Anyone using Dynamat to reduce road noise? Options

[GotToyota]

I'm not sure about you guys, but my Celica has a load of roadnoise, especially in my doors. One part is that my Rockford speakers have too much bass, and the other is the vibrations that come from the door when I'm driving. Now, I know that Dynamat actually dampens noise and vibration, so I was thinking about buying the two door kit. Has anyone used this for this reason, and gotten good results?

-Matt

[soven]

I have extensively deadened my last Celica.
Dynamat in doors outer panel and 6 layers aluminium fire retardant foil(blocker) on the inner panel. Dynamat on trunk floor and other deadening on quarter panels.

I will say that road noise doesnt change by much. The celica is a noisy car and I am still deciding on how I should tackle the problem properly for the current celica.

Dynamat does mass loading with its weight. It adds weight to the metal panel and lowers the resonating frequency of the panel. Mass loading is useful for large flat panels like your doors and quarter panels and roof and stops them vibrating easily(noise). It is not so useful for convoluted panels. Convoluted panels does not need mass loading, so only the blocking feature of the dynamat is "functioning" when you put dynamat on convoluted panels.

Dynamat's shiny aluminium backing does the blocking(stop sound going through). Dynamat's backing is quite thick compared to other deadening materials so it is quite alright. I used fire retardant foil as a better and cheaper alternative.

You can try putting dynamat in your doors and see how it goes but I suspect that most road noise in a celica enters through the firewall and floor pan. Cheaper and less hassle solution would be to get quieter tyres.

[GotToyota]

Thanks for the input.

Yeah, the door panel vibrates pretty drastically. Do you think if I have some left from the doors that I should actually put some on the back side of the panels themselves?

-Matt

[soven]

back side of which panels?

[m0dd3d1]

My road noise is reduced a bit, but you'll never get rid of it. I'm not sure if it's because I've got no carpet or half a back seat but the noise is still pretty loud. It makes the stereo sound way better though.

[GotToyota]

Cool, thanks for the feedback, guys.

I finished up one door last night, doing the passenger door today after work. It looks like I'll have some left over, if that's the case, where should I put it? I was thinking the trunk floor.

-Matt

This post has been edited by GotToyota: Sep 1, 2007 - 8:45 AM

[soven]

save it for future use. Esp when your sub starts rattling stuff.

otherwise if you have enough, put it in the rear quarter panels.

[GotToyota]

Sorry, I already used everything. I had enough for both doors and the top of the hatch as well as the trunk floor (I didn't cover every square inch of the door, probably about 3/4 of each door spread out somewhat evenly.

The sound difference is crazy, it's night and day. The only thing is that my door panels still rattle a bit, but I believe it's because of the damn Rockford speakers and their bass. Oh well, another project well done!

P.S. - I also stripped all of my emblems last night except for the two main Toyota ones, I'll post pics today after I give it a good cleaning.

-Matt

[NgoFcukinWay]

I pretty much did the same thing you did. Doors feel pretty solid and so does the trunk lid. I also used strips of Dynamat to hold down my Boston Acoustics to the brackets. I think that helped a bit too.

as for my badges, they voluntarily came off.

[coldbluesteel]

That best thing to deaden road noise are ear plugs.

Really though, I had to do the panel right underneath the door as well as a square foot or so around the inside of the door handle. That is where most of my rattling came from.

As far as road noise, I have a custom side exit exhaust and I love to hear that thing howl.

[CelicaST_CALI]

or go to home depot,buy caned insulation..and have some fun,lol and jsut buy dynamat like normal dont buy those door kits they never work right,and it is heavy as hell..

[AudioFreak]

I did my whole car a few months ago using RAAMmat BXT60. Much better than dynamat and costs less too. I did a single layer on the floor. Double layer inside each door, the panels behind the rear speakers and the quarter panels. The rear wheel wells also got a double layer. I bought 2 rolls and still have quite a bit left. My biggest complaint with the celica was always road noise especially when it rained. The RAAMmat made a huge difference. The doors also sound much more solid when you close them now. More like a high end car. Once suggestion. Once you layer the outer door panels cover over the opening on the inner door panel then cover the entire inner panel with a layer of your chosen sound deadener. There is a how to about this on the raamaudio site listed below.

Sounddeadener Showdown great comparison of all the products out there.

RAAMaudio Source for RAAMmat and some good how to's.

