Sound proof your car with Dynamat? Anyone tried?

Lightman

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2002
Location
Sunny Florida
I was thinking about trying to sound proof my car a bit with dynamat. I have a friend up north that did this to his gasser Jetta, and the car is unbelievably quiet.

I'd love to remove the seats and carpet, and dynamat the entire metal flooring, and inside the doors. Does anyone know how to remove the carpet/seats etc? I have a bentley and it shows seat removal, although I dont think it's that clear. There's nothing I found in the bentley about removing the carpet...?

I think this might be a fun project and think the reduction in road/outside noise would be awesome! What do you guys think?
 

lojasmo

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2002
Location
Rochester, Minnesota
TDI
'12 JSW
Bah. I LIKE the noise my car makes. I took off the engine cover, and upon the first oil change, may leave the plastic skid plate off in order to INCREASE the sound of the engine.
 

GotDiesel?

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jul 11, 2000
Location
Pacific NW
TDI
2001 Jetta GLS
Wow... you can hear your engine over the road noise?


It might be worth a check/search over on the Vortex to see if anybody's done it there.

I'm hoping new, non-Goodyear tires will quiet things down some on my car.
 

danix

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2000
Location
Raleigh, NC
TDI
None now. Former: 2011 335d, 2010 Jetta TDI, 2003 Jetta TDI Wagon. 99.5 Jetta TDI, 98 NB TDI, 3 different black 96 Passat TDI wagons.
The Jetta has pretty substantial padding/insulation under the carpet, and it's a pain to get out (hint - don't leave your windows open when it rains, and try not to spill the largest size coffee when some &*$(# driver cuts you off.)

If you are going to do this, look into a roll of "Water and Ice Shield" sold at Home Depot for $70. It's supposed to be the same stuff as Dynamat, only much cheaper. I know that sounds pricey but a roll is probably enough to do 3 cars or more.
 

Lightman

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2002
Location
Sunny Florida
how much of a pain was it to get the seats and carpet out? There is a lot of road and tire noise that gets up into the cabin from underneath....

Some members from vortex have done their cars, but the pics are gone since the posts are old. Many have done their trunk(by the spare tire etc, is all bare metal) because they have ricey loud exhausts, and reported great results, much less drone inside.
 

Rick P.

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2002
Location
Barrie, Ontario
TDI
'97 Passat, Tornado Red, RIP Feb 17, 2006
I did my Passat last year when I upgraded my stereo. I did the trunk, wheel wells, floor and doors. I went slow and still broke a number of trim pieces trying to get them out. I didn't do the roof because of all the little plastic trim pieces holding the headliner in place but the work I did took the better part of a week to complete. Someone else here soundproofed their Passat and reported excellent results. I have a definate problem somewhere (rear engine mount probably, CV joint maybe) so my improvement wasn't as dramatic - 2 or 3 dB maybe.

Before going to the effort, and it is a lot of work, take care of the easy stuff. If you have any wind noise from your doors or windows, replace or repair the weatherstripping and door seals. A bad door or window seal will cause a lot more noise than you'll get through the floor.

If you do go through with this you'll probably be impressed with the amount of soundproofing already lining the floorpan. If you're trying to deaden engine noise you're really in for a chore since you'll have to pull most of the dash out to add extra soundproofing to the firewall.

FYI, the front seats of my Passat come out in about 30 seconds without tools - I think the Jetta seats are the same. On mine, I remove the front clip, slide the plastic slider channel trim pieces out of the channels and the whole seat slides out backwards. Be carefull or you'll get grease on the carpet from the sliders. To get the carpet out I had to remove the rear seats, floor mounted seat belts, all the trim pieces on both sides of the car, plus the centre console, shifter boot, etc ...

Rick
 

Lightman

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2002
Location
Sunny Florida
Dynamat's not even that expensive. You can do your floor and trunk for about $200. Off brands like Brown Bread or FATMAT for about $100.
 

Kennedy

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2002
Location
Fredericksburg, VA
McMaster-Carr sells a "sound deadening" mat for much cheaper than dynamat. Dybamat is made of the same stuff, they jusr stamp dynamat on the name.
It's called asphalt based sound dampener.
Here's a link: http://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/109/html/3240.html

Buy a piece of Dynamat, and a piece of "viscoelastic asphalt" form Mcmaster and tell me the difference.
Dyanamat extreme is a little different, it has the aluminum backing, makes a cleaner looking install, same stuff with aluminum foil attached to the non sticky side.
 

