[Sunken]

Hi everyone, this post will be all about my adventure into sound deadening my rattle box and trying and hoping on making my Rav quiet enough to me and getting rid of all those rattles. First, let start by saying this is the first time I ever venture into installing sound deadening into a car, which means this will be a learn as you go experience. I'll be more than happy to answer any question as the project go if I can answer them.


This project will consist of improving the sound insulation into the Rav4 in a why that will hopefully reduce road noise and random door rattle. To do this, I am anticipating on doing the following areas:

• The 4 door panels (As per the picture, you need to do the inside door, the door panel and the plastic panel.
• The Front pillars
• The center console (Where the shifter and armrest is)
• The Trunk
• The entire back of the Suv (Spare area, fenders but I am not touching the roof)
• The hood

For this project, I'll be turning my-self to a product called Butyl made by Noico. This product is about 1/3 what Dynamat cost and is really similar. This can be bought on Amazon. Installation is as simple as laying it down and rolling it with a roller.


Few things I've learned from the door I did on Sunday. This product is easy to apply and you don't need to heat it. Just lay it off in the sun and it's maniable. The process is not hard per say but is time consuming. A single door took me 3 hours and about 5 sheets of material.


I also learned that our doors are made of 2 layers of thin metal. I'd call it an inner skin (inside the door) and outer skin (where you can see the speaker). I am not 100% if one could disassemble the outer skin to gain easier access to the inner skin, but I was personally not confortable tinkering with this. I simply decided to remove the white plastic of the outer skin to gain access to the inside and do my best to reach and apply the material. Also, I to know if a difference is made, I took a few sound reading. Going 115km/h on the highway, I hit a an average of 86db. Baseline was 48db with engine off.

Now enough bla bla and here are a few picture of the first door.

 

[mikeycancino24]

I wonder how much lining the hood will help. Also 86db seems really loud, my old 2007 car with crap tires is like 79db on the highway.

 

[Exit]

I’m betting that you’re going to see big results just from the front two doors and the hood, but good on you for undertaking a full project like this.

 

[Quickdtoo]

I wonder how much lining the hood will help.

See Hood Insulation in the 4.5 General forum, 2mm butyl dampener made a good difference alone, but the HV hood insulator and additional acoustic foam made a bigger difference in reduced engine noise perceived in the cabin.

 

[Sunken]

I wonder how much lining the hood will help. Also 86db seems really loud, my old 2007 car with crap tires is like 79db on the highway.

I was also surprised of the reading. My reader could be off for sure, but I'll use the same reader, road and condition when I am done to get as little variation off.

 

[mikeycancino24]

I was also surprised of the reading. My reader could be off for sure, but I'll use the same reader, road and condition when I am done to get as little variation off.

My "reader" is just an app on my phone but who knows. Seems high in comparison to what automotive publications record on new cars. For reference the new Chevy Silverado recorded a 65 db at 70mph(car and driver). Still will be interesting to see the results.

 

[cluses]

And how it is going?
I've come to ask you a favor, could you post also the pics of dissasembly stages?

 

[Sunken]

And how it is going?
I've come to ask you a favor, could you post also the pics of dissasembly stages?

I'd invite you to view my other post. It contains all the information and pics to opening the door panel. https://www.rav4world.com/forums/197-4-5-general/297737-guide-removing-door-panel-quest-fixing-my-rattling-mirror.html

The project for now is on hold waiting for better weather. It's been cold lately and i am trying to figure a rattle by my shifter console.

 

[Sunken]

My "reader" is just an app on my phone but who knows. Seems high in comparison to what automotive publications record on new cars. For reference the new Chevy Silverado recorded a 65 db at 70mph(car and driver). Still will be interesting to see the results.

Tried an app on my iphone 8, it is registering 75db. Baseline was 46 with engine off and 59 when engine on parked after warmed up.

