I've got the same noise. What is it?

If anybody figures it out, please post up a solution.

I'd like to hear your opinion on the change of the tires. Do you have the Bridgestones now?

Roommate has conti's on his sti... lets just say that they are less than quite...

huh, my DW's are very quiet... :confused:

I just put on Bridgestone RE760 tires... A lot better in terms of noise

Okay, I completed the Dynamat Extreme install and put the car back together.
The test drive indicates that this is worth the time, money and effort to install. The road debris was barely noticeable and what I did hear was muffled, so you didn't get the annoying tink tink like you are dragging several tin cans with rocks in them behind you.
You can still hear your exhaust with no noticeable change there.
Since weight was brought up several times in this thread as an issue. I only used 26 sq.ft. of material to cover the entire hatch. That is only 11.7 lbs. of added weight.
Pics will be posted in my journal.

Did you do the doors also or just the hatch? Does it seem like it would be easier to hear the radio and carry on a conversation now?

So far I see no reason to do the doors. It is much quieter as far as road noise goes. I have an aftermarket exhaust, so that is still a factor for me, but if you have a stock exhaust system, I think you would hear the stereo and have a conversation very clearly with the Dynamat installed.

I can tell you from experience the doors are the most important part..There is NO sound dampening in them at all..

Ok everyone I just got the Continental Extreme Contact DWS .. here are my impressions..I drove the car on dry pavement on both highways and secondary roads....I dont notice a great deal of noise reduction..but keep in mind the car has sound dampening in both the hatch and the doors. I noticed a lot of noise on wet pavement with the old tires so that test remains to be done.
I do notice the ride is a bit softer and the control is a bit looser than the original stocks. So my first impression is that if you want to make the car a bit more comfortable these tires would be good for you. I do think that if you are into extreme, hard driving on dry pavement and want the most in control, you should stay away from these tires.
I have a feeling these are going to be better on wet pavement than the old ones and certainly better in snow. ( i never drive in snow ..to many rocks and sand and salt)
I am posting this under this thread because of the cabin noise issue but I will post it under tires as well.
Reactions?

Did you Dynamat your doors and get a significant change from what you get from doing just the hatch area?

How did the Conti's work out?

The one thing I noticed with my Altima SE-R was the Bridgestone Potenzas it came with did two things. First they were noisy as hell, i mean all four tires you could hear. If you think the Z is noisy it's more like a library next to the SE-R. Second the tires would not track on roads with slightly worn down ruts in them. Almost like riding a skateboard on a half-pipe. Up one side, down again and up the other side and back again over and over. Took a stiff grip on the steering wheel to maintain a straight line. In other words those tires were crap...

I replaced those with some Conti Extremes and the tire noise went down about half and the tracking was pretty much fixed.

So now I added a Z to my stable and the previous owner put some Yokahama S-Drive tires on the rear. The front has the bridgestones. I hear a lot of front tire roar and suprizingly the rears are quiet (no roar). I got a bunch of dynamat coming and will still do the back and doors like you all have done and maybe put some on the front or something as well if possible. I am certain changing the front tires to S-Drives will be a quicker fix though...

Yes in fact I was very dissatisfied with doing just the hatch.. It made some difference but the combo of the hatch and the door made it much much better..

As far as the Contis go..i just had an hour or so with them..I dont see much difference in noise and if I had gotten rid of the originals while still new for the Contis I would have been seriously pissed..but they were worn and needed replacement..

I notice a bit softer ride and somewhat looser feel on the road..at least that is my first impression.. I'll keep you posted as to the performance...it was dark and I dont like doing any performance driving at night...I think I will have a better idea tomorrow..

I have 10 sq.ft. of Dynamat left over and will be enough to cover the doors and see how much more it helps. Although I am satisfied with the results of the hatch alone. Do sense in wasting the Dynamat though.

Let us know and its good you can do this yourself..i could not and it cost $1200..and they broke a wire that caused the radio to lose signal and I had to bring it to the dealer to fix. Took two days because they could not find the problem at first...:( Lucky for me they didnt charge me but they could have..what are you paying?

That is the reason I do as much as I can, no matter how long it takes me. I don't like paying someone that doesn't care to do the job like I would. I see how this job would be expensive to do, but I have seen where the labor was charged, but not performed too many times. I have more time than money to do my mods, so that is my incentive too.

