[John_Dumke]

After reading all of the available threads on the web. I went ahead and ordered about $400 worth of product from http://www.secondskinaudio.com

I am going to try to do the entire vehicle and guestimated that I will need the following:
120sf of Damplifier - http://www.secondskinaudio.com/vibration-mat/damplifier.php
90sf of Overkill - http://www.secondskinaudio.com/noise-filter/overkill.php
Tools: spray adhesive for applying the overkill, a grommet removal tool and a wooden roller for applying the damplifier.

The most helpful online document for deciding which products to purchase was - http://www.sounddeadenershowdown.com/

It was the only article I found which put it all together. Having pulled out some of the interior, with the OEM tow hitch wiring install, I guess I feel a little braver.

Personally, I think the road noise on the RAV could be better and after having removed some of the interior, you can see there is a lot of bare metal under the mats with little or no sound proofing. It should make a big difference. The shipping weight of all the supplies is 67lbs. So my guess is that all of this product will add about 50 lbs. My wife doesn't see the need, so likely she will think I am crazy when she sees the entire interior dismanteled.

I was debating getting a cheap $50 radio shack decibel meter to do a before and after, but decided not to waste the money. It will be, what it will be. I will post pictures when done.

Thanks to all that have come before me and posted their success.

 

[colchiro]

I think you'll find most of the noise comes from the back and that's the easiest to disassemble (and easiest to still be able to use the vehicle). I got as far as the passenger doors and when I couldn't get the panel off, quit for now.

I went the cheap route, with carpet pad and still have noise back there. :roll:

 

[Scotch]

I'm considering adding sound deadening. Keep us informed. I'd like to see someone do a bit of a scientific study and use a decibel meter on the same road and speed before and after. I've seen them for $50 at Radio Shack. Maybe it will be me. :wink:

 

[RAVPHO]

Hi John: Good luck with your installation. That is a serious undertaking, having done it with a previous car all by myself...took me about 12 hours. Please post pics of the install if possible. I am looking to do the same after I pick up my 2008 RAV4, and my first preference is also secondskin. From the articles I've read, their damplifier product performs the best.

I think the roof and the floor are the areas you'll get the most benefit. After seeing my 06 RAV4 dismantled, I was surprised as well by the minimal insulation used between the carpet/headliner and sheet metal. :shock:

 

[John_Dumke]

These photos got lost last month when rav4world got hacked, so I thought I would repost.

Just a couple of observations.

The car is a lot quieter. The job took quite a while, about 45 hours in total. The interior comes apart quite easily. I only broke one plug for attaching a panel, which cost about $1.50. So there was no damage.

If I were going to do it again. I might spring for the extra cost of the Damplifier PRO and the Overkill Pro, rather than the base level products. The extra cost would be about $200-$250 more ( I spent about $450), but with such a labor intensive job, the product cost is not as much of a concern.

The total weight of product added was only about 50lbs, not significant, IMO. The amount of product that I purchased was just about right, I had enough Damplifier to double up in some areas, while I had a little extra Overkill left over.

The best way to apply the product is in strips. Rather that deliberate over what shapes to cut out, Take the sheets and cut them in 3-6 inch wide strips (about 12 inches long, the width of the sheets) and start applying. Overlapping is ok and will only enhance the soundproofing. When applying the material, often you rub it on with your fingers, since they can adjust to the contour. Use something between your hands and the foil side of the product. The backing material that is taken off to expose the sticky side works well for sliding along the foil side. I you constantly rub your bare hands directly against the foil material your hands will get raw, plus the backing material or cotton gloves slide easier.

The Overkill (closed cell foam) is put on with spray weatherstipping adhesive. I bought one can from Secondskingaudio, but needed about 3-4 cans in total. The 3M medium duty spray is identical, so I used this product.

The one final improvement that I am thinking of making is to again remove the rear quarter panel plastic and stuff some insulation back in these crevices. There is a direct path to the outside through a vent. It is likely that this is still an area where big improvement can be made. I think I might put my daughter in the back area and while driving have her put a folded up towel over the interior portion of the vent to see if I can hear some additional noise reduction.

Has anybody stuffed foam or insulation back in this area, and what products did you use? Any suggestions. I don't think this area would get wet at all.

 

[Ralphus]

That is serious DIY work! Wow! You have got balls.

That said, I can't believe you went through all that and didn't spring for the Db meter! Aren't you at least curious to know how much of the difference is imagined vs reality? I guess as you say it is what it is, but that's not going to help anyone else whose considering and wondering if the benefits are actually worth the effort.

Again.. hats off to you though. Very impressed.

 

[John_Dumke]

If anyone lives in SoCal, we could do a stock versus soundproofed comparison. The only other variable would be 19" rims w/ 255/50's, which would only make my car louder. So if somebody is interested in results and has a RAV + a decibel meter and lives in SoCal, let me know, we can come up with some real numbers.

