only rattle I have. Did gluing the seal around it stop it from rattling? When I grab it, the 2 sections(was gonna say halves but they are nowhere near the same size) stop vibrating instantly.

Sounds like you found a solution!

 

That's a tough one. The origin of the vibration is likely the windshield, not the mirror itself.

 

I'm going to try this soon. I stripped much of the car this past weekend. Right now I'm driving around with no nav, no radio, no center consol, no rear seats, and no spare tire

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2960467&postcount=11

 

Its actually a lot of fun... the exhaust sounds great and I can notice a big difference in weight! I'm going to pull the door panels off, then go to the drag strip before I start with the sound deadening.

Edited May 25, 2010 by dr_sharp

Approximately how many square feet of material would I need to do the entirety of my wagon? I want to do the floor, doors, roof, hatch, everything.

 

I was going to use this stuff: http://www.raamaudio.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=3

 

BXT on the floor, BXT-II on everything else, and a layer of self-stick Ensolite on the back side of all of the panels (so on the headliner side of the headliner, on the back of the door cards and all trim panels, etc. I would put it directly over the butyl material on the floor though, not stick it to the back of the carpet).

 

What do you guys think of that approach?

 

I was also going to fill some dead space in the hatch and rear quarters with some Polyfill, as well.

Anyone have any insight?

pm raamaudio on nasioc. He is the owner, Rick, and he will probably gibe you a 5-10% discount. He will also be able to answer that question!

Approximately how many square feet of material would I need to do the entirety of my wagon? I want to do the floor, doors, roof, hatch, everything.

 

I was going to use this stuff: http://www.raamaudio.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=3

 

BXT on the floor, BXT-II on everything else, and a layer of self-stick Ensolite on the back side of all of the panels (so on the headliner side of the headliner, on the back of the door cards and all trim panels, etc. I would put it directly over the butyl material on the floor though, not stick it to the back of the carpet).

 

What do you guys think of that approach?

 

I was also going to fill some dead space in the hatch and rear quarters with some Polyfill, as well.

I would guess about 150 sq. ft.

 

Rear doors are about 4 sq. ft. each and the front are about 6 sq. ft. each.

Keep in mind going to this extreme will add a lot of weight. I found in my LGT sedan that a lot of the noise was still coming from the windows and the natural (lack of) aerodynamics in the body design. Although dynamat xtreme on the trunk, doors and floors helped with sound quality immensely.

 

You should really try that chevron application and let us all know how it works. Although, if you haven't heard/rode in a full job, like the one you're talking about attempting, then there's nothing to compare to really.

I don't really care about the weight. It should be less than 50lbs, and I'm not building a race car.

Keep in mind going to this extreme will add a lot of weight. I found in my LGT sedan that a lot of the noise was still coming from the windows and the natural (lack of) aerodynamics in the body design. Although dynamat xtreme on the trunk, doors and floors helped with sound quality immensely.

 

You should really try that chevron application and let us all know how it works. Although, if you haven't heard/rode in a full job, like the one you're talking about attempting, then there's nothing to compare to really.

Yeah the windows is where I get most my sound from on the "turn the radio up and close the doors" exterior test. Assuming it's illegal to dynamat the windows I'm gonna let that be.

 

 

I don't really care about the weight. It should be less than 50lbs, and I'm not building a race car.

No race car? OMG leave!

 

Let me know how the polyfill goes. I might try that eventually.

I deadened my car using a less is more, SDS style approach. I used a combination of Fatmat Mega Mat, 1/8 in. gymnastic foam decoupler, and 1/8th in. generic MLV that I bought from a marine supplier. I also bought a little carpet jute for certain areas as well to absorb noise.

 

I bought 50 sq. ft. of Mega Mat and I must have used about 32-36 sq ft total to dampen the car. I can tell you, without a doubt, that Fatmat Mega sticks like crazy. I was afraid that it would suck based on all the reviews I had read about the other Fatmat products, but Mega is butyl rubber backed by aluminum with NO asphalt in it. Also, this stuff holds no odor.

 

I used to wallpaper cars with this shit, but I used the simple rap test to determine the level of dampening that I considered adequate. When I closed the doors for the first time, they had that familiar bank vault thud, not from excess weight, but from a decrease in the overall resonance of the structure. Most of the dampening went to the inner side of the external skin, but I tiled the area sparingly and methodically just in case I ever needed to access the skin to pull a dent.

