Soundproofing or Sound deadening (E100 sedan)

[Jake91]

Hi

Hello everyone I am a first time user/poster to this website.

Recently I have been trying to reduce the noise in the cabin of my 97' Corolla CSi sedan E100 (yes I know it's a boring car but it's well built and reliable despite Jeremy Clarkson Top Gear stating it was his most hated car). I am not too concern about the engine noise as I think it is rather quite. I am just concerned about wind and mostly tyre noise once the car accelerates past 70 km/h.

The tyres that are currently fitted are standard Bridgestones tyres worth $80 each so they are not the cheap junk you usually get on Korean cars.

Recently I have purchased Dyanamat Extreme worth $140 for four large sheets. These sheets were used to cover two areas of the car so far. The first was the metal inner parts of the doors (that's the part of the door that the window regulator sits on) but nothing has been applied to the outer skin of the door. The rest of the Dynamat material was applied to the front driver and passenger footwells on the side where there is no sound deadening apart from the carpet (no Dynamat was appleid to the floor it self).

Finally I applied the rest of the material on the back of the glovebox to reduce the sound of the ventilation fan in the dashboard.

I have two questions from this:

1) Has anyone else had any experience using sound proofing and if they have what have they done can you provide tips for myself?

2) Is there any material/substance that I can apply to the wheel arches to reduce the tyre noise?

Thanks,

Jake

[Mole]

Wow $80, I think my last front tyres, which I cheaped out on, where about $160 each.

Re: Wind noise, your car is getting on a little in age (says the person with the 19 year old car), you might find that the door and window seals are starting to harden and not seal as well as they used to. They aren't exactly cheap but replacing them might help. I know my door seals are junk, but I did my window seals shortly after I got my car and it helped (didn't realize at the time the door ones where gone too, or would of done them too).

With sound deadening the wheel wells... I don't think you'll get much of a difference. Try some better tyres.

[Steven]

Hi

Hello everyone I am a first time user/poster to this website.

Recently I have been trying to reduce the noise in the cabin of my 97' Corolla CSi sedan E100 (yes I know it's a boring car but it's well built and reliable despite Jeremy Clarkson Top Gear stating it was his most hated car). I am not too concern about the engine noise as I think it is rather quite. I am just concerned about wind and mostly tyre noise once the car accelerates past 70 km/h.

The tyres that are currently fitted are standard Bridgestones tyres worth $80 each so they are not the cheap junk you usually get on Korean cars.

Recently I have purchased Dyanamat Extreme worth $140 for four large sheets. These sheets were used to cover two areas of the car so far. The first was the metal inner parts of the doors (that's the part of the door that the window regulator sits on) but nothing has been applied to the outer skin of the door. The rest of the Dynamat material was applied to the front driver and passenger footwells on the side where there is no sound deadening apart from the carpet (no Dynamat was appleid to the floor it self).

Finally I applied the rest of the material on the back of the glovebox to reduce the sound of the ventilation fan in the dashboard.

I have two questions from this:

1) Has anyone else had any experience using sound proofing and if they have what have they done can you provide tips for myself?

2) Is there any material/substance that I can apply to the wheel arches to reduce the tyre noise?

Thanks,

Jake

Dynamat is a sound deadening material - it works by adding weight to a panel to reduce panel resonance. This helps to prevent speakers from rattling panels, and as the sound energy isn't being absorbed as much by the panels it equals more sound.

The best way to sound proof is generally through a "muffling" effect by using a thick mass that will not transfer sound easily. It's why a lot of cars have that thick underlay under the carpets. This material can be bought from most trimming supply shops and I've always had good success when used in addition to Dynamat.

The road noise you are getting from your tyres is amongst the hardest to eliminate. Car manufacturers invest in a great deal of R&D to tackle this and many of their solutions aren't easily retrofitted (things like suspension design, large custom-molded foam inserts, thicker firewalls etc).

You have spent $80 per tyre which is actually very cheap and, although dependent on what size rubber you run, is likely to be a large source of your problem. As others have stated, you're best bet would be to spend a decent amount of cash getting good quality tyres with a softer compound. Hard wearing long life tyres generally offer lower traction and also are pretty noisy, and are also pretty cheap. There is more to selecting a tyre than what brand you choose.

[Jake91]

Hi

Thanks everyone for the reply. In response to the first post I only have simple radial/steel 13 inch tyres nothing fancy like 18 rims or anything like that which us why they were so cheap. I will invest in some better quality tyres. I am staying away from interesting or showy rims for two reasons. Firstly I can be quite uptight when it comes to the ride quality so I don't want large rims to ruin the ride. And secondly I am only 19 years old but my interest in cars seems to be the same as an 50 year old so I am trying to keep the car original in appearance as i fancy luxury over sports (wired I know.

I am going to by some cheap and simple carpet underlay and put some in the boot as I only have a wooden panel and some thin carpet in the boot - the wood is starting to wear out and bend.

Replacing the rubber seals on the doors was something that I never really thought about and I might do that sometime next week or the week after at my local Toyota dealer - by the way does anybody know how much some new seals would cost?.

I want to make this car as close as possible to a 'mini-lexus' if you get my drift. I am eventually going to purchase a 90's C-Class Mercedes Benz sometime in the future.

At the end of the day it is a comfortable car just not too exciting:)

[Mole]

My window seals where...

62382-14140 - Roof Side Rail Weather Strip LH - AUD 110.00

62381-14150 - Roof Side Rail Weather Strip RH - AUD 110.00

I installed them myself. Obviously your part numbers will be different.

Thats from http://www.amayama.co.jp/ who is majorly cheaper then local dealers. Your seals will be a similar price, they don't tend to vary that much unless you have a silly car like a Merc...

I don't have huge wheels, 16x7, nothing fancy at all, tyres still that much.

For the boot, grab a big pack of dynamatt, yeh its expensive but I covered the whole of my boot in my old Celica, was lovely.

Edited December 13, 2010 by Mole

[dutchie101]

For suppressing road noise, "Dyna Pad" is more what you are after. Its a thick urethane 3 or 4 layer heavy foam sheeting on a roll. Not cheap but if its quite your after, "pad" is the way to go, not "mat"

DynaPad is designed to reduce low frequency noise, such as exhaust drone and road noise specifically. While i have a roll here, i still havent had the time to install it.. Ryda.com.au seemed to offer the best price i found.

[123R-Prozak]

check ur tyres, and see if they are feathered. if so rotate them left to right ONLY if they are rotational ie can rotate in both directions...

[Jake91]

Thanks everyone for the great replies I will definitely take them into consideration.

[Excalibur]

Hi. I think I can help you. Ive just soundproofed my whole car. My info is up as a seperate thread on the main site as 'soundproofing' in the Celica Forum - Excalibur

Edited June 19, 2011 by Excalibur