B-Quiet Sound-deadning material installation

Cool I will stop then. I think the stereo sounds better and their is some noise reduction. Would I do it again? I would say yes and consider I rented a Prius and ran it about 300 miles and liked it so much I traded an '03 Lexus LS430 for one. I bought the my car while I was still in my rental.

That said, in no way should you compare this the Prius to an LS430. The Prius is much more noisy than my LS but it is still a decen't ride. I did trade my tires in at my local Discount Tire for Good Year Triple Treads so I am not sure how much of a difference that made in sound. I can tell you the difference in traction is better however.

I have pics but they are way too big (5 MP) so I will have to wait until I can resize them.

 

Anyone interested in buying the remainder of my B-Quiet roll? I think I used less than half of the roll. I am pretty confident there is more than half since I only used on layer and only covered the outermost part of the door. I will sell it for $40 bucks plus actually shipping charges from NC. If you are interested send me a PM.

Oh the pictures will get posted as soon as I can get some time to resize them.

 

Ok finally here are the pics of my install. Feel free to ask any questions. I took some pics through out the install but in the end I have one layer of about 99% of the outermost (nearest the road).

Again if anyone is interested in the remainder of my roll (at least half and probably more like 60 - 70 %), PM me.

 

Jeez only 3 pics at a time...

 

Jeez only 3 pics at a time...

 

Jeez only 3 pics at a time...

 

Jeez only 3 pics at a time...

 

Jeez only 3 pics at a time...

 

Jeez only 3 pics at a time...

 

Last one

 

I think that thin black metal bracket is part of the side impact protection... it protects the foam block on the interior trim panel from being split in an intrusive accident.

 

Just got my B-Quiet installed in my doors and notice the following.

1 Car still seems noisy. But I now hear different noises. Less tire noise. Less engine noise. More wind noise. More transmission like bearing or gear noise.

2 Sounds now come from the windows for the wind noise mostly. The rest comes mostly form the floor. Doors sound quiet.

3 I find I can live comfortably now without the fancy automatic volume control we never got. I can listen at 55 or parked at a comfortable level like 25-30 on the volume. Before I had to crank it up when I was moving and volume was more toward 40. ( Not entirely meaningful if my new speakers don't match volume of old ones, as I now use Kappas)

4 My Radio Shack sound level meter shows A weighted noise several db lower than before. I now measure about 68 db going 55 mph on smooth asphalt with no other cars around.

5 And when other cars go by I hear their noise much more than before.

My B-quiet is so far just in the doors but I have plenty left over so may try some on the floor later. For the doors I used the damper with one layer on every place I could reach inside the door on the outer metal. Then a layer of the vinyl with foam sound absorber glued to that, foam out as instructed. This took lots of adhesive!

Then I put another layer on the inside of the plastic door panel using the foam absorber. Got less than 100% coverage there due to having to say away from the edges so door would stay snapped on, and due to cut outs for the mounting points and the window control cables. Some of the foam block high spots had to be left uncovered too.

Overall I'd say it was well worth doing, and I expect to save on gas this winter with less heat loss. I can save more heat for the engine. With this and my new block heater I hope to keep my commuting mpg over 45 this winter.

 

Has anyone tried putting b-quiet over the wheel wells on the floor? Has that helped? It would seem that the most noise comes from those crappy Goodyear Integrity tires.

 

Firstly:

Love my Prius (450 miles, averaging approx. 44mpg combined in So. Oregon). That being said:

Having spent literally thousands (having Dynamat, etc. applied to roof, floor, firewall, doors, etc. of the last 3 cars/trucks I've owned - did I say, I LOVE MUSIC - GOOD SOUNDING MUSIC!!!) in a futile attempt to remove unwanted "Road Noise" I have learned that a lot of this road noise comes into the occupant cavity two ways:

1. Telescoped thru the tires (only changing the tires to a softer, more absorbant sidewall, and more sound absorbing casing/compound) has helped to reduce the noise transmitted thru the tires.