Lightman

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2002
Location
Sunny Florida
dynamat extreme, or fatmat Rattle trap were the two I was considering... Its just a loong project so I'm not sure its worth it to me yet. The trunk has a ton of bare metal though, that might be an easy project of a few hours with some small benefit.. I have a JL audio 10" stealth subwoofer box in the spare tire well, sitting on and around metal. I'm sure some improvement in sound quality could be made by dynamatting that area.
 

pinehead

Veteran Member
Joined
May 19, 2003
Location
Treasure Coast, FL
TDI
Passat
Dynamat's not even that expensive. You can do your floor and trunk for about $200. Off brands like Brown Bread or FATMAT for about $100.
Rhino Lining is extremely good in sound proofing. Superior to Dynamat. I tried Dynamat in My GTI. Made very little difference. For one there are no spaces where metal can be exposed. You can specify exactly where you want it sprayed. You can also specify to make it thicker in some areas and thinner than others. Even without the carpet the car is super quiet. I am not putting the carpet back in. If you get sand or spill drinks in the car....Who cares, it comes right out. And you have no stinky, nasty, germ riddled carpet to clean all the time. The car smells like new again now that the carpet is out. You can even choose a custom pigment to match the interior.

AJ
97 GTI/VR6
96 Passat TDI
 

pinehead

Veteran Member
Joined
May 19, 2003
Location
Treasure Coast, FL
TDI
Passat
Thats right!! Now I get to laugh whenever I see someone struggling with there carpet. VW carpet is the cheapest stuff there is too. I'll never go back. I can literally wash the inside of my Passat out now. If I wanted to.

AJ
 

Judson

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2001
Location
Cheyenne, WY
TDI
2001 Jetta
Borrow/acquire some triple squares, and adjust your doors up
*tight* against the car. Makes a huge difference.

Jud.
 

Michael Moore

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2001
Location
Toronto / Zürich
TDI
2004 Phaeton W12, 2015 Golf Highline (gas)
I'm interested in this project - I test drove a gas powered Phaeton (oversized European Jetta) a few weeks ago and it was a lot quieter than my TDI Golf.

I think most of the noise in my Golf comes in through the doors, not really the floor.

Michael
 

Lightman

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2002
Location
Sunny Florida
I think you'd be surprised how much tire and road noise comes up thru the floor. I agree the doors let some in as well. Driving in my Mercedes is a night and day difference from my Jetta, it feels like you're in a sound proof booth comparatively.. I'm not complaining, it should when it cost twice as much as the Jetta. However I think the TDI certainly has some room for improvement. My friend's 2.0 in cleveland that he dynamatted the entire car, sounds as quiet or quieter than my MB. Its just a labor intensive project!!
 

GotDiesel?

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jul 11, 2000
Location
Pacific NW
TDI
2001 Jetta GLS
Lightman,

Do you have the same tires on both cars? That can make a huge difference as well.

Going from Goodyears to Continentals on my wife's Jeep quieted things down pretty significantly on rough pavement.

I'm looking forward to the same thing happening with the Jetta (though it won't be Contis).
 

Lightman

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2002
Location
Sunny Florida
Lightman,

Do you have the same tires on both cars? That can make a huge difference as well.
LOL, so will an extra $25k
The benz actually has huge sticky z-rated tires to fit the 18" AMG wheels. They are way noisier than my low rolling resistance mxv4's on 15s. The jetta simply doesn't have as much sound insulation. Either way, I feel the jetta is a great car and value, I'd just like to possibly add a little dynamat
 

GotDiesel?

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jul 11, 2000
Location
Pacific NW
TDI
2001 Jetta GLS
Yeah. $25K would buy a lot of dynamat.

Actually though, a $100 more of sound insulation would've made these cars seem even more luxurious.

I drove a 2003 Jetta a couple of months ago and the doors had a different, "deader" sound to them (than my 2001) when they shut but it was still noisy on coarse pavement.
 

