Vibrations are my main concern and from the above posts I reckon I should apply one sheet on each metal panel and one on each plastic cover. That makes it 2 sheets per door, which is exactly how much I've got (8x). Although I'm not sure about rear doors. I can't say I've heard rattles from there so I may use those 4 sheets partially in the boot. Or would that create a kind of "imbalance" between front and rear?? Hmm...

Just been out for a spin tonight, found a really smooth road and reckon most of the noise left is still coming from the rear of the car.

Bringing this topic back up has given me itchy fingers to play with the motor again. Been looking at puddle lights on other threads so pulling the interior apart and adding more sound proofing will give me a good excuse to fit them too!

Would like to hear how how much of a difference the propper stuff makes to your car so keep posting up your experiences. Can you add pictures of how you do it so people have a go to place for this topic.

CHEERS

Looking at the link in zouches post, this looks the stuff -not cheep mind. This is for .54sqm, I used nearly 8sqm!

http://www.deadening.co.uk/products/dodo-sound-stopper-mlv

Wonder what the difference would be if I used that much of this stuff (apart from being broke!)

All that soundproofing is so heavy too... 3.2kg per .54m² if you had used that stuff you link to, you would add about 50kgs!!

I read a guide ages ago that suggested you should put the - excuse the description - "stick on foil stuff" first, and then put some of the "carpet underlay" type stuff on after.

 

Doing that gives you the best way to reduce noise.

 

I'd agree with your comment about noise in the cabin though, my old soft top was quieter on the motorway

Edited 19 October, 201312 yr by conanius

I have found that some rattling comes from where the front doors meet the dash. I have ordered some self adhesive felt to stick in between these regions. The rattle had bothered me for three months so when I found what it was I was elated.

 

I have found that some rattling comes from where the front doors meet the dash. I have ordered some self adhesive felt to stick in between these regions. The rattle had bothered me for three months so when I found what it was I was elated.

 

I think I second that. I've noticed that putting my palm between the door and dash trims (only part of it really as its too narrow), eliminates some specific rattles. I've also thought about sticking some sort of "pillows" there (some self-adhesive probably) that would apply constant pressure on the trims.

 

Btw, I applied the Silent Coat mats this weekend, targeted primarily for vibration damping rather than noise insulation. I used one sheet per metal panel, one sheet per door card (8x in total), cut appropriately. Impressions? Hmm... When I first put some heavy bass on after the installation was complete I was still hearing the panels resonating although, it was somewhat different, less annoying than before, as If it had changed frequency (quite possible). Also, there weren't any two different vibration rattles you could hear any more, but just a "global" one If I'm describing that well. There are certainly some specific rattles which I've long remembered that have disappeared, and music can play much louder before vibrations from the bass start to become noticeable but...  two things that keep me from describing this as a total success are: 1) I am still hearing a rattle which seems to "tune" worse than before. It comes from the passenger's side when I drive over bad tarmac. 2) I still find pressing my palms against booth door trims is the best way to completely eliminate vibrations. Have I not applied the mats the optimum way? Could be as I am no expert in this field. But I also suspect there are just too many "rattle sources" in this car that you should work on if you want to get the best result, areas that two different panels meet and come in contact etc.

 

Anyway, now that I can take the doors  apart in like 5 min I may go for sound-proofing material as well . I think the impact of that, would be much more apparent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seems to me it's the fittings along the top of the door, just below the window frame, that are giving me the most "grief". I can feel the plastic give when I press there, so maybe the clips aren't actually in place. Must investigate...

I don't think it's the clips, they sounded to be locking pretty tight when I put the trim back. Imho, there is a deliberate clearance of like 0.5-1mm even when the trim is fully secured. That's why I thought applying some thin self-adhesive all around the panel's, like a contour, in order to stop the metal and plastic contact, and having it pushing against the plastic trim. It will depend on the amount of free time in my hands in the coming weeks though which is not foreseen to be much!