 

[firemanj92]

Hi everyone, this post will be all about my adventure into sound deadening my rattle box and trying and hoping on making my Rav quiet enough to me and getting rid of all those rattles. First, let start by saying this is the first time I ever venture into installing sound deadening into a car, which means this will be a learn as you go experience. I'll be more than happy to answer any question as the project go if I can answer them.


This project will consist of improving the sound insulation into the Rav4 in a why that will hopefully reduce road noise and random door rattle. To do this, I am anticipating on doing the following areas:


- The 4 door panels (As per the picture, you need to do the inside door, the door panel and the plastic panel.
- The Front pillars
- The center console (Where the shifter and armrest is)
- The Trunk
- The entire back of the Suv (Spare area, fenders but I am not touching the roof)
- The hood


For this project, I'll be turning my-self to a product called Butyl made by Noico. This product is about 1/3 what Dynamat cost and is really similar. This can be bought on Amazon. Installation is as simple as laying it down and rolling it with a roller.


Few things I've learned from the door I did on Sunday. This product is easy to apply and you don't need to heat it. Just lay it off in the sun and it's maniable. The process is not hard per say but is time consuming. A single door took me 3 hours and about 5 sheets of material.


I also learned that our doors are made of 2 layers of thin metal. I'd call it an inner skin (inside the door) and outer skin (where you can see the speaker). I am not 100% if one could disassemble the outer skin to gain easier access to the inner skin, but I was personally not confortable tinkering with this. I simply decided to remove the white plastic of the outer skin to gain access to the inside and do my best to reach and apply the material. Also, I to know if a difference is made, I took a few sound reading. Going 115km/h on the highway, I hit a an average of 86db. Baseline was 48db with engine off.

Now enough bla bla and here are a few picture of the first door.

Thanks for the intel on removing the door panels. I did our Rav4 in about an hour total as I've done several toyo's we've owned.
BTW, all doors have an inner and outer skin. The outer is bonded to the inner support. They used to be welded but the bond/adhesive is much stronger. They lay person cannot disassemble the the outer from inner without having to visit the autobody shop.

Keep up the good work!!

 

[Sunken]

Quick update, I’ve finally finished the project and took a lot of pictures. So far it seems to have reduce the sound by 8db all around. Seems low i know but it makes one hell of a difference. I’ll be updating soon with more bla bla and pictures.

 

[mikeycancino24]

Quick update, I’ve finally finished the project and took a lot of pictures. So far it seems to have reduce the sound by 8db all around. Seems low i know but it makes one hell of a difference. I’ll be updating soon with more bla bla and pictures.

8db is a big difference, that's good to hear. How much of the engine noise is gone?

 

[Sunken]

I have to admit the engine sounds the same. It’s the wind/road noise that i noticed that went down.

Also, my stereo sound has improved massively... i am not even kidding that it sounds like a premium system now...

Another big difference is when shuting my door it’s not the same sound at all. I took a video of me hitting the door before and after and it’s quite noticable. Ill post it soon when i get time to sit at my computer.

I just want to make it clear that i still hear road noise but less than before. This project was not a miracle but it is definately an improvement.. especially in the trunk.

I’ll be doing the hood when i can find an oem insulator at a resonable price. No way i am parting out with 500$ for that lol

 

[firemanj92]

I have to admit the engine sounds the same. It’s the wind/road noise that i noticed that went down.

Also, my stereo sound has improved massively... i am not even kidding that it sounds like a premium system now...

Another big difference is when shuting my door it’s not the same sound at all. I took a video of me hitting the door before and after and it’s quite noticable. Ill post it soon when i get time to sit at my computer.

I just want to make it clear that i still hear road noise but less than before. This project was not a miracle but it is definately an improvement.. especially in the trunk.

