quiet the ride down a notch

[pooh]

Anyone out there have any ideas on how to filter out the road noise on a 93 sedan? I am replacing the gaskets on the doors, but was wondering about adding extra carpeting . Any suggestions will be appreciated and thanks once again I know it will never be 100% like a new car, but I can't hear my cell through the earplugs...I wonder if thicker carpet in the trunk would help

[SILINC3R]

You can do extra carpeting but wind noise will still be there. Just the flaw of aero at the time.

[rallyak]

I've placed lead/foam under my carpet, I bought it locally from a rubber supply outfit. Also inside my door shells and on the roof under the head liner I place (fat mat, dynamat) directly on the inside of the outer sheet metal, and I placed two layers on. With both of these I will say it has quieted the car about 50%. The biggest noise maker in ours cars are the gussets very common.

[kimokalihi]

For road noise you want a closed cell foam like ensolite. Use a bunch of that stuff. Works better than butyl or asphalt products like dynamat.

http://www.raamaudio.com/ensolite-iuo-p ... he-market/

Vinyl backed foams work excellent to kill noise.

http://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com/ho ... aded-vinyl

[kimokalihi]

Wow, I haven't been on that second website (sounddeadenershowdown) in years and its really come a long way. What a great site. You'll learn everything you need to know by reading the how-to section. In the beginning this guy was just thoroughly testing and rating every type of sound deadener the guys in the car audio industry were using and exposing the lies and flaws of many popular products. Now I see he offers his own products so I'm assuming they're probably top shelf products. I wouldn't hesitate from buying his products.

[rallyak]

That vinyl backed foam looks a lot like what I used under my carpet but it is heavy cuz of the lead. It works great but you wouldn't use it in the doors, that's why I used the fat mat on the outer sheet metal. I've used it and played with it and it worked best on the outer shell. The door sounds solid and the roof is very quiet. My test for that is auto car wash, my wife's car with out the fat mat sounds like a soda can a very loud. Mine is at least 50% quieter from the water impact and the from the blower. I would say that placing the fat mat, dynamat on the floor and around shock towers is a waste of time. But it where you place it is key. Like the doors here a pic.

[originalcyn]

Wow, I haven't been on that second website (sounddeadenershowdown) in years and its really come a long way. What a great site. You'll learn everything you need to know by reading the how-to section. In the beginning this guy was just thoroughly testing and rating every type of sound deadener the guys in the car audio industry were using and exposing the lies and flaws of many popular products. Now I see he offers his own products so I'm assuming they're probably top shelf products. I wouldn't hesitate from buying his products.

I just saw that site on the Forester forums. I got to say that guy really seems to know what he's talking about. I mean, I wouldn't know if he didn't, but the things he is saying make a lot of sense. The one I want to try is lower coverage with raammat. He was going like 50 percent or lower coverage because the job of dynamat and things like that is to prevent vibration, not block noise. Even when you go into a car toys or something, the demo is a bell with a small patch of dynamat on it. It works perfectly fine with just that small patch. So why would you need to cover an entire panel?


Edit: I just realized that I sound like a douche after rallyak was taking about the on his car. Rallyak, your work is always top notch, and I'm in no way questioning your judgement! Apologies if it came off that way.

[kimokalihi]

That guy knows his shit better than anybody I'd reckon. 9 years of testing products and doing installs and now selling his own stuff. He's a guru on sound dampening. I just read several of his how tos and now I see I went quite a bit overboard with raammat on my metro. That was years ago. Lot of wasted money and time and added weight. Too bad I hadn't read his how tos back then. I'd have a quiter cheaper light car.

[kimokalihi]

Rick over at Raamaudio is the nicest guy I've ever done business with and that's saying a lot. His products are top notch and prices are very reasonable. He even sent me free mat and ensolite to use on my custom pine PC tower I built. It was silent when I was finished with it and beautiful. Awesome guy.

[originalcyn]

Huh, i'll have to give them both a go. I'd like to do some work on the forester, and maybe the legacy.

[pooh]

Okay, now the question is which sound barrier works the best, and reasonalbly priced. I don't have a stereo, just want to cut the road noise so I can hear business calls .I can't hear well, due to road noise. even with headphones on. Thanks to everyone for info. I wouldn't have ever known there was such a thing

[kimokalihi]

I would do it all. Its a system and works together like one. Aftr reading all the how-to's I believe the mass loaded vinyl is your best product coupled with the 3M thinsulate. Make sure you seal it up when you do the MLV. But imo if you're going to all that effort why not throw a few CLD tiles in there to take the panel resonances down a bit?

[Legacy777]

I haven't read the ho-to's on the site, but I'm sure he goes into this in more detail. The various "quietening" products out there do two different things. Products like dynamat effectively lower the resonant frequency of an object by adding weight and make the vibrations inaudiable. That is all dynamat and similar products do. That is what the dynamat bell demo shows.

The other products actually absorb noise by providing barriers for it to be absorbed or deflected, exactly how regular insulation in a house works, but it's much thinner than typical housing insulation. These type of products are what you want to use for cutting down typical road noise.

[kimokalihi]

That basically sums it up but yes, he goes into loads of details. It really is an interesting read and it makes me want to tear our my interior and add some mlv and 3m thinsulate to really get my car to luxury quiet levels but I must resist the urge to spend.

[James614]

How much does MLV weigh? I imagine that being a replacement for lead mats, its gotta add some luxury car weight to your ride.

[kimokalihi]

I've never used that guys products. But in my metro I have an 8ftx4ft sheet of vinyl backed foam but I cannot remember the brand. Could probably find out with some searching over on diyma forum. But its covering the whole floor and firewall on top of a layer or two of ensolite closed cell foam on top of a couple layers of raammat. That vinyl backed luxury liner is heavy as hell but its much thicket than the mlv.