Here's a good link.

http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/multi/soundproofing-car.htm

Had a go this weekend of adding soundproofing the the drivers side rear wheel arch as I noticed when closed the boot there was a rattle (turned out to the the fuel tank breather pipe resting on the arch liner). It was an easy job to do, just got the other 3 wheels to go.

Also, have just decided to revisit the soundproofing on the floor pan of the car. Going to take the whole carpet up this time and the original soundproofing then glue a layer of 3mm Ali foil backed matting then refit the rest of the soundproofing. I'll post some more pics up of this.

Here's a very good write up for the door cards. The principal will be the same for the rest of the car.

http://www.fiatforum.com/500-guides/204444-500-sound-insulation-doors.html

Doesn't unclipping all the trim actually create more rattles? That would be my fear - the car is so noisy on the motorway that extra soundproofing would be great, but I'd rather have tyre roar than lots of new trim rattles.

Doesn't unclipping all the trim actually create more rattles? That would be my fear - the car is so noisy on the motorway that extra soundproofing would be great, but I'd rather have tyre roar than lots of new trim rattles.

Provided all the clips go back in, there shouldn't be any difference. Any damaged ones should be replaced. A well re-positioned panel may actually fit better than the original placement (source - I've seen in a factory how quickly these are fitted!)

^this^

Have a few updates.

Got rid of the horrid Dunlop sp sport maxx tyres and now running on Pirelli p zero neros, not made any noticeable difference in reducing the road noise but gives a far less crashy ride.

I have also found that my car doesn't have undercar noise insulation trims, it seems some had the fitted and others dont......so I've ordered the large panels as shown in the below link. I now believe that most of the tyre noise is being transferred from the floor pan and into the cabin so filling these trays with insulation and having this squashed to the underside should make a huge improvement.

http://www.partsbase.org/skoda/fabia-fab-eu-2011-82510-noise-insulation-underbody-trim/

Good bump George!

 

I got a few squeaks and rattles to sort so will be reading up now to see if a little extra doings whiles things are apart are worth fitting in

 

Rattles are one thing and sound deadening another. To be really successful at sound proofing your car one needs to first measure the exact noise levels in different octaves and chose the sound deadening material to suit. Different materials deaden different frequencies. The lower the frequency the more dense material is needed to stop the sound waves (good paper here for those interested http://informex.info/Multi-coincidence_peak_-_EuroNoise_ppr.pdf ). What you basically do is see what frequency has the highest dB figures and you try to choose a sound absorption material which is working within that frequency. Another thing is reverb amplification control hence all car floor matts are fluffy .

1kHz is relatively low frequency so thinner but denser, open cell materials are the best. Something like that http://www.acousticalsurfaces.com/curtan_stop/silicone_curtain.htm?d=12

Rattles are one thing and sound deadening another. To be really successful at sound proofing your car one needs to first measure the exact noise levels in different octaves and chose the sound deadening material to suit. Different materials deaden different frequencies. The lower the frequency the more dense material is needed to stop the sound waves (good paper here for those interested http://informex.info/Multi-coincidence_peak_-_EuroNoise_ppr.pdf ). What you basically do is see what frequency has the highest dB figures and you try to choose a sound absorption material which is working within that frequency. Another thing is reverb amplification control hence all car floor matts are fluffy .

1kHz is relatively low frequency so thinner but denser, open cell materials are the best. Something like that http://www.acousticalsurfaces.com/curtan_stop/silicone_curtain.htm?d=12

 

Good advice, there is a fairly readily available set of products from companies like Silentcoat that cover the bases of panel deadening - decoupling layers and true acoustic barrier mats.

 

That last link if I haven't misread is for a 1-2" thick product

 

You would have a job on installing this in a car, if that is the gauge of it.

The last one is typical stuff that goes on emergency diesel generators etc but the principle is there so a car equivalent would probably be cheaper. 

I just found a nice app for ms S4 and I will give it a go on my way home to see what frequencies are predominant in my vRS .

Not like a professional sound meter but good enough

Yesterday, i did some soundproofing on my Fabia Montecarlo - I must say that this car dosen't have any isolation in the doors.