Lightman

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2002
Location
Sunny Florida
It sounds difficult to get the seats and carpet out, but I bet there would be a huge noise reduction in doing 2 layers of dynamat extreme on the floor... Some people have been known to do up to 5 layers with big stereos, but I think 2 is sufficient...
 

Lightman

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2002
Location
Sunny Florida
The other thing is, I'm considering selling my tdi, and was somewhat considering dynamatting the E300. Despite it being solid/quiet already, I'm sure there is room for improvement/further noise reduction. The trunk area around the spare tire well and brake lights has exposed metal. Dynamat everything in sight!
 

AutoDiesel

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2000
Location
Pacific Northwest
MSN Autos - 2003 Volkswagen Golf

"NNoise: Regardless of the engine choice, Golf models generate a great deal of noise and vibration, which makes long outings tiresome and trying."

MSN Autos - 2003 Volkswagen Jetta

"NNoise: Regardless of the engine under the hood, Jettas generate a great deal of noise and vibration, which makes long outings tiresome and trying."

Sort of a generic rating of both cars but now that we have been traveling over the mountains more often it has become an issue. Being a "quiet" ride is not one of their strong points.
So I am thinking about doing the same but haven't decided which way to go yet.
 

GeWilli

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 6, 1999
Location
lost to new england
TDI
none in the fleet (99.5 Golf RIP, 96 B4V sold)
well all I can say is tires make a HUGE HUGE difference on these cars . . . more than they should.

and the testers probably had badyears or crapanental tires on and not the MXV4s . . .
 

Lightman

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2002
Location
Sunny Florida
I had mxv4's as original equipment, luckily I guess. They were't too bad at all. Up till about 45k they were reasonably quiet, but as they got more worn, the noise exponentially increased. This may be with all tires, dunno. Anyway now at 56k on the original tires, they are noisy. I'm not dissapointed at all. I'm going to get a set of Bridgestone Touranza ls-h's to try out, when I motivate to go get them... I'm right down even with the treadwear indicators now, so it's time
 

zanzabar

Vendor
Joined
Oct 18, 2002
Location
Petaluma, CA
TDI
2004 Jetta BEW 5spd (dual duty track car and daily driver beater)
Well, I just tried to do this to my car. Didn't help much.
I bought the Dynamat "Trunk Kit" which comes with quite a bit of the stuff. It had one large sheet of Dynamat Extreme (which I split between the front doors), two sheets of Dynamat Premium (which I split between the rear doors) and 4 sheets of Dynamat Original (which I used - two sheets - in the trunk). I still have some left over.

Where else can I apply this stuff to get the most noise reduction? After listening carefully, the most noise comes from wind on the leading edge of the front doors (? I think??), and road noise from the tires (dang, are they that loud?). What's the best way to block all that wind noise on the doors, tighten them up? Anyone done it before, how hard is it?
 

solstar

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2001
Location
Texas
TDI
2013 NB red cabrilet
If it's just wind noise those mats are not going to work- you need to seal tight the windows and doors - the Weatherstripping - if it is torn or loose or gone there is wind noise is this a older car (96) or older? get a new kit and make sure the body of your car is not sprung - get it alined!
 

danix

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2000
Location
Raleigh, NC
TDI
None now. Former: 2011 335d, 2010 Jetta TDI, 2003 Jetta TDI Wagon. 99.5 Jetta TDI, 98 NB TDI, 3 different black 96 Passat TDI wagons.
He has a 2000. The A4 cars, at least the Jetta, have an inherent design flaw where the A pillars are extremely noisy. I've complained about this in my car from day 1. Adjusting the doors will make it a little better, but it will never be perfect. I just added a subwoofer to compensate
 

1998TDIGLS

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 4, 2001
Location
my house
I dynamatted my 98 tdi for my sound system. It worked very well, you can still hear the engine, but its only a wisper. I used dynamat extreme on almost every piece of the metal interior except behind the dash. In terms of music responsiveness it was outstanding. And you can get 9 sheets of extreme dynamat for $100 on ebay. But 9 sheets only did my trunk. I also did the underside of the trunk and where the back seat is with the spray on deadner and it cleared the noise from the tires up significantly.

Welp theres my 2 cents... im done now.
 
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