Sound deadening material
Sound deadening material
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(steven)

Original Poster:

478 posts

230 months

Saturday 19th February 2011
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Has anyone had any experiences with adding sound deadening material to reduce cabin noise (yeah yeah I know this is pistonheads...)?

Just swapped my daily to a Skoda Octovia diesel and the cabin noise is pretty wearing for long drives. Mainly engine noise plus a bit of wind and road noise.

Read a few bits on the internet which seem to suggest that the material doesn’t do much for this kind of noise and that it’s more for reducing vibration noise for when your doing audio setup etc.

I want to make sure there is some benefit before I rip the car apart.

anonymous-user

70 months

Saturday 19th February 2011
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Once stripped a car down and put in four layers of flashing tape (not mine). Was the quietest 206 around!

(steven)

Original Poster:

478 posts

230 months

Saturday 19th February 2011
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DR10 said:
Once stripped a car down and put in four layers of flashing tape (not mine). Was the quietest 206 around!
That is certainly cheaper than the noise matting I was looking at. This website has some pictures of matting being put on a VW golf.

Anybody tried the expensive stuff themselves?

redgriff500

28,977 posts

279 months

Saturday 19th February 2011
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Better off with carpet underlay than flashband for that kind of noise

nicklonguk

202 posts

201 months

Saturday 19th February 2011
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Definitely flashing tape. Get Wickes Roofing Flashing Tape, apparently other types contain paraffin which will stink your whole car out when it warms up.

I had an MX-5 and did a lot of motorway driving (M4 Bristol to London) and so I added some additional sound-deadening to the door cards. It worked an absolute treat, the noise focussed on the engine and not the wind / road vibration, and the speakers sounded much, much better. Only thing it didn't do was make the doors close with a satisfying "thunk" rather "shudd", but for £12 I wasn't complaining.

There was a thread on a US MX-5 forum where a guy went to town on his car adding flashing tape, carpet / underlay, the whole hog. Wouldn't want to go that far but it was great for ideas.

seeby

1,807 posts

186 months

Saturday 19th February 2011
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Your best bet rather than carpet underlay ,would be laminate flooring undrelay .Not the flimsy white stuff ,but the dense one with silver or gold foil on top..Dont use too much of it though cos its rather heavy stuff.

WeirdNeville

6,021 posts

231 months

Saturday 19th February 2011
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[quote=(steven)]Just swapped my daily to a Skoda Octovia diesel and the cabin noise is pretty wearing for long drives. Mainly engine noise plus a bit of wind and road noise.

Read a few bits on the internet which seem to suggest that the material doesn’t do much for this kind of noise and that it’s more for reducing vibration noise for when your doing audio setup etc.

I want to make sure there is some benefit before I rip the car apart.

[/quote]
Octavia Diesels are relatively well "deadened" vehicles anyway.It will be a bog job to significantly improve on it. The engine noise comes through the bulkhead and from the exhaust. THis is tricky to deaden more than it is out of the factory, because of pedals etc. It can be done, but it involves pulling lots of dash/kickpanels etc out of the way.
ROad noise can be changed/reduced by changing tyres more than anything, but deadening around the wheel arches and suspension mounting points can help.
WInd noise is really down to Aero. Not much you can do about that.
That said, a good lining of "car Audio" style sound deadening WILL absorb cabin noise and deaded noise from outside. Coating the door skins, footwells and often the roof skin as it's a large metal panel can have a dramatic effect on the noise level in the car.

It can be done, but it'll be £200-£300 in materials and a carpet/seats/door cards out job.

akkord

44 posts

182 months

Saturday 19th February 2011
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Try 'studiospares' for acoustic treatment. may be difficult to adapt it for a car but can be ordered to measure.

(steven)

Original Poster:

478 posts

230 months

Sunday 20th February 2011
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Thanks for the advice guys.

WeirdNeville said:
Octavia Diesels are relatively well "deadened" vehicles anyway.
That's depressing as it sounds like a riot in a beehive when at speed.

Somebody told me that one thing that marked skoda's out as different from VW's was their relative lack of sound proofing so I was hoping it could be improved on without too much effort.

Anyone able to recommend a refined diesel motorway cruiser?

vryes

37 posts

180 months

Sunday 20th February 2011
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What spec is your Octy? My vRS isn't the quietest thing in the world on motorway but its never been loud enough to annoy me and yes its diesel and its on 225/40 18 tyres.

On a more helpful note I once had use of a Vectra diesel and for all its faults it was exceptionally quiet and comfy on motorway runs, it was the 1.9 cdti (150) engine btw.

davepoth

29,395 posts

215 months

Sunday 20th February 2011
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Jag 2.7 S-Type will be pretty good I imagine.

Jakg

3,811 posts

184 months

Sunday 20th February 2011
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Audio deadening is brilliant - but not for what you want (as in - it's to stop panel resonance, not block out low frequency noise)