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REsults of Sound Dampening Material Installation in 2010 V

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Accessories and Modifications' started by tumbler, Jan 21, 2011.

  1. tumbler

    tumbler New Member

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    Yesterday, I had sounding dampening material installed in and on the doors and on the floor pan. This required gutting the interior with the exception of the dash and the forward center console. The work took eight hours including the installation of the Ballistic sound dampening material. The results?

    -car noticeable quieter in all situations from idle to highway speeds
    -doors operate with a good solid thunk. Operating the door handles from the outside is also reassuringly solid in terms of sound and motion
    -bass frequencies from the JBL system are tighter and more defined.
    -there is no need to advance the volume level when changing from side streets to highway routes.
    -The installation highlighted the remaining noise as emanating from the `upper rear’ of the car.
    -I have my music back at normal volumes
    -speaker phone calls are clearer and there is no need to raise the volume level

    The next step will be to install the dampening material on the rear hatch and trunk floor as well as the area around the rear quarter windows.. I don’t intend to remove the traction battery for the installation as I do not want to insulate (thermally) the battery in any way, but everything else is fair game. The car went back together without one squeak or rattle.

    So, in the near future I will finish the sound dampening installation and install a pair of Boston Acoustic high-end tweeters in the squawker locations. That will likely do it for me as far as sound/music.

    The cost was $400 in labor and $250 in material costs. Worth every penny.
     
  2. seal2cc

    seal2cc New Member

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    Very interesting....how heavy is all that stuff? Is is 'stick on' type matting or fluffy type insulation? Dynamat?
     
  3. tumbler

    tumbler New Member

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    The material is a stick-on type and one uses a roller to ensure full contact between the mat being installed and the metal surface. The Ballistic brand material is very much like Dynamat. We estimated the total weidght applied to the car was 55-lb. This is too small of an amount to be able to discern the impact on mileage and even though there is a trade-off, mileage is not the most important thing on my mind when driving my Prius. The car taken as a whole is a pretty amazing set of compromises that work very well. It is just that now one of them works even better, that is, its acoustic performance. Thanks for writing.
     
  4. Michaelk

    Michaelk New Member

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    Tumbler
    What was the name of the material? Was it obtained from your dealer or online? It interests me as I have been placing molding in placing stopping wind noise.

    Thank you for your time!
    Michael
     
  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    50 lbs. is the difference between a large ans small person. i have never seen mpg's compared to personal weight. i bet it's less than 1 mpg.:)
     
  6. seal2cc

    seal2cc New Member

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    $650 and you have a Lexus...w/ better hybrid mileage. A little sound reduction good, though I'm really not unhappy with the way it is now. As you say an amazing set of compromises...but none really negative. New lexus hybrid be lucky to average 38-40...I'll take the Prius and improve it...like what you've done..and have $10k in the bank!
     
  7. tumbler

    tumbler New Member

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    The material is named Ballistic sound dampening and was procured in two large boxes of sheet material which were then cut to size to fill in the free areas of the surfaces to be treated. I have not experienced any wind noise or rattles/squeeks in my 2010 V. The shop, American Radio in Knoxville, reviewed various materials an selected the Ballistic brand. Feel free to Google them and ring them and ask about their selection process. Thanks for writing.
     
  8. tumbler

    tumbler New Member

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    Sir, you are right. I do not question in the least bit the Toyota engineers who probably agonized over the bucket of compromises necessary to build our cars. I do not fault them at all since I could have not done any better. I have an 85-mile commute every day and I enjoy every foot of it in this car even before the sound dampening installation. I stream my music from the iPhone to the system and just let the ECU do its thing. I keep up with or sometimes exceed the flow of traffic speed in a very remarkable vehicle. That is why I bought it. Not at all just for the economy, but for its uniqueness and that fact that it completes its mission at the end of the day in a manner that is exemplary and unmatched by any other vehicle out there. I do not expect my Prius to be anything other than what it was designed to be...I just needed a little more quiet so I could enjoy the sound system more. Can't wait for the Polk Audio tweeters to be installed! Thanks for writing.
     
  9. tumbler

    tumbler New Member

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    Sir, good point. There are several other variables any one of which would mask the additional weight of the sound dampening material. I have a rather grueling physical test coming up and I will train to drop abut 15-lbs so there is some of the weight Prius' weight gain cancelled out..at least for a while. And then there is always that pesky global warming which reduces the density of the air thereby reducing the wind resistance and fuel consumption :) Thanks for writing.
     
  10. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i like it, i may consider this in the near future. i would love my car to be quieter. let us know when you do the rear end and thank you for the write up!
     
  11. tumbler

    tumbler New Member

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    Yes, of course I will. I took numerous images of the work while in progress. It was pretty shocking to see the interior gutted down to the metal. I will try to post them sometime. Thanks for writing.
     