Yup
 

:iagree:

The thing is, you aren't really talking apple to apples. You are in the "hate the road noise in general camp." Unlike you, many of us here expect and even like the road noise associated with the tires, the pavement and the exhaust. To us that's what a sports car is all about. But what many of us do dislike is the obnoxious pebble/debris noise from the rear wheel wells. Spending time & effort doing the doors will most likely do very little, if nothing at all, to help with this issue. So for us doing the doors is most likely more a waste of time and energy than anything. But I think daemon1957 will be able to answer that better than you because he's more in the pebble noise camp. We'll see.

I for one am sticking with my current plan, for now. I bought a FatMat (Dynamat by a different name) trunk kit for $60 and am going to try to put that in this weekend. I'm going to concentrate on the wheel well arches first, then move out from there. If that doesn't get the job done, then I'm going to buy some FatMat (or the like) liquid noise paint, and paint the wheel well arches on the outside of the car. This will act like a coat of rubber to deaden the actual sound impact of the debris. If Nissan had just added a plastic liner to the wheel wells we wouldn't be having this issue. But there isn't any sense worrying about that, so we make do.

My original Bridgestone's droned horribly on the freeway. After 30 minutes it was more noticeable. With the Michelins droning stopped, so longer drives still get pebbles, but the drone, that got to me and the little lady, is gone.

After driving and listening to the sounds of the car and the road. I am satisfied with what I have achieved with doing the hatch and wheel wells. I agree with what Bonzo says. I had a purpose in doing the Dynamat and I cured the pinging of stones being thrown up and making sounds that irritated me. I've driven hot rods all my life and love the sound of open headers and whining superchargers in my ears. I even like listening to loud music at times, but I'm not going to turn up the volume to mask a problem. I guess those that choose to do that would also choose to close their eyes when their oil guage shows 0 or temp gauge shows 300. If I choose to upgrade my door speakers in the future, then I look at insulating my doors for sound quality, but as a noise reduction, I see no point. This is a sports car and it is going to be noisy. To each there own in how they choose to accept it or change it to their acceptance level.

Good to hear about the Dynamat. Hopefully I will feel the same after installing my FatMat. I'll post my results when I'm done installing it.

Thanks ---- Bonzo :tup:

I dont mind a bit of exhaust and engine noise but to me the very best experience is when I am driving over a newly paved road..smooth and quiet.. right now its not exactly like that but good enough..

But even for a sports car this one is noisy.,,did you read all those reviews I posted earlier?

Anyway we all have our own preferences...but it is strange how those pebbles dont bother me...its really rare....but the tires droning on the road do..I have the Sports package and from what I read that is the package where most of the road noise is...so maybe we are talking about two different packages..

Did the dynamat Yesterday. I used all 36 Square feet that came with the kit I got on ebay. Pain in the *** and time consuming. Only cut myself like 20 times. Big fun...

Anyway I did the doors and rear covering everything I could.
Huge difference! Even though I spilled at least a gallon of blood it was more than worth it and would do it again. I now plan to do the same with my Altima. Never knew this would help so much or I would have done it 7 years ago with my daily driver...

Thanks all. Was VERY worth it.

Actually I have to say that for the first time I can actually understand why the thing may get too quiet in some situations...

I do about 1200 miles a month so noise is a concern but I now think I may be going a bit overboard in trying to get rid of it entirely...

See? old dogs really can learn new tricks!:tup:

Glad to hear! I was really upset at my car at first and thought I made a terrible mistake but doing the hatch and doors makes all the difference...now with the new tires its really a pleasure to drive over long distances...

I'm not sure that enough emphasis what put into this thread on how much of a PITA this dynamat install is. Especially if you want it done right. If you can do this without spilling any blood,:bowrofl:. It does make a difference and IMO is well worth the blood, sweat and time.:tup:

Man...you're scaring me! I'm going to do mine as soon as it gets warmer (garage is maybe 50 degrees). Fortunately I've got another car so if I get frustrated I can stop and go back to it another day instead of having to finish up. That's the worst feeling - when you've got your car all torn apart and have to finish it becasue you have to drive it when you'd really rather step away for a while.
Drove mine in the rain for the first time Friday. You can actually hear the SPRAY in the wheel wells. Crazy. Can't believe they didn't try to mitigate this in some way or another.

Did the hatch area a few days ago,doors are next and thats it for dynamat.
My fingers hurt, back hurts, knees hurt, a little blood, but it was worth it to me.
I would do it again but not anytime soon.

