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Sherri Zann · 02-26-08, 09:25

"Dude, this sounds much better." Lol. Yep. That about sums it up. But, that's what I want! I want it to sound much better!

Bob, your post caused me to go over to Tirerack.com, and since my car is a Civic, to some of the Honda forums where there were threads about quieter tires. Lots of posters agree that some tires are much quieter than others, and that some of the quietest can also be among the best handling. Tirerack.com didn't offer any Avons as fitting my car. But tires that were repeatedly mentioned on forums included Michelin Primacy MXV4 (new, $100 ea.), Bridgestone Teranza, and Goodyear Assurance Comfort (80 ea). I've still got enough tread on my factory Firestones that I don't want to chuck them quite yet.

Part of the noise in my car is from interior squeaks and rattles. There was a dash rattle that the dealership could never fix, though they heard it. Out of desperation, I pulled off the trim from the A pillars this past weekend, and found that the front edge of the plastic dash on the passenger side was poorly supported and bouncing. This was the rattle-maker. Some dense felt between the corner of the dash and the windshield wedged the dash in place and eliminated the rattle.

Also, I found that the hollow A pillars seemed to conduct sound into the cabin. I am co-owner of a yoga studio, so we have old yoga mats around. They are a very dense PVC foam reinforced with thread. I used the A pillar trim as a template to cut yoga mat to fit between the A pillar and plastic trim. This essentially made a sort of full-face gasket. I had to trim away about a nickel size hole in the mat around the two bayonet trim fasteners in order to get the plastic trim to fit back and sit tight. Also, everywhere that the pillar's plastic trim touched a hard surface, like the dash, I adhered some thin felt to at least one of the surfaces. I had some old self-adhesive felt, but the adhesive had dried out, so I used rubber cement. Nice thing about the rubber cement is that when it is dry, you can remove any excess from the dash just by rubbing.

Two very good results of what I did. The yoga mat seems to both block and absorb reverberation from the A pillars. You can rap them and it is "dead." In addition, the felt between the A pillar trim and dash has quieted the creaking and buzzing a lot. It seems tight and more like a solid unit.

I'm going to read the articles you posted, PC. Thanks.

02-26-08, 09:25	#5 (permalink)
Sherri Zann Lurker Extraordinaire Sherri Zann is offline Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Durham, NC Posts: 234	Re: Sound proofing to reduce road noise "Dude, this sounds much better." Lol. Yep. That about sums it up. But, that's what I want! I want it to sound much better! Bob, your post caused me to go over to Tirerack.com, and since my car is a Civic, to some of the Honda forums where there were threads about quieter tires. Lots of posters agree that some tires are much quieter than others, and that some of the quietest can also be among the best handling. Tirerack.com didn't offer any Avons as fitting my car. But tires that were repeatedly mentioned on forums included Michelin Primacy MXV4 (new, $100 ea.), Bridgestone Teranza, and Goodyear Assurance Comfort (80 ea). I've still got enough tread on my factory Firestones that I don't want to chuck them quite yet. Part of the noise in my car is from interior squeaks and rattles. There was a dash rattle that the dealership could never fix, though they heard it. Out of desperation, I pulled off the trim from the A pillars this past weekend, and found that the front edge of the plastic dash on the passenger side was poorly supported and bouncing. This was the rattle-maker. Some dense felt between the corner of the dash and the windshield wedged the dash in place and eliminated the rattle. Also, I found that the hollow A pillars seemed to conduct sound into the cabin. I am co-owner of a yoga studio, so we have old yoga mats around. They are a very dense PVC foam reinforced with thread. I used the A pillar trim as a template to cut yoga mat to fit between the A pillar and plastic trim. This essentially made a sort of full-face gasket. I had to trim away about a nickel size hole in the mat around the two bayonet trim fasteners in order to get the plastic trim to fit back and sit tight. Also, everywhere that the pillar's plastic trim touched a hard surface, like the dash, I adhered some thin felt to at least one of the surfaces. I had some old self-adhesive felt, but the adhesive had dried out, so I used rubber cement. Nice thing about the rubber cement is that when it is dry, you can remove any excess from the dash just by rubbing. Two very good results of what I did. The yoga mat seems to both block and absorb reverberation from the A pillars. You can rap them and it is "dead." In addition, the felt between the A pillar trim and dash has quieted the creaking and buzzing a lot. It seems tight and more like a solid unit. I'm going to read the articles you posted, PC. Thanks.