[13loody]

Second Skin is better than RAAMaudio IMO. It's essentially the same as Dynamat Extreme, only cheaper. You might get Dynamat Extreme for cheaper than Second Skin if you know someone that works at Best Buy.

The reasons I like Dynamat Extreme and Second Skin are: higher quality mass loading (no tar/asphalt), higher quality foam (better noise reduction), added high frequency noise dampening from aluminum backing, and lack of a smell (comes from tar/asphalt in other products).

I also highly recommend using their liquid dampeners on the inside of wheel wells between the plastic guard and chassis. Tires cause a lot of noise and having an extra layer of dampening helps a lot.

Covering your entire floor, doors, trunk, and roof takes approximately 150 square foot, adding roughly 75lbs to your car. Sure she's a bit heavier, but she's not nearly as annoying!

Another option is to hard mount your speakers in your door to reduce the vibrations and improve sound quality. This is a bit expensive unless you're able to make your own brackets and do the work yourself.

[AudioFreak]

I agree second skin makes a great product, better than dynamat extreme IMO. But just like dynamat it is expensive. I use the RAAMaudio stuff because it performs well and it is easy on the wallet.

Secondskin's Damplifier Pro is $279.36 for 80 sq. ft. 2 rolls plus shipping is about $600. $3.50 sq ft.

Dynamat Xtreme Bulk Pak from the dynamat website is $270 for 36 sq ft. $7.50 sq ft. (can be found cheaper)

RAAMaudio each roll is 62.5 sq. ft. when you buy 2+ rolls it's $109.16 each. $1.76 sq ft.

I used 2 rolls and had some left over but if you go all out and use 3 rolls it's still about half the price. For the price you could put in extra layers and still save money.

This is based on my experience. Everyone has their favorite. I've just had really good luck with RAAMaudio and I've been really happy with the results.

If you can get a discount on dynamat xtreme it's a descent performer. But probably still close to the price of damplifier pro which would be my first choice.

[cjh4l22]

i've used the eDead Sound v1SE and it seems to have worked wonders for my car. but thats just my 2cents worth

[applejax]

This thread really doesn't need to continue after AudioFreak's last post, but since it is...



Both Rick from RAAMAudio and Ant from Second Skin are very customer service focused. Rick is fully aware of where his product stands in competition with Second Skin. Rick's business model is by design, he could offer any product he wants to.



Second Skin is more expensive. RAAMMat is an excellent product, but their focus is to offer something a little more value oriented. Hmmm...value oriented...That has a bit of a negative connotatoin that I don't want to convey to RAAMAudio. RAAMMat is designed to offer a high quality product, while staying very cost competitive. Either product is quite a bit ahead of it's other competitors.



And as mentioned, you could hit areas with two layers of RAAMMat for the same price of one layer of Second Skin, and two layers is better than one.

[GotToyota]

To those saying Dynamat is expensive, I work at Best Buy so I get an awesome discount on it.

-Matt

[jordisonjr]

I got a quick question abotu this dynamat. My subs rattle my trunk floor alot. not so much the toor panels though, does dynamat alone reduce the vibrations of the trunk? Cause i don't wanna go out and spend all the money if its just going to reduce it a tiny bit. It rattles pretty good and sounds like garbage from the outside so i was hoping this would reduce it quite a bit. If I dynamat the floor of my trunk will it reduce the rattling?

[Cutrara]

ehh... for road noise dynamat (or other brands of dampeners) isn't really the best choice for curing road noise. Dynamat keeps your speakers from vibrating the sheet metal in the door. The result is tighter bass (less energy is wasted from the speaker flexing the panel). Thats not to say dampening doesnt help with road noise. I noticed a small improvement after using a generic dynamat (all the same stuff, installation is what matters) on the inner and outer skins of the door, the behind rear speakers, under rear seats. Yeah there was a little less road noise but you notice more that you don't have that "junky car sound" when bass hits... especially with amp'd speakers or subs... plus the doors slam with a nice thud and sound less "tin-canny". If you're looking to reduce road noise, you might want to look at closed cell foam... JC Whitney sells it in the carpet section. Other ideas are using an expanding foam like great stuff in your a-pillars and rocker panels. Don't use the triple expanding stuff or you risk damaging a panel. I think someone else mentioned spray on type stuff... a good undercoating can help reduce road noise.

[jordisonjr]

That really didn't help me at all. Im not looking to reduce road noice, i want my trunk floor to stop vibrating cause it sounds like ass outside my car.