Noise Control (Sound Vibration Damping)

The door is easy to remove. Make sure you pull from the bottom first. It is stuck in place by about 8 clips so pull it out from the bottom and work your way up. Once you get to the top don't pull outwards anymore but pull upwards. To put it back just to the reverse. I've done it a few times now to do tinted windows (paid someone to do it but they messed up my door and so I had to remove both fronts again to put it back correctly). Other times I removed it to add more foam for rattling issues.

As for trunk panels you would have to ask the OP. He is the expert. Very hardcore to remove all the trims.

 

Hsiaolc, I think you mentioned that you had the dashboard top removed also, can you please give me a quick "how to" on that? Any danger from the passenger side airbag? do I need to unhook the 12V battery first?

 

I haved removed the entire centre console. The passenger front side colum, the air duct but top and bottom. The glove box comparment but never had to strip the dashboard?

Only need to strip the front side colum for installation of the DAB radio.

I havn't touched the dashboard. I know once I touch that I will have rattles nonestop.

 

I was doing some sound testing in my GenII... i stepped out to see where sound leaks the most.. it turns out the floor was the worse. it lets through a LOT more sound than the roof (nill), windows (not a whole lot), and doors (not too bad really)... all combined.

i figured that if i'm ever going to sound proof anything... it's going to be the floor 1st.

btw.. you can't hear my sub outside of the car... yet you can feel it inside the car Very well...

 

It would be great to have a shopping list when you are finished with the vehicle along with a list of what should have been added or deleted now that you are in "the know"...

 

Well - swapped in MB Quarts for the front speakers, and moved the Infinity to the rear C pillar.

As part of the whole ugly process (rear speakers are a bitch), I had to remove the whole back interior (sides etc).

Since I put in all that work, I decided I should add acoustic insulation since it was open.

Local dealer sold me the 24sf kit (retail $99) for $75. Started putting it in the back and found I needed one more... Also did one door with what was leftover.

It is really amazing the difference in perceived noise. And now the door closes like our Lexus (the sound of it closing).

The stuff works great - but at $3.50/sf for 1/8 inch, I'm ordering the other in various thicknesses for the rest of the install. The other stuff is $2 for 1/8 inch, and $3 for 1/4". I may even get thicker for some areas of the door...

 

Can anybody chime in on how many sq ft of deadening material I would need to do all 4 doors both inner and outer layers? Thanks in advance!

Due to where I live, I don't have much deadening options. I pretty much only have dynamat to choose from. IT is rather quite pricey!

Thanks again!

 

My personal opinion is you could *get by* easy with the two door option (24sf) - it will cover much of the outer door, and if placed well (near and around speaker, connecting areas), it will do a good portion of the 4.

That said, *I* think 36sf would be plenty (the next larger kit size), and getting 2 two door kits (48sf) really is getting very much on the compulsive side of noise dampening... Of course, I thought 24sf would be fine for the two back side panels - and ended up using more like 36 (and haven't bothered with the floor yet) - just for the two back sides....... I think I put around 6 in the door - and found it does a nice job - positioned mostly on the outer, not being anal about edges etc, and covering near and around speaker, and in what I think are vibration points on the inner... Really it is so easy to pull the panels, you could start with one 2 door kit (24sf) - put 6 a door, and later add more to your liking. After doing the work, thumping the sides (to get an idea of how it was working), and listening, I would start with less... 6 in the back door covers a lot - and clearly (sound and vibration) makes a difference...

 

Gwest- were you ever able to get around to doing the roof? If so, how much of a difference did doing the roof make?

 

Good idea. I have wondered about doing the same stuff since I bought mine in the summer.

 

Gwest,

did you do a comparison against a stock Prius2010 ?
Thx

 

I would gladly pay someone to do this for me. Are there auto body shops out there that specialise in sound proofing? If so what do you think the cost would be?

 

Gwest, great write up. I would love to meetup with you some time in Redwood City (where I live as well) and swap notes. I did a similar project on my 06 prius and came away with very disappointing results for how much time invested. I've learned that sound is like water, even if you seal 99% of the haul of a boat, plenty of water will still get in through that 1% gap. But sound moves much much faster than water, and even with a lot of time and effort stripping down the Prius, I could only get to and treat about 40% of the surfaces. Which made the whole effort futile. Don't get me wrong, the speakers sound better, but the road noise is still overwhelming. When I tackled this project, I even purchased a pretty nice sound meter. It hooks up to the laptop and takes 1 second samples so I can chart it out in Excel to see my drive up and down 101 on the same stretch of road. I found that the min and max values give very little indication on average sound comfort (if you lived where the single day temperature range was 20-120F, does it mean it's a comfortable 70 degrees?). So I wanted to find the noise distribution over time. I drove the same stretch of road 10 mins at a time over and over and the findings were disapointing and confusing. You might think that 1 second samples are quite a bit, but it really isn't enough. With each subsequent drive, I would hit different cracks and bumps in the road that each drive produced radically different numbers. And in talking to some acoustic experts, I realized that even my $500 sound meter only takes account of pressure and time. But there is also the frequency spread that the $2000 meters would start to address. The simple answer is, after many many hours of stripping the car down and load it it up with near 100 lbs. of products from Cascade, the car was no quieter. The sound meter numbers showed it to me in black and white. We all badly want this to work, but the only people that can turn our Prius in to a Lexus is Lexus (CT 200h).

 

Since this thread was re-popped I'll throw out the other side of the fence opinion for newbies. After putting damping mat(Damplifier Pro) in trunk floor and walls, all doors, rear floor, then gluing fairly thick carpet padding type insulation on the inside back of all the plastic door panels, my car is significantly quieter than when new. Most of the 'whishing' higher noises are gone under 70 mph and expecially around town at slow speeds. Most of the noise left now is low frequency road rumble.

I would do all that work again if I bought another Prius. (or any other car with less than optimal insulation) It's time consuming but not hard work. Installing fog lights was much more a pita.

 

With my freeway commute on grooved pavement along w/ my upgrade to 17" wheels I decided to add some sound dampening as well. Not going to lie, it took about 6 hours out of my Saturday afternoon but was definitely worth for me (and the people I'm speaking to over the bluetooth). I added secondskinaudio's damplifier to all my doors, floor, under rear seats and trunk area. The hollow sound when cruising on the freeway is gone and yes, the doors sound significant when shutting them now.

The only area where I didn't add much sound dampening in the front footwell/wheel well areas. I couldn't find much bare metal to add the damplifier mats. To make up for this, I added a few coats of spray on dampening to the front wheels wells. The small amount of weight added to the car for the reduced sound and vibration is totally worth the 6 hours of work (and temporary back pain).

 

I'd like to do this as well. How did you remove the rear seats?

 

First, push both front seats as far forward as you can so you have enough room. Then just lift the cushion up at the location of the hooks, see the image I attached. When I got the first one loose I thought I broke something. Just get a good grip so you don't rip or tear the cushion itself.