 

For me it was more for the sound and not for noise from outside the car. Firstly when i changed from RCD 310 to RCD 510, it was a drastical change, better bass and quality of sound at louder playing. But now, when I just added some isolation in all doors is a huge diffrence, there aren't any ratels (some of them are there but not that huge amount of them like it was before) any more, the quality also changed, there isn't anymore of echo in some cases, like it was before.

 

I didn't had any skills for soundproofing/isolation but i did managed to complete the project. It took me about 4-5 hours. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boot fully lined with underlay. The carpet still sits flat

 

 

First panel to remove is the middle one. Pull carpet up to reveal two plastic nuts

 

 

The nuts aren’t tight so just used pliers to get it going then unscrewed by hand

 

 

There are two plastic plugs at each end on the centre trim, pull the centre pin out first then the plug can be removed.

 

 

Pull the bottom of the trim out and up to pop the spring clips out from the slots in the chassis

 

 

Rear pillar trims require removal to gain access to rear arch trim bolts. Pull from rear first, again metal spring clips hold it on

 

 

 

Pull down from the top corner nearest the window, moving down to the bottom corner. Add a bit of underlay when refitting.

 

 

 

To get the side trims out

Bottom left to top right -

T25

T10

Flat head

Light (one end needs to come out before the other)

T25

T30

T25

 

 

Bottom corner of back seats have another plug to pop out

 

 

Once all the screws are removed, pull the trim away from the back. Pad out behind the trim with underlay filling all the gaps so it pushes against the trim but not so much it doesn’t allow the trim to sit back square to the screw holes. Now the trims are off, put the underlay down over the whole boot.

 

 

Pop the back panel off, there is a T25 screw near the pull handle which needs removing, pad out with underlay.

 

 

Door trims. There are two T30 nuts under the door handle cover, the cover will just pull off. There is a  T10 at the bottom of the door card, two T10s for the front cards.

 

 

To remove the rear winders, set at 7 or 5 and pull the spacer out.

 

 

I ran out of the other underlay so got a bit more stuff from BnQ and with spray adhesive stuck it to the door cards.

 

 

Bit more underlay added to the door.

 

 

To get the underlay under over the floor pan, the side trims and front seats need taking out. Front seats are on 4 M10 spline bolts.

Pull the pillar trim away, its on metal spring clips again. Dont take the top one out as its got an air bag under it.

 

 

Pull the base of the trim up. Its got three spring clips at the bottom and one guide pin.

 

 

When re fitting, add a strip of underlay behind the trim.

 

 

Pull the front sill trip up

 

 

 

T25 screw behind the bonnet release. This allows each side of the carpet to be pulled up and more underlay added as one whole strip from under rear seat to under the dashboard.

 

 

Didn’t take the seats out again so haven’t got a shot of how the underlay looks with the whole carpet up but you can get the idea.

 

When putting things back together, here are a few things that help.

 

Open up the spring clips before re fitting to keep everything tight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If the clips get stuck in the body, pull out with a pair of scissors.

 

 

 

 

Hope this guide helps people. I had aready put a load of the underlay in the car before i took these pictures so some of them dont show the full view of the underlay iv added.

 

If any more info is needed on how i did things just shout up.

 

It wasnt difficult to get all the trims off but sometimes a good pull was needed. If  any of the trims wont budge at all theres a good chance that youve missed a screw somewhere.

 

Cheers for reading

looks like a lot of hard work,but well done,and yes the noise is fairly bad inside the cabin,wish i had the balls to give it a try,afraid id lose half the stuff

I always break those pesky thin plastic clips..

bump

I see from the photos that people are putting the sound proofing on the door card. Have just started another thread about soundproofing and been advised there to put it on the door, now i'm confused! which is best

I see from the photos that people are putting the sound proofing on the door card. Have just started another thread about soundproofing and been advised there to put it on the door, now i'm confused! which is best

 

Putting sound deadening material on the door will reduce/prevent the sound being generated. Putting sound insulating material on the door card will reduce/prevent the sound entering the cabin. Your choice.