I’ll be doing the hood when i can find an oem insulator at a resonable price. No way i am parting out with 500$ for that lol

I've used FatMat hood-liner for hood insulation, it helps quite a bit with noise reduction and it's a lot less $$. It can be found on amazon

https://www.amazon.com/FatMat-Hood-Liner-Self-Adhesive-Automotive-Deadening/dp/B00H6X4V7C/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1_sspa?crid=2FOSSHK9TH3UX&keywords=fatmat+hood-liner&qid=1556727306&s=gateway&sprefix=fatmat+hood+%2Caps%2C226&sr=8-1-fkmrnull-spons&psc=1

 

[phillyalex]

I have to admit the engine sounds the same. It’s the wind/road noise that i noticed that went down.

Also, my stereo sound has improved massively... i am not even kidding that it sounds like a premium system now...

Another big difference is when shuting my door it’s not the same sound at all. I took a video of me hitting the door before and after and it’s quite noticable. Ill post it soon when i get time to sit at my computer.

I just want to make it clear that i still hear road noise but less than before. This project was not a miracle but it is definately an improvement.. especially in the trunk.

I’ll be doing the hood when i can find an oem insulator at a resonable price. No way i am parting out with 500$ for that lol

How is your transmission acting? I want to do stuff to car but the action of transmission is giving me hesitation of trading it in?

 

[Darayn]

I have to admit the engine sounds the same. It’s the wind/road noise that i noticed that went down.

Also, my stereo sound has improved massively... i am not even kidding that it sounds like a premium system now...

Another big difference is when shuting my door it’s not the same sound at all. I took a video of me hitting the door before and after and it’s quite noticable. Ill post it soon when i get time to sit at my computer.

I just want to make it clear that i still hear road noise but less than before. This project was not a miracle but it is definately an improvement.. especially in the trunk.

I’ll be doing the hood when i can find an oem insulator at a resonable price. No way i am parting out with 500$ for that lol

When you say the wind noise was helped, I hear a lot of wind noise above me as the driver. Were you experiencing the same type of wind noise, and did the door dampening help that? The noise doesn't bother my wife, but bugs the hell out of me. Would be super interested to see if this would help it. Great job on your Rav4!

 

[Sunken]

My transmission is still a mess. Went to the dealer today and they hard reseted it with their module. I still have the hard launch and hesitation but the clunking is gone.

As for the wind noise, yes, it has gone down. I’d like to tell you it went down at tje driver head level but i never found the noise to be this bad. The biggest difference i am seeing is the trunk. I used to hear a lot of loud road noise coming from there but now it’s normal. Also used to feel like a wind tunnel in the back and it is now to a normal level. There is sooo much empty room between the rear panel and the frame, one could easely add sound insulation such as used in home theater to improve further.

Another huge improvement is how the doors and trunk feel solid when you close them.

For the fatmat on amazon, i have not made research on it but is it fine for the potential heat?

 

[Sunken]

I might finally enjoy my new Rav now. Believe it or not but it’s the first time that i don’t have any rattles or vibration since i got the SUV...

If Toyota can fix the transmission i’ll be happy. At least until they do, i do complete stops lol

 

[CFike]

I might finally enjoy my new Rav now. Believe it or not but it’s the first time that i don’t have any rattles or vibration since i got the SUV...

If Toyota can fix the transmission i’ll be happy. At least until they do, i do complete stops lol

Have you had them check the trans fluid level by chance? I need to have the local dealer check mine.

 

[Sunken]

I had some space reserved but for some reason I am unable to edit them, so here is the content. Sorry for the pictures, for some reason, they won't rotate even though I edited them. I'll try on my PC later.


I Finally got some time to upload and post an update. So af ew days ago I was able to finish my project. I still had the driver side door,both rear door and truck to do.
Since I already had taken care of the passenger side door,let me tell you that the driver side was much easier.