 

[mike123abc]

Well since the second page of this topic got deleted after the hack attack. Lucky I have a printout of that page. Anyways I decided to take the plunge and ordered 2 of the shop packs of damplifier-pro and luxury liner-pro. I talked to Anthony at secondskinaudio and he recommended if you had to choose between overkill-pro and LuxLiner-pro to go with the luxury liner pro.

Now to find the time to put it in. It will probably be here this weekend, I might start. I think I will take out the back seat and cargo area first. I will damp/LL it before taking out the front seat. That way I will still be able to maximize the use. From the look of the pictures it looks like youhad the front seats in when you dropped the headliner.

So, after doing as much as I can in the back (up to where the carpet is piled up), I think dropping the headliner and doing that (and the pillars). Then put it back up and then take out the front seat as the last thing and finish the front of the vehicle.

A friend of mine has an auto body repair shop. I will probably drive it over there every day to work on it where I will have expert help as needed to take it appart and put it back together.

Once all that is done, do the doors 1 by 1 as I have time.

 

[John_Dumke]

Mike,

Yes that is correct, I had the front seat in when I dropped the headliner. Since I have the sunroof, there was a lot less surface area to soundproof. Soundproofing the ceiling consisted of back 1/3rd of the ceiling, and a small portion in front of the sunroof.

Wiring comes up from the drivers front pillar and stays connected to the headliner. This prevented me front completely removing the headliner, you may find a way to completely remove it. For this reason having the head rests on the front seats support the headliner was pretty helpful.

It allowed the rear to drop enough for installation as well as the front.

That luxury liner will probably produce much better results, it looks a lot thicker.

 

[bryansharp]

Directions: Drop Headliner

Can anyone provide general steps as to how the headliner should be removed? Do I have to remove the pillars on the sides or any other pieces? How is the headliner attached to the roof, or how is it help up?

-Bryan

 

[John_Dumke]

Bryan, You have to start from the bottom and work your way up.

Example 1:The upper central pillar can't be removed until you remove the lower central pillar cover.
Example 2: The upper rear window surround can't be removed until the lower rear quarter panels are removed, and the lower rear quarter panels don't come out until the rear floor plastic is removed.
Basic Sequence: bottom plastic 1st, then lower side plastic 2nd then upper side pillar and rear window surround 3rd, then headliner 4th.

So just getting at the headliner alone is a PIA, because it is the last item in a sequence.

It might be possible to just remove the upper pillar plugs and the top portion of the upper pillar cover, while leaving the lower part in (which is screwed in and covered by the lower pillar cover. Then maybe you can remove headliner. But this might be really difficult, and was not how I did it, and this still probably won't work.

Download the factory manual off the site and this will provide more pictures.

 

[mike123abc]

Well I finally got around to do this last week. Monday tore everything out to the front seats. Put 2x Damplifier pro over pretty much everything. Dropped the headliner down and put Damplifer Pro over it mostly 2x thick. I used Luxury Liner pro in the rear quarterpanel areas, in the cargo area, under the seats, on the floorboards, etc. Took out the front seats and did under them as the last step.

It took about 3 days to do it. It is quite the under taking, but I took it to my friend who had a body shop, and he helped me disassemble/reassemble the interior. It is not really hard, just if you have never done it, it is a daunting task. I would not have done it without that much help.

Observations: really the most bang for the buck is from the back seats to the rear. There is some factory stuff from the back seats forward, plus carpet padding. The back is a lot of plain metal. If you want to do the least amount with the most improvement, the back area, and the 2 rear panels are the best. There is an upper and lower panel in each of the back quarters to take off and soundproof. This is where I think most of the noise came from to start with. The rear wheels need a lot of work too. Under the front seats there is factory sludge type stuff, carpet pad, and styrofoam which does quite a bit. If you drive around you can pretty much tell most the noise is in the rear.

Dropping the headliner and putting the Damplifier Pro on it cut wind noise quite a bit. You can tell a difference with front of the rav4 being done, but it is just not the big bang difference as you get with the rear section.

If you just wanted to do some of the easier sections, I would reccomend a case of the Damplifier Pro (shop pack), and a case of the Luxury liner pro. Take out the cargo area up to the headliner and do that. It is just 5 big plastic parts, 2 on each side and the one tray in the middle. All in all it took me about 8 hours to do this, I took it down to the body shop, got it stripped out (including the back seats) in about an hour, went home and worked in the garage about 7 hours.

Doing the headliner is the next easiest thing, just a pain to take down all the mirrors and handles. Just drop it down and leave it attached is what I did, use the seats to hold it up. It took me and my friend about 90 minutes to get it down. It took about 2.5 hours to line it and then an hour to get it back together (me solo pretty much). I had the battery disconnected the whole time during this to avoid air bag problems. This was about 5 hours.

Taking out the front seats, doing them then reassembling the entire enterior (except the headliner which was put up right after it was done) took about 6 hours.

