Cabin noise

Evil Sports

Installed Frost king Duct Insulation today. It took a bit to do but once I figured out to work with larger pieces first it was easier. Many small pieces to cut though. Im wondering about the spare tire talk, I filled the rim with a couple old sweatshirts and want to pack some stuff in the 3 side slots around the spare.
I guess it sounded better but its tuff to tell with the AAM short tails

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rebe945

Evil, what I did was apply the Frost King Insulation in many layers and added a 1/2 inch thick piece of backed on one side carpet insulation. I cut pieces to fit everywhere. the license plate section, the sides and even the section right behind the seats. I removed the spare( who needs it anyway). Then placed a folded bed comforter where the spare was.. Its clean and unseen. plus a nice storage area where the spare was. It definitely seemed to help, especially under normal cruising. When you first drive and listen, you maybe more aware and keen to any noise. When your driving later and not paying attention critically, you ( I) noticed a definite improvement. Thats enough to satisfy me. Now,as the other guys mentioned, you could get into the doors, but I dont want to screw with that and cause damage. Just add more and you'll see a difference. Plus, it cant hurt and doesnt cost much. I heard about second skin so maybe you could add more. Good driving man.

scottIN

Oh yeah. Doing it sucks. 4 hours in a 'poop squat' putting the stupid stuff in. Having a little trouble standing up straight today. And I think if we had a contest for the ugliest Dynamat install, I would be hands down winner. Lots'o little pieces. Not a job for a perfectionist. After a while it was just do whatever I could to get the hell out of there.

sparky

Has anyone tried the Bridgestones RE970AS Pole Position as an alternate to DWS?
They are rated a bit higher overall on Tire Rack, especially for road noise.
Been following the noise thread for a while and tires seem to be part of the solution in a lot of posts.

Raw_Shark

This thread has been extremely helpful. I love my cars loud (FI headers and exhaust), but I like to hear the exhaust and engine, not road, tire and pebble noise.

I added 12 sq ft of B-Quiet to the hatch floor and wheel well area, and also cut out an "egg crate" foam sleeping pad to fit the hatch area under the trunk mat. One mattress pad did about 3 layers. I also had some leftover commercial carpet, so I did one layer of that to fit. (I have no spare or anything in my trunk). With the trunk mat in place, it looks 100% stock. Plus I can remove it in 30 seconds if needed.

It made a HUGE difference. The car is still loud as hell, but it's the RIGHT kind of noise. It actually makes the engine and exhaust sound 100% clear without all the tire and road noise. And when the weather is nice, I have the windows down anyway so I can hear the exhaust note even more. But it's nice to have the option of carrying on a conversation or listening to music if I want to.

It's been one of the best mods I've done to the car so far. Highly recommended. For $50 and about 1 hour of your time, you can't go wrong.

rebe945

Can be much cheaper to do like Raw shark. Im also going to lowes again and find an additional item to help. Like carpet padding cut and layed out to fill the hatch area under the trunk mat. PS I did drive on Friday and is quieter with what I already did. The issue of road noise is that it is no factor any longer.

RiCharlie

You are right ..I have cut the road noise way down and now I hear the engine much more..it's a good sound!

RiCharlie

Heres a thought,,,imagine if you were the chief designer and engineer for Nissan and they asked you to design the newest Z..now imagine if your goal was to read through all these postings and come up with a solution that that would please everyone!!

rebe945

Drove briefly , not a full test, but it really sounded totally as if in a normal sedan. Wow.

ImportConvert

Not difficult. If that were me, the Z would gain about 25# in sound insulation, noone would whine or bitch, and the stat would go un-publicized. Everyone would just notice the next model being much quieter and then they could opine on what it weighed, rip it out and weigh it if they wanted, etc., but 98% of them would just love the hell out of it and not ask.

brucelidat

Looks like Dynamat will have to wait, I will be doing sway bars first instead, ha.

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CSA0890

Dynamat is way overpriced for what it is. I have used B-Quiet and Secondskin. I just recently got done doing my wifes entire mustang in secondskin including spectrum, damp pro, and overkill pro. High quality stuff for a good price. Bquiet is really good stuff too not the quality that secondskin is but for the price its amazing. I will be doing the hatch on the Z here soon

scottIN

So I did the Dynamat today. Definitely helped with the pebble noise, but maybe not as much as I had hoped. Did notice that the car has a much more 'solid' sound now though and you can definitely here the engine & exhaust more (even stock). One interior panel isn't fitting all the way so I think I've got a tight spot somewhere that not letting the panel sit flush. Figure I'll drive it for a while and maybe the panel will leave a mark on the Dynamat and I can find it.

Bonzo

Scott, above is a total hacked and edited version of your quote. I mostly agreed with what you said but had to change some words and delete others. The real quote is just back a page so if anyone wants to see that please do so.

The car has a more solid sound now, yes, but I wouldn't call it revolutionary.

As for the pebbles, I was hoping for more. There is a difference. They used to go tink plink tink plick and be really loud. Now they are more like dink donk dink donk, and aren't quite as noticeable, I think because it's not as shrill sounding.

I think it's an improvement but, since it's so slight......

.....is it really worth all the work? I'm not sure. This was a total PITA!!! Only time will tell if it worked for me. I think if I just unconsciously stop noticing it then it worked. If a month from now I still notice it all the time then I might need to go to the next step. I think the real cure for the pebbles is more rubberized undercoating in the wheel wells. FatMat sells paint on stuff by the gallon, which is probably where I'd start my hunt. Paints on blue so you can see where you've done, and dries black. I think rubber stuff on the outside will act like a padding to help the pebbles bounce off with less metal sounding noise. If I ever do it I'll be sure to report here.

4 hours? Wow, you cruized! All my plastic trim pieces, foam stuff and spare tire were already out, and it still took me about 4-1/2 hours the first day (when I ran out of material after 5 sheets of 18 x 36), and about 4 hours the second day (for another 5 sheets of material). All in all if I had started with panels still in this would have been a 10 hour job, easy. Now I will say that I took my time and tried to do it right. I tried to clean all the surfaces with 409 (but this was hard too with all the wires and protrusions sticking out), and I really tried to work the FatMat really well down into all the cracks & corners etc. I tried to cover all the holes. I used larger "fitting" pieces when possible, and took my time trying to cut stuff fairly accurate (Smaller pieces are inevitable eventually though, especially as you wind down and find little spots you missed). I also had 1 full sheet left over when done, so I re-did the fender wells doubling up material best I could with the 1 limited sheet. I also took 5 minute breaks every 45-60 minutes or so to stretch my legs out. I wanted to be able to get out without falling into the car so this was good for me to do. Basically I tried to be that perfectionist you talked about, but failed too due to it just being a PITA. I'm not sure if my work quality was as good as professional, but I'm certain it could have been done a lot worse. It was the best I could do.

I've got lots of pics which I will post when I get time. Here's one of me climbing around in back....

So for those of you doing this, it took me 9 full sheets at about 18 x 36 to cover most of the trunk. I used my 10th left over sheet to double up on the fenders some. Best tools are your fingers, a micro fiber cloth to help your fingers slide as you push, some good plastic handled scissors to both cut and to push the material into corners with the handle, and that roller thing they supply you with. Make sure you bring a bottle of water in with you, as well as a folded towel or something else padded to sit on. Use your knuckles to rap on the metal areas to see what's most important to do, and make sure those areas get covered.

That's all I got for now.

Cheers ---- Bonzo

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ImportConvert

How effective would it be to just lay a layer of the stuff (not stuck on) under the hatch carpet? Obviously not the greatest, but quick and dirty and worth 1-2dB?