Sound deadener install, interior removal

I finally got my Golf sound Deadened with Raammat sound deadening product. http://www.raamaudio.com Frst the Raamat is an OUTSTANDING product. I reall enjoyed using it. I have sound deadened two other cars before this one. and using Raamat was much more pleasurable that the other times. it is not an asphalt based product, it does not stink and makes absolutely no mess what-so-ever, except under my thumb and my middle finger nails. I did two vehicles with Raamat and both went very well. producing excellent results, but more on that later. Let me say that this is a very very time consuming job. It will not go quickly unless you have multiple people helplng you.

I started with my 2006 Golf TDI. and First thing first, EVERYTHING must come out. every piece of trim, which I found out, there are a ton of trim pieces for the Golf.
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this is the very beginning of the job


most are pretty straight forward. I did use my Bentley which helped a little bit, but was still unclear on some pieces. and to my dismay, even though I was careful, I still broke off a bunch of plastic tabs. I think they make them to break, they are so brittle. but some are not in the bentley or was unclear. Like the trim pieces over the wheel wells. there is a screw in the back(on the rear) that is easy to find, but there is a clip that is invisible. it can be accessed by a screw driver through the hole in front of it. push the tab in and it comes up.
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also the very rear trim piece. it is just pulled off. and is help on by plastic clips that can break. I broke two of about nine of them.
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another tricky piece was the rearend of the center console. I have cup holder that pulls out. that is where I got stumped. the bottom plate has to be pryed off, there are five tabs, two shaped like hour-glasses and three regular clips. I gently put a flat screwdriver under it and pryed it up. I did not break any of these. I was happy.
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another very strange piece was the hood release lever. it has a clip to secure it to a shaft. the Bentley has instructions on it, but it is hard to picture. you have to put a flat screwdriver in the slot pry the 'clip' out and let it fall down, pull the lever off the shaft and retrieve the clip.
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the rest of the trim is pretty straight forward. just be VERY careful if you pull the lower B-pillars. there are two clip/tabs on the bottom that connect it to the bottom and they break very easily. I broke both on the passenger side. I think I pulled it out too much and not up enough.
and the foot rest has tabs too that break easily. I broke them too. but the screw to secure it to the floor does well enough of a job that I wasnt worried about it.

the seats are removed by two nuts on the front underside of the seats. then roll it back off the tracks, unplug the electrical connectors, AFTER you have disconnected the battery(just saying for safety sake). remove and get them out of your way.

then comes the carpet. well I did not remove the radio/AC control console, which would be Ideal, but ... well you know. there are two support brackets that are bolted to the tunnel form the radio console. I did not know how, nor did I want to remove them. so since the carpet is normally put in BEFORE this is bolted to the floor, I decided to just cut the carpet and the under piece of material. it is way up front and can be tucked away, so it isnt that big of a deal to me. the carpet removal is a pain, there is the top piece of carpet, and two under pieces. one front piece and one back piece. the back piece reminded me of the lead lined vest you wear when getting x-rays. it is VERY heavy and dense.
once the carpet is out, clean all surfaces with a good cleaner that doesnt leave residue. I used glass cleaner. and found many dimes and a quarter, so yeah I am rich!!
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Just when you are sick of tearing out the interior, you will finish and be ready to lay down the sound deadener material. I will repeat , this is Very time consuming. My Golf took about 15-20 hours of work. the most time consuming part is cutting and then laying down the mat. it is not just cut a big piece and lay it down. every piece has to be cut to fit the area you are covering. on sone of the bigger flat spots, I used a large piece. I think the largest piece I used was 15-16", and I opnly used 2 or 3 that big. most pieces were cut to about 5-8 inches(the width of the roll is 15" so all pieces are something"x15". many pieces were 2-3 inches, and then cut to smaller lengths. the curves and contours makes it impossible to use large pieces. it can be done, but you want contact on all surfaces and not air gaps over contours. Raammat is pretty awesome on some of the contours as it does have a bit of stretch to it. but you have to work it in to stretch around some contours. I cannot stress the importance of a good roller. I broke my Dad's high quality roller, as you have to use some force to work this stuff on, especially around corners to stretch it. but the most helpful advice I can give on this part is use smaller pieces ~4"-5" and take your time.

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I used a little over two rolls of Raamat on My interior. Most places were double layered, some were triple layered, like the big flat area underfoot both fron and back seat area, and the area under the rear seat and the spare tire area. the bigger the surface area, the more it needs dampening. But becareful to not over do it. you have to remember that what you took out, has to go back in, and most are a tight fit to begin with. use your best judgement when and where you layer.

Some pictures are worth the million words trying to explain some of this stuff. enjoy

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the spare tire area I did a little different. after the mat was down, I wanted to protect the edges as this is a potentially higer traffic area. so I bought some 3M rubberized paint and coated the area pretty well.
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there are a host of more pics in my photo album here.

as for the outcome. I was not at all dissapointed. like I said, I did my Dads truck too. the outcome of that was phenomenal. it is a truck so take that into account.
As for the Golf. I have to really give props to VW. for the outcome was truely great, it was pretty good to start with. I drove around with all but the drivers seat and carpet removed. it was super loud while driving, so loud I couldnt talk on my Cell phone due to road noise. but with all the stock carpet and trim in, it makes a world of difference. with the Raamat installed, the car is exceptionally quiet not tomb like but much quieter that before. I have not done the doors yet, which I am sure will help. I have a leak in my door seals, I can hear wind noise from them(discovered when the B-pillar trim pieces were off) But overall, it is a great investment and I am sure it will make the Long road trips more enjoyable(and less fatigueing) not like they aren'y enjoyable now , it Still is a TDI!

