Small Mods to my Rapid - RCD330, sound proofing and TPMS

[CS45]

Hi everyone,

after a slightly rocky first few months with my recently purchased 2013 Rapid (namely a Cruise Control that would suddenly disengage with no warning, a leaky door, uncomfortable drivers seat and Climatronic issues that the dealer continuously failed to fix) I have finally got it all sorted, and I’m really starting to love the car, so I’ve been doing some small mods to improve it further.
 

I’ve already fixed my drivers seat discomfort by fitting some nice eBay seat covers with some cushions stuffed under them, which now makes them gloriously comfortable, if a little odd looking. I’ve already posted about that earlier. 

I then bought a little TPMS kit from Amazon. The brand is ‘Jansite’ and it came with a screen that can be adhered directly to the windscreen, or to the dash on a stand. I put it in the top left corner of the windscreen. It has a solar panel on the back side for charging, and it shows the pressures and temperatures of each tire. 

It comes paired with 4 external sensors that go on the tire valves. They look a bit ugly, but they do the job, and it’s a great ‘peace of mind’ upgrade. I still can’t believe a 2013 family car didn’t come with TPMS as standard, let alone on the top spec model, but I digress, and this cheap kit is an easy way to retrofit it. 

 

After that I bought a NoName RCD330 head unit from Lemon Shark on AliExpress and I would say it is easily one of the best mods you can do for under £250. 
Installation couldn’t have been easier as it was just a case of Swing out, 330 in, and woila, everything working as it should. The seller even included a double to single FAKRA adapter and disabled the parking camera feature before shipping it to me. My car has the ParkPilot sensors that would show up on the Swing unit, and that also happens on this new unit. The CarPlay works really quickly, and the built in operating system is quite nice as well. Only thing I’m not keen on is that the voice control now only summons Siri, whereas when I had the Swing installed the voice control used a more competent, built in voice assistant. Not a big issue though. I’ve had it a couple of months now and it’s brilliant. 
 

Last week I did some extra sound proofing to the car. In fairness, I think the Rapid was already pretty good in terms of road noise and refinement, but I wanted to see if adding some dodo mat would soak up those annoying vibration noises caused by rougher roads. Also I have been told by another owner that removing the parcel shelf (which I have done in order to fit a dog carrier) can negatively affect the amount of resonance that travels into the cabin from the rear of the car. 

Now, I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to working on my cars, because I don’t want to damage them, so I stuck to areas I could access relatively easily. I started with the spare wheel well:

 

I then did the boot lid because it is hollow from factory. I removed the single Torx screw holding the grab handle, then set about pulling out the plastic push buttons that hold the fabric trim in place. Most of these came out fairly easily, but the two closest to the boot latch were a real PITA. I ended up with several self inflicted screwdriver and plier stab wounds to the hands, but eventually they came out and then it was just a case of shuffling the fabric trim out.
I then applied several bits of the dodo mat wherever I could reach, while avoiding any wires etc. 

The fabric trim went back in place easily. 

I also tried putting some on the inside of the roof under the headliner, but the only place I could get too easily without dismantling lots of the interior was at the rear, where I could untuck the headliner, pull it down slightly, and stick my hand in the gap to try and stick some Dodomat to the roof. I also put some small bits on the inside of the front fenders, and a little piece in the sunglasses holder, which seems to have stopped my sunglasses rattling so much.

 

So far I would say the stuff has made a subtle but still noticeable difference. Road vibrations seem to make less noise and less vibrations seem to travel through the cabin. I’m told that doing the doors and floor will make a big difference to acoustics, but I’m too chicken to try removing the door cards and carpet at this time. 
 

Overall some easy but rewarding small mods to the car. In the future I want to look into retrofitting the hill hold control, as well as the auto windows, both of which my 2010 Fabia had and I miss them very much. My car has the most idiotic electric window setup whereby it has all round electric windows, but no ability to control the rear ones from the drivers control panel. 
Does anyone know if it’s possible to retrofit the 4 switch control panel and auto windows? 
Cheers

[camelspyyder]

Great job.

