Sound Deadening Project

[johnloov]

Update:

Most of the sound deadening is applied, also used expanding foam on the hollow metal structure on driver and passenger - where the front seats bolt in.
I went as far as I could by the fire wall behind the sound proof cloth on the passenger footwell, and will complete the drivers side as well.

~8-10lbs of sound deadening applied.

tomorrow this will be covered by a foam layer. I may double up. It’s going to be important to blanket seal the sound.

Also noticed the middle tunnel had the most hollow sound.

Ps.., this takes a lot of time… very tedious work, with the hands to get into every crevice and cut/mold all the sound dampening into every corner and edge.. it’s like doing Yoga for 8 hours - your body will hurt in a completely new way.
About to find out soon if this was a complete waste of time or worth it…

 

[johnloov]

Update photos clips

:

 

[Imped]

I'm curious to know how the carpet fits and I'm obviously excited to hear your thoughts on the before and after.

 

[johnloov]

I'm curious to know how the carpet fits and I'm obviously excited to hear your thoughts on the before and after.

Ok fellas whew ? finally completed the job, forgot to plug in the center wireless charging and remote entry, but other than that what a success! Just took her for a quick drive and the floors really helped dampen road noise but also the over all feel of the car.

I also did the side pillars by the seat belt.

I have a lot of lessons learned and will share and do some extensive tests next.

Regarding the floor, yes it all fit! I used two layers, but you could just use one and it would fit easier within tolerance.

If I had to do it all over again, I would not use the egg crate foam I used in the trunk and doors, which was very difficult to stuff in. Also the egg crate foam had a built-in, butyl layer dampener which was extra weight that was not needed on top of the Amazon dampener. I would use this 157mm close seal foam and Amazon basic dampening. It’s very lightweight and sticks extremely well instantly.

The car became much more mature, still edgy, but like dampened a lot more in the way it feels. The front engine and mechanical sounds are more enhanced because you don’t hear the rest of the car and it’s clear there is a very thin firewall between you and the engine. That’s the only place I really couldn’t get to.

You can still hear the tire howl coming from those Michelin pilot 4s’s, but everything is muted more. We’ve turned down the tire noise while drastically reducing interior cabin noise. It feels like a vault inside.


So far, very happy with the results, but let’s see if all this insane tedious and meticulous work helped my hearing issue.

 

[ecaro]

Let us know what works and what doesn't... I really appreciate your commitment to log everything down and sharing it with us. Did you get any new rattles from getting everything out?

 

[johnloov]

No rattles, seems like noise and sound energy doesn’t travel all the way through the car rattling it anymore.
I drove the same highway same as with trunk doors wheel arches rear seat floors done, and you can see we were able to knock down another ~2 db down which is a lot - according to the same app, but while my ears are telling me, it’s much better than than what the db app records when I go over bumps and it’s nowhere near as harsh and doesn’t rattle the car anymore. Those pilot 4S’s are real noise rascals. Still humming, but all the volume is turned down from the noise they produce, but the vibrations they produce through the chassis is like 95% eliminated.

 

[Imped]

It's wild to me that my app results are so much quieter than yours, with my car having DWS06+'s and minimal sound deadening (trunk only). Perhaps the road surface is accounting for some difference. If I put in the same amount of deadening work you have, my car would be in the low to mid 60's, which seems hard to believe.

 

[johnloov]

It's wild to me that my app results are so much quieter than yours, with my car having DWS06+'s and minimal sound deadening (trunk only). Perhaps the road surface is accounting for some difference. If I put in the same amount of deadening work you have, my car would be in the low to mid 60's, which seems hard to believe.

I agree, this is far apart in tests.

1) It seems the Pilot 4s Tires are the Biggest Sound Demon - Other journalist recently have noted the Type R is quite noisy.


Same tires on the 911 and 911s I found also to be very noisy, not matter wheel size. Other's that have Porsches and performance cars also switched to DWS06+'s and were very happy with the 7-9db improvement which is a lot! It proves that the tires are the worst culprit here with transmitting sound into the cabin. I also noticed the AMG Mercedes running 5S's, the journalist was also having a hard time with all the noise, and had to speak extremely loud. Mercedes are generally very good at sound dampening.

The industry needs to take the sound dampening technology they invented for EV tires and embed them into high performance tires. I'm sure... this is coming up next

2) Sound deadening and dampening really works!

For sure the car is much more manageable for me with my Tinnitus.

If I had to do it all over again, and if you're a person that's not that hearing sensitive, and cares about adding very negligible weight.

