sound dampening material

H

hollis

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2013 CX-5 6MT SPORT
I have been thinking of putting sound dampening material like dynamat, in at least the easier places like doors and floor of the trunk. In a typical car, noise comes in the most from wheel wells, firewall, and doors. Secondary areas are floor and roof, but I dont think I am willing to spend days putting the stuff in nor the $300-$400 for complete job...
I might consider doing the floor in the trunk but the layers of foam, plastic hard cover, carpet, and a rubber cargo mat really should be sufficient.

Any one put this stuff in their car yet?

I am leaning toward B-Quiet, Fatmat, or RAAMAT. Avoid products that dont contain Butyl compounds. the price of dynamat is very high but the bulk pack on amazon is reasonable, 36sq ft for $140 (3.89/sq ft). the alternatives sell 36sq ft for $112 ($3.11sq/ft) (RAAMAT), 50sq ft for $130 ($2.60 sq/ft) (Fatmat-Mega Mat), 50sq ft for $145 ($2.90sq/ft) (B-Quiet Ultimate).

Benefits:
- obviously reduces outside noise
- increases sound quality of your audio system, esp bass
- reduces heat in summer from coming in and the reverse in the winter times

Negatives:
- Pricy
- Time consuming to install
- adds 20-50 pounds to car weight
 
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Never thought of putting that stuff in, I personally don't find interior/road noise to be an issue as most of the time I have the radio on.
 
According to Dynamat:

What part of the vehicle should I do first?
A: We recommend applying Dynamat to any surface you can easily reach. In general, we recommend treating your vehicle in the following order: Doors, Trunk, Rear Deck, Floors, Roof, Hood, then Fenders.

How much Dynamat do I need to use to be effective?
You can apply Dynamat in patches (25-50% area coverage) to keep a specific panel from resonating or you can apply it over an entire area (such as the floor, doors, or trunk) to create a sound barrier and vibrational damper.
 
JTNY said:
Never thought of putting that stuff in, I personally don't find interior/road noise to be an issue as most of the time I have the radio on.
Click to expand...

My observations too after 4K miles of driving.

I like Dynamats installation recommendations, obviously main goal is to use as much of the material as possible at any cost, lol.
 
I like this stuff for inside wheel wells: http://secondskinaudio.com/index.php/products/noise-vibration-coatings/spectrum-sludge-detail
But in the other cars I've used it on you couldn't see inside the wheel openings like on the CX5 so I'm not sure I'd want to use it there.

I find road noise to be minimal on this so I haven't thought of doing much with it. On our P5 I dynamatted the entire floor (removed the seats and carpeting) with the stick on stuff and then layered their thicker foam stuff on top of that, did all the doors and even glued http://secondskinaudio.com/index.php/products/noise-vibration-coatings/luxury-liner-pro-detail inside the doors. Removed all the panels around the rear hatch and layered on the Dynamat and then put several coats of the spectrum sludge into the wheel wells.
And after all that it was changing to Continental ExtremeContact™ DWS tires that made the biggest difference.
 
ta240 - Good report on some actual usage of the material.

How many pounds (weight) do you think you added in material in form of sludge/dynamat?
 
I tried not to think about all the weight it added. But just going off the weight on the UPS labels it could easily have been 50+ lbs given the large amount that was added between all the products.

I'd love to hear some good solid information on what and where to add stuff to just kill road noise. The thin, self adhesive dynomat style stuff really seems to be more for keeping panels from vibrating so much when people crank their really loud stereos. The thicker mat style stuff and the sludge seemed to do more at deadening the road noise. And I'm not sure how much road noise comes in through the doors (another area that might just improve the sound of overpowered audio systems).

Like you mentioned above the manufactures are all for covering everything and the kitchen sink with their products (although I did put some on the underside of a stainless steel sink and it made it quieter too). So it is hard to get solid information on where the point of diminishing returns is. Especially since you have the negative of cost and weight. Plus for me things never go back together just right.

Killing off the road noise also, unfortunately, made the engine noise more noticeable in the P5 and blocking that is much harder as there isn't really a lot of easy to cover areas on the firewall to block noise.

I figure after a couple years I might pull the liner from the rear wheel wells and coat them with the sludge and then put the gray liner back in and do the same for the front under the plastic liner. Just as something to do to 'keep it new'. But I generally don't have a lot of luck removing and reinstalling things like that without damaging them. And besides, the Bose sound system is there to make noise less noticable :)
 
Interesting, I don't find the cabin noisy at all, but then again my last car was a bit of a rice rocket <blush>
I do however notice wind noise when going 80mph on toll roads (75% of my daily commute) so let us know if your project cuts down on that noise too.
 
actually if you quite down what road noise there is you'll just notice the wind noise more. Really the only way to cut wind noise is to change the aerodynamics so that they don't cause it anymore.