 

I took a drive with just the dampener applied--not much of an effect, but there was something different. Road noise seemed a bit attenuated; we have fairly quiet cars, but I imagine that panel vibration contributed in some way to the overall noise heard at highway speed. Overall though, not wholly impressed, but I expected that...

 

I ripped the car apart again to apply the gymnastic foam and MLV. This I applied to the doors and cabin, NOT the trunk at this time. I also put some jute on top of the MLV in limited areas (Footwells, Firewall, Transmission Tunnel) for some noise absorption. Total time to complete application~7 hours. I sealed the car up once again and took a drive. The difference was absolute! I still heard road noise, but once I turned on the radio, the road noise had minimal effect on the total noise floor. Stock volume at 8 almost eliminates road noise. Crosswinds and anything coming from the A-pillars are still problems, but road noise is diminished significantly. Bass response is greatly improved and I have more headroom when it comes to volume adjustments.

 

I applied Gymnastic foam, MLV, and Jute to the trunk last. This reduced the road noise a bit more, and I stuffed some chopped jute into the open spaces of the rear quarter panels. This had a strange effect in that it actually shifted the majority of the noise to the front left of the vehicle. Of course, the noise is quite minimal, but it also goes to show you how difficult it is to control noise when you cannot seal off all paths, which is the case in a car.

 

Overall, the car now feels like a much heavier cruiser. I have only added the equivalent of 1 anorexic petite model across the entire base of the vehicle, but the car feels infinitely more solid. It pounds over road imperfections like your average luxury car, but the car retains its agility! I will continue to deaden cars using this method. Sure, 100+ pounds will make the car feel solid, but acoustically, the car will perform better when you place some foam, MLV, and jute on top.

 

my $.02

Nice write up! What do you think the total weight added was?

Sorry about the long response, it's been busy!

 

I did not calculate total weight, but judging from the material I have left, I'd say I have added around 65 or so pounds of sound deadening. The bulk of this is of course the MLV as I really did not need too much of the CLD to get the job done!

This site really taught me a lot about what works and what doesn't backed up by previous posts in this thread.

 

http://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi

 

I'm still pulling panels to get access for the application.

I didn't read the whole thread, but I've found a way that reduces a lot of road noise in subaru's without adding hardly any weight. Go to Walmart and buy about 4 large overstuffed poly-fiberfill pillows and cut them open. Stuff the fiberfill into all open spaces in the dash and a-pillars, b-pillars, under the door jams next to the wire looms, especially in and around the spare tire, and behind the carpet covering the strut towers in the trunk. I did this on the last two cars I have owned (one being a subaru forester) and it produces noticeable results for only a couple hours of work and about 20-30 dollars. I never had any issues from electronics overheating or anything. Don't forget to pack it in around and under the center console and behind/underneath the stereo and around the shifter as well. I guarantee you will notice a difference! I already have started doing this on the LGT and it quieted down the road noise a good bit already. Now I need to seal up the doors with some RAAMmat and some Volara foam and I'll be good to go!

 

EDIT: The only spots I feel you need to be careful around are areas where there are moving parts for valves with the HVAC system and where the inlet for the in-car recirculation vent is. There is a flapper that actuates and sucks air in from under the dash that you don't want fiberfill getting pulled into and wrapped up in the squirrel cage fan. I usually leave a little breathing room on the back of the stereo, and a little bit of room behind the stock gauge cluster just for piece of mind. You would be surprised how much room there is inside the dash that is just wide open and allowing a lot of engine noise to come in through the firewall. I also pack the C-pillars behind the passenger doors full up as high and as much as I can go. Overall the effect is definitely worth the time of pulling the interior pieces out. I do NOT stuff the insides of the doors as the fiberfill can/could trap moisture and cause premature rusting IMO.

 

Now all of you go out and stuff your dashes!

 

-Steve

Edited October 27, 2010 by sjwelna

Some material that I have used to eliminate rattles and buzzes in my car works well where plastic meets metal/other plastic= Headliner Material The stuff is thin, padded and pliable. I only had to use light amounts of spray adhesive to mount this stuff. Another fix I discovered applies to the Rear View Mirror Vibrating Out Of Aim whenever the subwoofer is cranked. I unscrewed the rear view mirror, applied a couple drops of Blue Loctite and reassembled it. The mirror is still adjustable but it stays where you leave it regardless of subwoofer volume.

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