I still have to do the doors. Now that I have the parts that I have done, I notice that the air system is noisy and the engine is a lot noisier too. It was all drowned out by the road noise before. I can also tell the doors are the main source of roadnoise now. Before it sounded like it was all coming from the back. So, I may go back to the body shop next week and work on the doors.

I am feeling better about it now. When the entire Rav4 was apart and I had been hunched over working on it I was tired, and I just did not want to work on it any more. Getting it together became the priority. I probably could have done more with the Luxury Liner Pro, but I was worn out.

I did take before measurements, and my initial after measurements run about 6DB (A weighted scale) lower. Some like the road rumble strip dropped from 95 down to 83Db.

30 MPH Smooth residential 54 down to 50DB (note 50 is the lowest my meter goes)
40 MPH Residential 56 down to 50-52 now
65 MPH Smooth Hwy 66-68 before now 60-64
75 MPH Noisy rough concrete HWY 76-80 before now 70-75
Rumble strip 70MPH 95 before 83 after.

These are initial observations, I have to do better on the after ones, I did the before ones when there was no wind, yesterday I think it was gusty up to 30MPH. Not sure how much different it will be when still. The engine noise is a large factor now. When you go from 60-65 up to 70-75 the engine is noticably louder, no I really do not think it is louder, just you can hear it now over the road roar. Doing the doors will probably help more with road noise, there is still a surprising amount of it (well not really but when you close attention and trying to take readings, you notice it all). The noise has definitely shifted from the rear to the sides (doors).

Even now, I am satisfied, I can listen to the radio without having to have it blaringly loud to hear it over the road at HWY speeds. Nothing tires me more than driving for hours and getting out of the car and having the road still roaring in the ears.

 

[John_Dumke]

Mike, Great write up. Good job on the db measurements.

Your experience pretty much mirror's mine.

1) It's a lot of work about 45 total hours was my guess, including doors.
2) All of the panels come apart and go back together much easier than I had thought.
3) Now I can hear the motor, that was my first reaction as soon as I started it. But most importantly, now I can hear the stereo.

You probably have better results though, as you used the denser and higher quality material. How are those hands? Nice and worn out I bet.

 

[mike123abc]

After reading up on your posts, I went and got some thin synthetic leather palmed, thin nylon mesh back gloves (mechanix brand). They were great, the hands came out without a nick on the razor sharp aluminum. I used a hand roller too. My back is what got the most sore, took a couple nights sleep to fix it back up. I am not used to crawling around on my hands and knees, and being hunched over for hours on end.

Another note, wear old clothes, the sticky rubbery stuff will coat your pants when you sit on it as you work other sections. In fact on the floor I did not use adhesive on the Luxury liner. I cut it to shape and layed it on top of the damplifer and the carpet holds it in place. The damplifer stuff ooses out enough to stick to the LLP and hold it in place.

 

[flaraka]

hats off to you guys. I am not afraid to spend that money and time to do the work, but I am afraid to skrew it up with my little experience. Anyway, dos anyone have experience driving other SUVs, like Honda CR-V, Nisssan Murano, or Infinite FX-35? I just wonder if other SUVs have better soundproof than RAV4.

 

[John_Dumke]

My 1998 Yukon was a LOT quieter. The RAV is a noisy car.

 

[mike123abc]

Well I did the 4 front doors today. I did not do the back door, I do not know if I will get around to it. The 4 doors were super easy, took about 3 hours to do all 4. I put 2 layers of damplifier pro and one Luxury Liner Pro on the outer skin. Each door took about 5 sheets of the damplifer pro. 1.5 sheets of luxury liner took care of all 4 doors. I will work on getting the final DB measurements soon.

 

[mike123abc]

Well I just took it out with the DB meter. It appears that the average is down about 7-8db. Doing the doors really only seemed to be about 1db, but it moved the noise away from them.

The main factors of noise inside the Rav4 now seem to be the engine, the AC system (noisy fan), and some tire noise still. There is a small amount of wind noise at 75MPH from the front windshield, but I think it could be my bug screen (oem one).

Well I am glad I have it done. There is always more that could be done, like maybe somehow get the engine quiter. Or, perhaps I could do the back door, but it seems to only be a small amount of noise coming from there, and I am not sure if it is the back door or the 2 vents that are open to the outside.

The Rav4 is very pleasant to drive now on the highway as far as the sound goes now. I can listen to the radio softly and I do not get the road roar any more.

 

[edhubble]

Hi everyone - I just bought a Rav4 today and I love it. It's quite noisy though and it doesn't have any soundproofing under the hood/bonnet. Is this normal, or has it been removed? Can I buy an OE mat, or should I buy soundproofing material and fit it myself?
Also - where else should soundproofing be applied - I hear (sorry) that the rear end is the trouble area...
Thanks

 

[TopGear]

I have owned the 2007 CRV and the it is ALOT quiter. Long trips are very comfortable. However the 4cyl is extremly boring to drive. I also own an old Lexus and I love how quiet it is and how I can carry a conversation without yelling.