I would:

1) Place the Amazon Basics Sound deadener in key locations in large pieces. Don't need to blanket the entire surfaces. Maybe 30-50%max. Turn the metal from a gong sound to a dampened sound.

2) Then blanket seal all doors trunks floors wheel wells arches with a single layer of this 157mm or double - close cell foam, which feels like it weighs nothing. It's super lightweight, even if you double it up. The amazon deadner weight is very dense and weighs the most.

I don't have the total weight numbers yet, but I will - I'm overestimating.. Let's say I added a total of 100lbs max to the car weight ( I think it's more like 80 lbs ) ---

Then by using the technique described above you would have only added maybe 20-30lbs max. Which is really negligible and you would have gotten great results.

 

[johnloov]

Video tests below:

In the first test, I didn't experience any rattles or buzzes and that was on the same highway, which I would say is an ~7.5/10 - 10 being like glass. I did experience some buzzes and rattles that existed in the car on really rough course roads, but that was massively down, and harder to trigger than before with the deafening.

One correction. In the video, I meant to say, I will go back and close up a patch on the rear interior wheel wells, as I was using mainly egg carton close sell foam, and there was a section under the airbags, I could not fit the egg crate foam, but I will go back and seal that with the 157mm close sell foam, which is much thinner. It's important to seal sound.

Here are the videos - recorded on iPhone 13 mini - mic from phone.






Enjoy!

 

[TW00Si]

I agree, this is far apart in tests.

It seems the Pilot 4s Tires are the Biggest Sound Demon - Other journalist recently have noted the Type R is quite noisy.
The industry needs to take the sound dampening technology they invented for EV tires and embed them into high performance tires. I'm sure... this is coming up next

It would be nice but doubt it will happen. 2 very different segment of vehicle. You have people wanting more of the “sound” engagement and the tire manufacturers looking to make the stickiest street tires for this segment of cars, road noise is not high on the list I bet.

 

[johnloov]

Has anyone tried the SportContact 7 ?

Heard they were more quiet and designed for ev's and ~equal to 4s's.

 

[johnloov]

Overall, I am super happy and satisfied with the sound dampening project. If this didn’t work I would have had to sell the car. My tinnitus is not getting triggered anymore. I haven’t done a long road trip yet, but did drive about 45 min 8/10ths and it’s amazing. I’m not noticing much, if any handling penalty. If anything I’m driving faster, as it feels more quiet and stable.

I’ll run another Laguna Track day to see if the car is any slower. I don’t think the added floor weight did anything to upset handling as it has a very low center of gravity.

I also realized why that Tesla guy that did floor insulation didn’t get much improvement. The differences is … electric cars have that thick battery pack under your feet which eliminate a lot of the road noise.

Lessons learned, I would simply use the Amazon deadening and 157mm closed seal foam doubled up where ever you can. That’s the only ingredients you would need to be successful.

Regarding my iPhones decibel meter I did remember that my brothers iPhone 12 mini was showing 5 to 8 dB less so I don’t trust the iPhones consistency from model to model, or maybe there is dust build up on some mics etc measuring sound pressure. I do know for a fact I did reduce 5-10 dbs which is a lot! 10dbs is like 2x the sound and 5dbs is about half the sound!

I love my type r

curious about installing the oem integra type s hood oem sound blanket. Has anyone tried it to see if it fits?

 

[ecaro]

If you would divide by sections... doors, trunk, floor... in what order would it be the most valuable and less labor intensive? I know you bought a lot of different materials, could you provide a buying guide based on sections? I am going to start soon but barely have any time at all

 

[johnloov]

That’s a very good question… let me think about that and will come back with a proper detailed response.

 

[johnloov]

You reminded me, I need to go back complete the interior wheel wells - to get a proper conclusion.

When I had used the egg carton foam, it didn't really fit where the rear passenger airbags are close to the doors, over the rear wheel wells.

I just went back and used the 157mil/4mm close seal foam, and now the rear wheel wells interior are mostly totally sealed.

I had done some experiments with my portable speaker, covering it, with different materials and thickness, and the most important thing is to seal the sound after dampening it, and that's what is so great about this 157mil/4mm close seal foam. It's very easy to work with, sticky, and closes off the sound. I could double it up or use one layer where tolerances are tighter.

Let me do some more tests tomorrow and next, then I can come back with a conclusive results and give you advice where to start.

( also modified the Bose and added a high fidelity tweater - sounds excellent - highly recommend )