2. The additional noise which intrudes into the occupant cavity, which is transmitted thru to occupant cavity due to the mfgrs. inability/unwillingness/lack of experience in decoupling the NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) is telescoped into and thru the suspension and frame members (as well as untreated doors, floor, headliner, firewall, rear hatch etc.) into the attached occupant cavity. This noise is nearly impossible to effectively treat.

Using B-Quiet, Dynamat and their ilk of VMB (vinly mass barriers) can only do so much in combating the mfgrs. inability to remember that humans, with ears, bodies and sensabilities and sensativities to different frequency ranges, acutally drive, sometimes for long distances over long durations in their little poorly attenuated (in this case) little tin buckets. Our Acura MDX is just a Tin Bucket, My '02 highlander was a step up in the tin bucket world (after the $1500 dynamat job!). So I leave you with the following.

Humans: Sometimes, just too smart for our own good and not smart enough to know what to do about it.

Or

As that Fab comedy group I Fratelli Bologna (The Bologna Brothers - for those in the know), said: SO FAR - SO WHAT!

or as them lovely Firesign Theatre boys once said: FORWARD, INTO THE PAST!

Love the '05 Prius. Now if they'd only pretend that the quality of the interior appointments
were actually important to spend another buck fifty on, I'd be an even happier three legged clam!

Ken

 

So I just finished using my entire 50 sqft roll exactly the way I wanted it in the 4 doors. I don't believe I over used (mostly 2 layers with 3 behind the woofers), maybe could have used 1-2 sqft more.

The front doors took about 2 hours each and the back about 1 hour.

What I learned:

- The door panels are really not that hard to remove, so don't be afraid to try this mod yourself.

- Grab the door panels from the bottom with a quick small jerk.

- Make sure the you press this stuff on well since it works primarily as deadening to vibrations, if it's not on securely, the metal underneath still vibrates.

- A cutting knife does work much better than scissors.

- I used primarily strips of about 4-5 inches wide.

- When you place a strip, fold over about 2-3 inches of paper from the corner that's going to the most difficult place to reach. This gives you less stickiness to worry about as you're trying to position it in place. Once in place, press that corner down then remove the remaining paper to expose the rest of the glue.

- Becareful when sticking your hands and arms through the door holes to get into door frame. Some of the edges are sharp, I cut myself at least 6 times. Either wear a long sleeve shirt or line the holes with your used paper backing when working with those areas.

- Don't worry about running out of B-Quiet. Granted it wasn't until I was almost done with my 3rd door that I started worrying about running out, but then I finshed the 4th door to my satisfaction with nothing left to spare.

- The most difficult thing I found with this project was putting the black door handle plastic pieces back on. I haven't been able to get any back on yet

The result, things are much quieter now, less outside noise, improved road noise. There's a nice feeling to the doors as you open and close them. Speakers sound much better with better bass and tighter bass.

 

For those pieces, look at the back of them and notice the position of the 3 prongs. Then align them to the three receptors of the door. They only match in one position. Then press them straight into those three receptors.

 

Speaking of the manufacturer's willingness to spend money on quiet... a buddy of mine used to work as an acoustical consultant more than a decade ago. They did a project of coming up with a noise reduction plan for a Cadillac, which turned out to reduce the noise level by 7 decibels and cost about $5 per car in quantity. Cadillac rejected it as too expensive.

Things have changed a lot since then... I am constantly finding sound insulation as I explore removing panels of the Prius. They have clearly put a lot of engineering time into getting the most weight and cost effective sound deadening. If only everyone was as fussy about sound as the posters on this list, I'm sure they could get it dead quiet for an extra $100 or so and a few more pounds. The sad thing is that the $100 probably wouldn't be justifiable in the marketplace. It would be cool if it were included in the high end packages.

 

Please post or re-post your pictures as they have been lost during the board change. I am a little confused from the descriptions as to where and how much on each surface you guys are placing the B-Quiet. Is there any worry about contact with the windows?

 

Agreed -- please repost pics.

thanks!

 

Just got my B-Quiet Extreme off eBay. Only 85 USD plus 25 USD for shipping for 100ft of the stuff. I'd like to see the pictures that were lost, but I have a good idea of how it's going to go in as I did this before in my previous vehicle.