 

The question of the rear windows on the early models has been asked before on here long ago. Better get trying with the Search function on this page.

 

Auto windows. The Rapid/Toledo don't have the hardware for this, whereas the smaller Fabia/Ibiza do, which allows functions like auto window closure with the central locking for instance.

Can't recall anyone on here doing this auto window mod.

 

[CS45]

41 minutes ago, camelspyyder said:

Great job.

 

The question of the rear windows on the early models has been asked before on here long ago. Better get trying with the Search function on this page.

 

Auto windows. The Rapid/Toledo don't have the hardware for this, whereas the smaller Fabia/Ibiza do, which allows functions like auto window closure with the central locking for instance.

Can't recall anyone on here doing this auto window mod.

 

Unfortunately from what I can see, Škoda added the window switches that they forgot to add to earlier cars in a technical change in May. Mine was made in February I think. Also it seems not to be a case of simply adding the switches, there are more hardware components and modules required, so I guess I will have to stick to reaching behind me to open the rear right window. The rear left window never really gets opened because I can’t reach that switch from the drivers seat. Never mind. 

[chrisgreen]

Nice job. I keep meaning to put some soundproofing in the boot, but never get round to it.

 

Very interested in the TPMS you've added. This really is something I should retrofit to mine.

[chrisgreen]

BTW @CS45 Would be interested to see more of that stereo you fitted. I'm intrigued as to how it stacks up against the RNS315+

[CS45]

5 hours ago, chrisgreen said:

BTW @CS45 Would be interested to see more of that stereo you fitted. I'm intrigued as to how it stacks up against the RNS315+

Sure! It’s a genuine Skoda unit used in the Rapid in some markets. It has no SatNav, but instead it has Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

 

The things that led me to getting the RCD330 over the Amundsen is that the RCD330 has a nice big screen, and a more modern OS which I think lifts the cabin a bit. Also I wasn’t particularly desperate to have a unit with sat nav as I like the live speed camera and roadworks updates that the TomTom iOS app gets, and I wasn’t particularly keen on the idea of routing up the GPS antenna for sat nav. I use the TomTom app through CarPlay for satnav, which also works offline and has Lane guidance, so I find I wouldn’t even need built in nav. 
 

The unit itself is really quick and responsive, and boots up pretty much immediately.
 

It also has a nice, easy to use OS which has Bluetooth if you don’t want to use CarPlay. The bluetooth system is much better than the Swing in that you can scroll through your music and contacts and change tracks  on the screen. Voice control is unfortunately not included, and my voice control button now summons Siri. The rest of the buttons and features work just as they did before, except for the car’s built in bluetooth module which is no longer required due to unit having its own bt. I found it was best to unpair my phone from the car’s bt and just use the one on the headunit to stop them battling each other and confusing each other. Also the USB port and Aux port by the cup holders no longer do anything, again due to the unit having its own USB and aux. 

[CS45]

EDIT: I forgot to mention that this unit doesn’t have DAB, and the Radio doesn’t show the name of the station or the station’s cover picture. To be honest though this isn’t a major issue either because you can use a radio app on CarPlay or android auto. 

[chrisgreen]

Its a very interesting radio option. I've been toying with upgrading from y Amundsen to a Columbus, but TBH this is much more aligned with what someone wants in a car today (namely, smartphone integration). Shame it has integrated bluetooth as that would likely cause issues with the bluetooth module already on my car. But either way, I think you have made a very smart decision replacing your Swing with that.

[CS45]

3 hours ago, chrisgreen said:

Its a very interesting radio option. I've been toying with upgrading from y Amundsen to a Columbus, but TBH this is much more aligned with what someone wants in a car today (namely, smartphone integration). Shame it has integrated bluetooth as that would likely cause issues with the bluetooth module already on my car. But either way, I think you have made a very smart decision replacing your Swing with that.

