For people who have done soundproofing with your vehicle, please share your experiences. Criteria is ONLY new cars or cars below 1 year old. The reason I'm not interested in soundproofing of old cars is these old cars will likely have increased rattling sound inside the cabin. So even if you soundproof the car but there's still rattling sound inside the cabin, it defeats the purpose of the soundproofing in my book to have a quieter cabin.

Details such as the brand and model of the car, areas of soundproofing (door panels, engine firewall(internal), engine bay(external), floor, roof, boot) and brand of soundproofing materials may be added for reference.

I believe depends on your budget & what kind of sound to reduce. If you pay cheapskate, don't expect too much difference.

I don't think soundproofing solve rattling noise for most case unless u made it specifically to solve the rattling part.

for general soundproofing with mat I think it depends on what type of car your are driving too, some car that came with good insulation will not make huge different with these mat.

Like example if u apply these mat on any Perodua you may notice huge difference because their car not well insulated.

I had 2mm mat installed on my Persona VVT all 4 doors + firewall, I do notice the engine noise is slightly quieter, noise from outside also slightly reduced because originally Persona already have mat on door but smaller pieces, more obvious is when driving high speed above 110km/h noise from outside is reduced, like your sense of speed based on sound got reduced. But does that makes my ride feel like sub RM150k car level of soundproof? No... My X50 still way quieter compared to Persona although I did not do any additional soundproof on the X50

You get what you pay for.

Thanks. Perhaps I should more specific. Firstly, I am not expecting soundproofing to resolve rattling sound inside the cabin. That is not the concern. My concern is soundproofing work by intallers will introduce new rattling inside the cabin, and damaging parts or clips etc. during the installation.

Secondly, I'm not actually looking at soundproofing the cheapest available cars such as Saga, Persona etc. in the price range of RM40k to 60k. I'm looking at B-segment cars in the price range of RM80k to 110k which are usually compromised when compared to C and D segment, or maybe cars in price range of 120k to 180k which may have decent soundproofing but not the best.

I understand the X50 may have good soundproofing but will it be quieter if you intend to soundproof it in future? If it already has some rattling sound inside the cabin then it may not be worthwhile already.

This post has been edited by SportyHandling: Jan 22 2024, 12:31 PM

Yes I can understand that. Just trying to get a feel on what people have done to their cars. Have you done soundproofing to your car(s) and if yes care to share the details.

For X50 it is already pretty quiet to begin with, if I were to insulate I will focus how to reduce tire noise.

If I frequently drive above 100km/h I would also consider insulate all 4 doors because of what I have experience with my Persona I think high speed ride will be quieter.

Also soundproofing is a never ending journey, when u insulated certain noise, the other noise become more apparent, like my previous Persona ride, I felt tire noise become more annoying after the soundproofing.

Would installer cause rattling or not this is quite subject to installer, the good one will probably try to tape any dangling stuff like wire to reduce unnecessary noise, the problem with rattling is quite subjective, loud and consistent rattling may be easy to spot and fix, the problematic one are those that appear randomly because it is hard for you to replicate that noise to installer to fix.

Got experienced did a sound proof . 2 cars local sub 50k and non 150k.

The result very minima result l. More on placebo effect

But one thing for sure...stock sound/speaker much better

I have soundproof my both car, but i only have installed 2 layers in the door. It can help you to reduce the road noise & vibration. When u closing the door, u can feel your door is heavy & the closing sound would have reduced.

For rattling sound, u need to identify from where its coming and fix that part. General soundproofing solutions maybe wont help the rattling sound part i guess.

Use good quality tyre which have low noise. This really helps.

Thanks. May I know which RM150k non national car and soundproofing was added to which part of the car

I presume it will depend on the original quality of the NVH of the car since some may have basic or decent soundproofing materials installed already. So by adding minimal soundproofing materials on selected areas will not provide a big enough difference.

FWIW 16 years ago I installed soundproofing on all 4 door panels on my Nissan Sylphy although the car is already quiet. After installing, I couldn't find much difference if any, maybe small difference but not detectable to my ears.

If the car is not good in nvh then perhaps installing at more areas of the car may produce more noticeable results.

@TS
broken clips, a lot, missing clips, here and there
- this is after I asked them, nicely, to replace old clips that broke, and they said 'yeah, this is part of their work'

panels no longer fit, patch work here and there (hidden away)
the whole cabin becomes boomy, and more uncomfortable, even though road noise is reduced
after few years, some of the materials lost adhesiveness

some 'best in the industry' installer I encounter used a metal scrape to remove existing felt on the roof
they will tell you 'this is stubborn to remove, it has to be done', and then leaving the metal with scratches all over
then, they will say 'we will cover this with soundproof sheets'
it was not my car, but the owner wasn't pleased

this video will give you a more realistic experience, and bear in mind he worked on his own car so he was being more careful
and also, those things can get really heavy


+1

+1

You'll lose your peace of mind if the car is dead quiet but rattling becomes more obvious.

Soundproofing may accentuate the rattling or noises that were not "heard" before. After soundproofing my car, I was happy with it....till I drove in the heavy rain....

The noise coming from the rain hitting the windscreen is much, much louder.

Turn up volume of stereo to compensate! Lols!

Get a more quiet tires?

identify with spl meter first.
and change tyre also

At least you've heard a difference after soundproofing the roof of your vehicle. May I ask what vehicle did you soundproof and which areas of soundproofing?

Rattling and soundproofing is 2 different things.

Rattling is a part hitting another part.

Soundproofing is more preventing roadnoise/traffic noise/engine noise which is not part hitting another part.

I'm aware of that actually. My remark earlier is on old cars which would have shown higher rattling sound in the cabin due to age compared to new cars, so in my book it is not worth it to soundproof the car since the rattling sound is still there. Soundproofing to make the car quieter but rattling sound from other parts of the car will be louder thus defeating the purpose of soundproofing.

The other factor or concern I've raised is when during the soundproofing process, the work may have caused even more rattling sound due to the work of dismantling panels, seats, liners and stuff, so those parts may have become loose and cause additional/new rattling sound previously not present in the vehicle. Worst is during the soundproofing works the installers accidentally broke some parts or clips when dismantling the panels. That's the whole reason of the poll to ascertain on both positive and bad experiences of people who have gone with the soundproofing, especially on new vehicles as highlighted.

I would say don't do it

Some clips are designed for 1 time use, some are outright industrial double sided tape (especially conti car), on top of improper tool/process that break the reusable clip.

99% of the shop just put back broken clips. Not only sound proofing, also general repair.

Spend 2000 bucks to buy all new original clips, rubber, tape... guarantee no rattle.

Anyway, sound proofing is counter productive in my world. I don't want my car to be heavier with not practical gain.

- I'm super sensitive to any rattle, even the vibration from buttons to a point I added padding between 2 buttons myself.
- I'm ok with wind noise
- I NEED to hear a little bit of tyre roll + feel a little bit of bump, or my little insecure inner self will notoriously wanted to get down to ensure the tyre is intact.

A magic carpet ride kind of car will drive me crazy

This post has been edited by constant_weight: Jan 25 2024, 10:06 AM