  12. unkprius

    unkprius Member

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    I'm doing a partial soundproofing in my '11 but in this case moving from the rear end forward. At this point I've put 1/8" mat in the back area under the spare tire, all the way over to sides of car, up the back, and around the big battery as far as I could reach and slide under. My next step is popping up the rear seat and putting deadener under there. Had to order the hooks for the seat in case of breakage as three dealers in Houston I went to didn't have them in stock.

    One can definitely tell there is a noise reduction from the rear. Especially the...um... echoey/resonancey/boomyish sound 'effect' that was coming from the sounds emanating from the rear cargo area. That is pretty much gone. The road noise now seems to be coming from right behind the front seat area, and front wheelwell area more so than just generally from all directions inside the car before I started.

    I wasn't able to pull the panels away from the rear wheelwell area, or get the carpet cover off of the big battery, evidently there are some hidden clips or other locking plastics holding the side panels in place that I don't want to break pulling too hard, so I may just shove as much matting up over the rear wheelwell as far as I reach and let it go at that. Finally, looking at some of the pictures other users have posted on what's under the footwell areas in front of each seat it seems there is a fair amount of factory soundproofing and damping there, so I'm probably not going to go that far. I just wanted to hit the large open areas of totally bare metal the most.
     
  13. tumbler

    tumbler New Member

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    I will soon take mine in for the rear portion and I will take some snaps of the disassembly. The headliner looks like it does a good job but after the rest of the car is done, then I will be able to hear what contribution, if any, the roof is having.
     
  14. Fugy

    Fugy New Member

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    Pictures?
     
  15. 32kcolors

    32kcolors Senior Member

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    Sound like you did it mostly for music rather than road noise.
     
  16. tumbler

    tumbler New Member

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    One begets the other I suppose. I wanted the noise to be lessened but the fact that I am really into music was another reason to proceed with the project. I do a lot of hands-free business calls too so that was yet another reason. I will see if I can figure out how to post images but mine are no different than others which have shown the interior gutted. Take care.
     
  17. unkprius

    unkprius Member

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    Just got finished installing sound dampening under the rear seat area and rear wheel wells. I used Damplifier Pro from Second Skin Audio. I had some from an old order which I used in the trunk first, it had silver foil for the backing. The new material was the same thickness and foil but painted black. I put that under the rear seat and over the wheel wells.

    I didn't pull the rear side covers over the wheel wells off. There are some fasteners way up in there that I just didn't want to have either pop out and I couldn't get them back in, or break due to pulling/prying incorrectly. I was able to push the material quite a ways up over the wheel well. And there are brackets and such up there that prevents a nice covering of the entire area. The panels on top of the battery cover were on very tight, a small plastic pry bar makes things much easier, especially because the fasteners are attached to the panels well, but not too well. One could easily rip one out of it's mooring just pulling on the panel itself.

    I purchased the Prius manual off of eBay for $35 and it was worth every penny regardless of quality. It showed every fastener etc. that I needed to work with, though one has to do a lot of page turning to find a process' where they show how to take stuff off. It isn't in obvious places.

    There is generally only one layer in most areas, I didn't want to spend any more money or add more weight. Only in the center of the rear seat area and some of the spare tire well was double layered.

    The hardest part was pulling up the back seat. I had to resort to a crowbar as I could not get it out with my hands. But in hindsight as you can see from the picture below jamming sharp metal thingies underneath an area you can't see isn't the smartest thing to do. Luckily I didn't do any damage to the serious electrical cabling or what looks like the top of the gas tank area.

    Anyway, I had ordered 4 extra plastic hooks from Toyotapartscenter for the rear seat since it was pretty much guaranteed they would break. I was prepared. Interestingly as tightly seated as the seat was to begin with, putting the hooks on the seat and pushing it back in resulted in it being loose about 1/8" on both sides. I'm not gonna worry about it. The factory probably uses some kind of hydraulic ram to pound the seat in.

    It's a pia project with lots of kneeling, stooping, crouching, serious scraping of knuckles on plenty of sharp metal and the foil on the material when you're cutting/placing it.

    Drove it immediately after and it is quieter. Again, not a big difference, but over bumps it's more muted. Less high note road noise it seems. If I do anything else sound-wise I'll probably have the doors done some. But that will come later, I'm pretty burnt out doing stuff to the car now. Only the side molding left......or nav....or backup camera mirror......sigh.
     

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  18. donaldhall

    donaldhall New Member

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    Good job all, I did the same on my v. Did the front and rear doors, then on to the rear area. Included the spare tire area and I removed the panels from the rear fender area, did as much there as well. Removed the rear hatch door cover and put some in there too. Made a lot of difference. Doors close much better. Only sound now seems to be comming from front wheel area. I may try to do floor pans next. I also used the Ballistic brand, very good quality and about 1/2 the price of Danamat.:D
     
  19. SudeepHArya

    SudeepHArya Junior Member

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