Yeah that is the only thing that prevents it from being a ‘perfect’ replacement. I just leave the car’s module alone as much as I can and it doesn’t really cause any major issues. The only things I’ve noticed are that the phone book on the Maxidot doesn’t work now, and while answering calls on the MFSW works, it also causes the Maxidot to say ‘no phone connected’ or something like that, because the Maxidot is controlled by the car’s module. Doesn’t bother me greatly though. 

[camelspyyder]

Radio logos can be downloaded from the web and added to your HU maybe.

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/media.info/radio/how-to/radio-station-logos-for-your-volkswagen-or-skoda-radio

 

Edited 27 August, 2021 by camelspyyder

[Koreenium]

These thin bitumen sound deadening sheets are really meant to be used on large flat surfaces to mostly stop vibration and sounds created from vibration. They don't actually block a whole lot of external sounds. For stopping external sounds you need different type of sound blocking and sound absorbing materials.

When using these bitumen sound deadening sheets you may want to use a roller and some other tools with 90 degree corners etc and press those sheets firmly to the surface. This should improve the effect of these sheets. Also hexagon shaped pattern is there to indicate if you have squeezed the surfaces down hard enough. It should look pretty much flat after installation.

 

Also few tips when installing these thin bitumen sheets.

1) Tap/knock with your finger knuckle onto the surface you want to install these sheets to. If it rings then it needs sound deadening. For example usually large flat surfaces. If it has solid thud then it probably doesn't need any. For example usually those complex support braces like the on the inside of the rear hatch that has that X shaped part.

2) You don't actually need to cover everything with this stuff. For example if you have flat surface that rings then you may only need to cover as little as 1/3rd of the surface to stop most of the vibrations. Ofcourse you can always tap on the surface around the already applied sheet and that tells you if you need to add more. This way you can save a lot of money and weight.

 

Just to let you know so you don't end up wasting too much money on these sheets to only get minimal results. :)

[CS45]

On 27/08/2021 at 21:07, camelspyyder said:

Radio logos can be downloaded from the web and added to your HU maybe.

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/media.info/radio/how-to/radio-station-logos-for-your-volkswagen-or-skoda-radio

 

Thanks I’ll have a look into that to see if the 330 supports them. 
 

 

On 28/08/2021 at 17:45, Koreenium said:

These thin bitumen sound deadening sheets are really meant to be used on large flat surfaces to mostly stop vibration and sounds created from vibration. They don't actually block a whole lot of external sounds. For stopping external sounds you need different type of sound blocking and sound absorbing materials.

When using these bitumen sound deadening sheets you may want to use a roller and some other tools with 90 degree corners etc and press those sheets firmly to the surface. This should improve the effect of these sheets. Also hexagon shaped pattern is there to indicate if you have squeezed the surfaces down hard enough. It should look pretty much flat after installation.

 

Also few tips when installing these thin bitumen sheets.

1) Tap/knock with your finger knuckle onto the surface you want to install these sheets to. If it rings then it needs sound deadening. For example usually large flat surfaces. If it has solid thud then it probably doesn't need any. For example usually those complex support braces like the on the inside of the rear hatch that has that X shaped part.

2) You don't actually need to cover everything with this stuff. For example if you have flat surface that rings then you may only need to cover as little as 1/3rd of the surface to stop most of the vibrations. Ofcourse you can always tap on the surface around the already applied sheet and that tells you if you need to add more. This way you can save a lot of money and weight.

 

Just to let you know so you don't end up wasting too much money on these sheets to only get minimal results. :)

Interesting, thanks for the tips! I will try and find a suitable roller. I would agree with your points about sound vs vibration damping. Most of the time the difference isn’t huge, however, I took the car on a trip to the lakes last week and I noticed that on motorways the cabin felt more isolated from the road. The difference at higher speeds is definitely greater than at lower speeds. Also, cattle grids didn’t really cause much vibration noise in the cabin at all. Having said all of this, during the trip I had the parcel shelf installed, which I usually don’t. This may have made a big difference also.