I don't notice an annoying level of road noise. It is quieter than the GMC Terrain we considered. That's why if I add anything to this it would be later down the road when I'm just looking to make 'improvements' to help me keep it longer. To get that new car feeling back for much less than a new car.
 
I do agree that CX-5 overall is much quieter then say CR-V, but I am installing an after market audio system and thought to myself that if my door panels are going to be removed already then why not spend the additional time to just get the dampening stuff in their too.

I just placed an order with Audio Technix for 50sq ft of their 60 mil roll, which I am hoping is sufficient to do the front/rear door panels (High focus on the fronts, do 2 layers for the inner and outer sheet metal)and the truck floor/tailgate areas. If there is any left, I stick it around the accessible areas I can get to around the driver areas like the floor (can roll back the carpet without removing the seat), firewall, or fenders. I can't see the benefit to do the roof, hood, or the entire floor. Whatever the 50sq ft will do and then I stop going. From my understanding, even if you put a 5"x5" piece of it in an 12"x12" area it will absorb the vibration part very effectively (turn vibration energy into heat).

Will be installing it in the next 2 week and going to post some pics / feedback.
 
JTNY said:
I personally don't find interior/road noise to be an issue as most of the time I have the radio on.
Click to expand...

I actually notice the road/wind noise more when the radio is on compared to it being off.

On test drives I always left the radio off so I could listen for noises but recently I realized that, for me at least, I need the more constant sound of the radio as a baseline to compare the background noise against. Granted if I really cranked up the radio it would likely drown out more of the noise, but I don't like it that loud. However at a regular listening level, even with the auto level adjustment on, I can notice the sound of what I want to hear being overrun with road and wind noise. Without actually trying to hear something else while driving the bad noise doesn't register as much for me.

HelloMello said:
What tires did you get?
Click to expand...

The Extreme Contact DWS tires were for the Mazda3, they don't make those in a size that will fit my CX5. I'm still running the stock tires on it.
 
hellomello said:
reviving old thread and needed help/advice to do it for my cx. Any pics of the install?
Click to expand...

I actually posted pics in the car audio section.

here are some:

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- The sound deadener was put on the 4 door panels, both outer and inner parts, the tailgate, rear corner panels and truck floor... even the gas cap and the back of the rear license plate. The panels really feel solid now. The sound deadener took about the longest of all the things! I mean it took about 3hrs per front door, 2hrs per rear door, 2hrs for tailgate, 3hrs for truck. I removed plastic panels rear seats back, thats were a bit of time went too. For the door panels, I removed the inside black panel piece that holds the window motor and glass. The process cut up my hands quite abit with this stuff, the edges are thin aluminum and most metal framing in the car has sharp edging. The stuff did make a big difference in reducing metal resonance and giving more luxury feel.

- installed the under layment in the tailgate and around the truck floor/rear fenders/spare tire. There is actually noise sound proofing material under the spare tire, but it really should have been over the entire truck area. This was quick 2 hrs using 3M 90 Hi adhesive spray to places that were already accessible. When going over rail tracks or large bumps, it is near silent. Overall highway noise has been way reduced

Its quite a job putting it on, just be aware of it.
overall very happy with the outcome, I might consider paying someone to do it next time.

good luck
 
Did this help with tire noise? and did you only put it around the door speakers and not on the door itself? I will take a look in the Audio section and thanks for the advice to get some gloves before I start late this winter, So FLA is very hot-n-muggy until mid-November with 90-95+ and 80%+ humidity.
 
please research and dont use peel & seal from HD, its asphalt/tar and not good for your general health.

I dont notice any tire noise issue, so guess it worked. I removed the black bracket in the doors and did the entire outer and inner shell of the door inside, in essence I made the door a large sealed box using this stuff. Dynamat suggests to do just around the speaker and directly behind the speaker on opp side at minimal. The doors feel amazingly solid and I hear much much less outside noise from entering the inner cabin. tapping the outside of the door sheet metal gives off a bold sold thump sound, no long sounding like empty tin can. I probably over did it, I put my focus on getting the doors done well. Dynamat states that you only need 50% or so coverage to get good performance, hence the rear hatch pictures show about 50% coverage and works great. I put down a lot around the spare tire and that reduce good amount of road noise along with the sound absorbing carpet.

suggest getting some extra door panel clips form the dealer, you will need them. they tend to brake pretty easily.
 
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