EXACTLY!!! THIS is the noise that's crazy. Lucky me (sarcasm), all the first times I drove my car was in the rain. :shakes head: And it was like, WOW, it's sounds like the rain is coming in the car it's so loud. I was like, what is this thing, an open wheeled F-1 car? But while the rain is loud, it doesn't bother me like the pebbles. The pebble noise is outlandish.

Yes. For road noise, this car is not nearly as noisy as my wife's Pontiac Solstice. Between the convertible top, the tire noise, the transmission whine, the wind and the whistling antenna, it's a whole "nother" experience entirely. You think the Z is loud, heh, not even close. But even in the super noisy tiny sized Solstice, the pebble thing doesn't even come close to the Z.

Rare? Where do you live, dirt free land? ;) Here in Ohio we have what I would call clean roads compared to other states (well, at least say compared with Michigan, where the mob runs the paving companies, and they don't spend any money on street sweepers, and they still have tons of unpaved dirt roads). I see street sweepers all the time around where I live, and there hasn't been one single drive in my Z where I haven't had the pebble issue arise. It even happens in my own neighborhood, which I would call very clean. Have you driven in the rain? No car I've ever been in has water spray sound like the Z. Or what about salted winter roads? It's obnoxious, and makes you sick hearing all that corrosive salt being kicked up. Again, this is not rare to me.

Nope, I have the Sport Package also. Again, the tire & road noise is not a problem for me.

I drive about 75 miles a day to work and back, with it being about a 50/50 split highway / suburbs. So far I've only gotten a chance to drive the Z to work about 5 times (being tore up with mods I'm making and then just the crappy winter weather). The pebble noise doesn't happen so much on the highway, it's on the other suburb streets, and in my neighborhood. Like when you cut a corner, or are making a left turn at a light and you go out into the middle of the intersection. It's in those places where it's frequent.

I'm not looking forward to this process of putting this mat crap down, but since I already have my back end all opened up, it would be dumb not to give it a whirl. We were baby sitting our nephew this weekend or it would be done already.

For those who have done it, did you find actually climbing in the car any easier than bending over from the outside? I'm thinking climbing in for the fender wells might be the easiest way to get to them.

Cheers ---- Bonzo :tup:

Honestly, there is very little pebble noise..and you know I am a fanatic about noise..when I pull up to a curb then sometimes I notice some but I drove for about an hour today and not a single pebble sound..

I notice it is louder on wet roads

and i almost never drive in the salt and crap they put down in the winter..That crap really can eat into your car..and then in that case yes it really is noisy..

How come you havent given this old dog credit for learning a new trick? ( see my post about noise at 12:13 I had you in mind when I posted that! :)

I found it much easier getting inside. You pretty much have to when doing the area in front of the shock towers. If you have a cutting board large enough to do cutting and fit up in there with you will save you having to climb in and out. Even better if you have a cutting helper outside. I had neither. You will feel it in the legs the next day if you are a 50+ out of shape guy like me. That or your back will be screaming at you. This is probably the most physically demanding mod there is to do on this car. But let me tell you this. It is very much worth it and you will not regret it at all!

Well, I guess it's lucky for you. Wanna trade noises? ;):tup:

I certainly hope so, because if you don't notice the spray noise, then either your ears work differently or your car has something mine does not. But from your comments about the salt below, I guessing it just doesn't bother you. Actually, the rain spray, while loud, doesn't bother me. It's loud but it doesn't "tink" like the pebbles.

I have avoided it at all costs, but I only had 1 day to go over to the DMV to get registered, and that day was just 2 days after a road salting. I avoided the salt as much as possible, but in some places it was unavoidable.

So you have heard this salt pounding, it's about the same as the pebbles, so at least you know what I'm talking about. Same sort of "tinking."

Credit. :tiphat: ;)

Thank for the post. I was thinking it might be.

40+ and out of shape here. :ugh2:

Dynamat is easy to cut with scissors. Don't need a cutting board, and you won't slice your fingers.

I like what I am reading here. I will Dynamat my hatch when i get the chance. I will wait until after that to decide on the doors.

:tup:

Well just to be clear.,., I do hear the pebble sound and it is very loud but it happens very rarely..

I just picked up 50ft^2 of B-Quiet (Canadian product similar to Dynamat) and am going to try and tackle this project this weekend.