Reducing Road Noise

[DaveJohnson]

When I had originally read the reviews before purchasing the Mazda 5, some commentators had stated that the 5 had a somewhat high amount of 'road noise' - Consumer Reports (which gave the car an excellent review and rating) had a good driver based review with this as a comment.

Having driven the car for about 1k miles, I agree - the cabin is somewhat noisy. Now, I know there are a hundred factors that contribute to cabin noise, but is there anything in general that can (easily/cheaply) be done to reduce cabin noise? Is there any kind of noise dampening material that can be added say, under the floor to help with noise?

I drive a lot of highway miles, so a quiet cabin would be nice...

 

[AwaKeN]

Here is a good howto for you: http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123737318

 

[skyhawk]

Here is a good howto for you: http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123737318

I agree. when you go to a junk yard and explore the innards of luxury vehicles,
you will see a lot of 'sound deadening materials slapped all over the inner walls.

I wonder how much weight will it add to the car.

Another issue would be rust. Maybe apply the material in such a way that water
will have a way to escape when it find its way in-between material and metal surface.

 

[DaveJohnson]

Oh wow.. excellent how-to. Thanks for the post.

I happen to have a bunch of this stuff laying around the house - I've been insulating our eaves with it this summer. Nice to know I can use the leftover!

It consists of basically bubble-wrap coated with a super-thin layer of aluminum. I'm going to assume this will eliminate any rust issues.

I doubt this stuff would add any significant weight to the car - a 4'x20' roll is something you can toss around with one hand...

 

[red headz]

Dave - if the 'insulation' you want to add is so light weight... will it do any good? Usually the better the insulation = heavier.

m.

 

[RCC]

I found mine got quieter after I changed the tires.

 

[bullaculla]

http://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi

And yeah, as RCC said, new or good tires that have been rotated (very often on our cars...) and balanced well will reduce road noise a lot also.