For the rear doors, the process was relatively the same in away that to remove the door panel, you have to follow the same procedure as thefront door. The only difference is once exposed, you can see that the rear doorhave a plastic film that has to be removed and cleaned prior to applying thenew insulation. Once again, once everything is prepped, the process is fairlysimple.
All doors were finally done and I was making my way to thetrunk. To do so, I wanted to do the trunk it-self as well as the rear panelswhere the wheels are located. To dismantle the trunk it is fairly straightforward. You have Philips screws hidden under the trunk door handles. Once youpry the handles off, you see 2 screws per handle. Remove those and simply pryoff the panel afterward starting from the top. Honestly I feel bad since I didn’ttake any picture doing it because it took less than 30 seconds to do so…


Exposing the trunk skin, I was shocked that Toyota actuallydid put some sort of insulation lol. Yes, a simply scare right in the middle.Probably to stop the license plate from vibrating lol. Well at least, I can’t saythat they didn’t put any insulation at all! Joke a side, I didn’t cover theentire trunk, I simply knocked and added insulations anywhere vibrations wouldexist. Doing so really helped in how solid the trunk felt when closing and opening.Just a word of caution here, might be a one time deal but I left the trunk openedfor about 45 minutes and it was hard to close afterward. Felt like the latchwere stocked opened for some reason and they required a good amount of force toclose but went back to normal afterward.
Once the trunk done, I made my way to the rear panel. Onceagain these are super easy to remove. Simply remove the 2 metal hooks. One is a10mm and the other a 15mm if I recall. There is also a Philip screw to removeand the rest is simply pried off. I was shocked at the amount of space there isbetween that panel and the actual frame. I am not kidding when I say there mustbe 12-15 inches of free space there… A good point to know is that the fuel pumprelay are located on the driver side as seen in the pictures. I decided to addinsulation all around the wheel housing, on the floor as well as any longstretch of metal that would resonate once knocked on. A quick note on the rightside, there is a small light on the actual plastic panel that I didn’t noticeand broke while prying off. Be careful and remove it before prying as it is a40$ light lol. Sorry, but I forgot to take a picture after I was done with the right side... My bad..


Here is a quick video I uploaded to show the difference itmade. The rear door has no insulation and the front door has insulation. Thedifference in sound pitch is noticeable on the video but even more in person. ( Another problem, I cannot link the video. Simply search for 2019 Rav4 before and after sound insulator)


Sound results: Before the project, I used my Iphone 8 torecord a baseline. The numbers were: 46 db engine off, 59 db engine on (cold) and 75 db going 120km/h onthe highway. After the project the numbers are: 46 db engine off, 56 db engineon (cold) and 67 db going 120 km/h on the highway.
General feeling after the project: Wind and road noise are noticeablyreduced. I mean up until 105km/h I barely hear the wind noise. My doors andtrunk feel solid when opening or closing, in a way that they don’t vibrate forever. My mirrors vibrations have been reduced enormously that I would now considerthem normal. I still however hear the engine the same. I believe the realimprovement here would be a hood insulation with a layer of dynamat under. I’dalso like to point out that all I am hearing now on the highway is my tires andengine when accelerating which never really bothered me.


Other benefits: The sound coming from my sound system hasgreatly improved, the bass feels clear and I don’t need to raise the volume ashigh as before. Before this project, I was also looking into changing myspeakers and now I won’t even bother as I am fully satisfied. Also, I have nothear a single rattle in close to a week
All in all, this project took about 16 hours to fully do,keep in mind that I took my time and that I never did this type of projectbefore so I had no idea what I was getting into. Would I do it again? Ofcourse, the results speak for themselves IMO. I used a total of 54 sq/f ofNoico for a total cost of about 200$ including the rollers, material, tape,knife, door trim tools. I can also confirm that this product has no smell. It’sbeen in the Rav for a full week and we say some mid 20’s Celsius temp.


I am sure this could be improved even further if someonewould be willing to do the roof and floor has well, but I am perfectly finewith my results. Also, one could add more insulation in the rear trunkpanels. The last thing for me will bethe hood when I get my hand on an oem insulator at a good price.