Dynamat cost too much for you? Another Solution...

Applying anything myself is outside the scope of my talents, and developing those talents on a car I like sounds dangerous.

I'll have to live with noise...

 

I just did my entire car in dynamat extreme (4x better than the regular stuff). I used 96 sq ft at about 45 lbs. It cost about $1080 (after everything was said and done) at Best Buy. You can get it cheaper but we did not know how much I needed so I was buying it in 12 sq ft increments instead of just getting a bulk roll which would have cut the price considerably (hindsight is 20/20).

The labor was about $250 but I think they under charged me. Since it was their first hybrid they let it go. It cut the highway road noise from 74 db down to about 60 db. The city noise went from about 60 db to 50 db.

Another cheaper alternative is bequiet mat. I think it is about 2/3 the price and about the same performance. According to its charts its peak noise dampening is at high temperatures than dynamat.

If you do it run some sound tests with a sound meter (before and after) so we can compare. You can get a $40 analog sound meter at Radio Shack.

The only thing that worries me was they said it is virtually odorless (but not completely). Please let us know how long the smell lasts and/or if you just get used to it or if it does go away. Also, it is water soluable. That is good and bad. I wonder how condensation affects it especially on the doors where the water runs down the windows. I am guessing you will have to spary over the vapor shield.

 

Tadashi,

How long did it take? Can you tell a distinct difference in noise?

This sounds very interesting especially since I use the Bluetooth a lot and often worry about road noise bothering my callers.

 

The doors took them about 4 hours, the floor took about 8 hours and the ceiling took about 4 hours. This is with two installers and they had to break away occasionally to deal with walk-in customers.

I can tell a big difference. It is much more quiet. My volume is usually on 15-20 in the city and 20-30 on the freeway usally 25. They say every 3 db is like a doubling of the noise. I think the biggest noise drop would be to change out the OEM tires. I was gonna do it but too cheap. I am going to wear those integristy tires out and then get the comfort treads.

 

Hey guys,

I did that quiet coat thing in my mini cooper (my ride before Prius). I used 2 gallons total. I just painted this gray really thick paint material with a paint brush over the door, floor etc & it drys pretty quick into semi-hard rubbery material.

RE: noise reduction -- it does work pretty well, as advertized. My mini was pretty loud, and after the application it was less noisy... and the stereo sounded much, much better.

The smell is minimal and disappears quickly...but I was actually turned off by the streaking/smearing on the side windows whenever I scroll the window up and down. I guess I painted too much of the stuff?

I think I'm going to try B-quiet on my Prius. I'll post the results when the project is complete (maybe in a few weeks?)

Cheers,

Kazu.