Eric B

Nice write up I will start mine next week as I will be changing my carpet anyway may as well make the car quite also.

Scott, take out the radio console to avoid cuttin your new carpet. and do the firewall since youll be able to reach it easier

Quiet solution, quite car products. Spray on. A Lot lighter and FASTER....

Kook, you're a madman.....

Going to do my car since the heater core has to be replaced.....in for a penny.....

Kook, any estimate on the weight added by these 2+ rolls of material added? Is it offset by all the missing clips now? LOL. Seriously, I have to assume you added 100-150 lbs of mass to the car. Just curious.

Far, I added no more than 25 pounds. the three rolls shipped weight was 77 pounds. I used less than 2 rolls, actually I only used a little over 1 1/2 rolls right now. Ill add another couple of pounds when I do the doors. Surprisingly, Raammat really doesn't seem to weigh that much. but it works.

Super write up--from research to pics! I've ordered some material and I'll play around with it some. Do you want to do my car, now, Eric?

Only if you pay me. WELL!!!

if you also did the roof and had metallic tint would cell phone signals/gps reception be a problem? not that insulating oneself from excessive signals is necessarily a bad thing?

Kook, I wish you did this months ago so I could hear a before and after. If adding less than say 50lbs, I say this could be a kick ass mod for these tin boxes.

Im gonna give a better observation after driving it a bit more. on the "what did you do to you car today" post BORA-CHIARA made this statement:

TDIkook I love the sound dampening. I really want to do this now to my A3. There is a night and day difference between what VW did OE between A3 and A4 so I would love to even get a little bit of quietness on the road. Not motor noise, but the air rushing underneath etc. Also wondering if there is a better way to seal the doors if anyone has ideas for that.

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I am going to have to agree fully on this. I am not saying what I did was bad, but in comparison from the A3 that I had and this MK4. the before and after is remarkable. the A3 was off the charts a different car. the Mk4 is just quieter. I think this is a declaration of advancements by VW for thier cars. so by all means do this mod, it IS worth it. but I was surprised it was not as drastic of a change as the A3 was.

It is still worth it, I am just giving this a very critical review. I do recommend doing this. YES, I would do this again. and I dont think that I didnt do enough. I am not going for mausoleum quiet. just improved driving quality. I got it. for what I did, It did its job. I still hold Raammat in High regards, as it is an excellent product.

I hope I answered some floating questions about this to give a fair review on this. if anyone is close I would gladly like to compare cars.


Eric B

Does this stuff far up against Dynamat and such? I'm totally intersted in this thread because I have a system in my car. I was thinking about doing the trunk and the door panels but watching u pull out the floor. YOU ARE CRAZY!!!

I find it hilarious how u call the mk4 a quiet car. Mine has been rattling for 2 years now.

For the record: RAAMmat isn't asphalt based, but it does have a core of an asphalt. For 99% of people, so what, but I did catch that slight incorrect statement put out there.

Personally, I use and love RAAMmat. Great stuff, great price, great folks who make it.

Lex4TDI4Life said:

www.sounddeadenershowdown.com

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Very good comparison! Thanks!

If only I had the time, money and patience to do that!

I might do my door panels and headliner when I attempt a blackout this summer.

aja8888 said:

Very good comparison! Thanks!

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Chi Town TDI said:

Does this stuff far up against Dynamat and such? I'm totally intersted in this thread because I have a system in my car. I was thinking about doing the trunk and the door panels but watching u pull out the floor. YOU ARE CRAZY!!!

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Chi-town, while I did this, I made a decision that if I had to do this again, I wouldnt remove the front carpet. and I would only do from the rear seat bump back. I think that would give a good outcome without going overboard like I did. but absolutely do the trunk area and the rear deck if you have a Jetta.

yep..yours does!

I actually just peeled my carpet back from the doors toward the interior. You have to remove the seats and some trim, and access is limited to the trans hump, but you get about 90% of the access you need with a little extra hassle, but significantly less total effort.

TDikook said:

Chi-town, while I did this, I made a decision that if I had to do this again, I wouldnt remove the front carpet. and I would only do from the rear seat bump back. I think that would give a good outcome without going overboard like I did. but absolutely do the trunk area and the rear deck if you have a Jetta.

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Exactly Sweetjeep, Exactly.

Wow nice work. I know for sure I want to do my trunk. I hate hearing the road noise from there when I have the seats down.

NB, If you do your Jetta, I recommend doing the rear deak as well. I did that in my Old Jetta and it helped ALOT. any flat surface that can resonate should be dampened. but I cannot stress this enough. it is very labor intensive. if you have time and space you can do small sections and get it done over a week or so.

Good idea actually. That deck lacks any type of insulation.

Thanks for the tips

RAAMMat is great stuff. I did my doors but haven't gotten around to the entire floor. One of these days...

I ran out of Raammat doing my fathers truck's doors. I am gonna have to wait to do the doors, but when I do do them, I will OVER do them. the space cavity in the doors is BIG. I bet once the doors are done then I will be impressed like I was hoping.

ibanix said:

RAAMMat is great stuff. I did my doors but haven't gotten around to the entire floor. One of these days...

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How much improvement did you get with just the doors done?

Doing just the doors is, hands down, the best money you can spend. I don't have numbers, but that is where a lot if not more than 50% of your noise is.

Equally, the more you isolate the front and back of the speakers the more efficient they become.