Additional road noise suppression
Now, don't get me wrong, the Phaeton is a very quiet car on the motorway/freeway at 70mph, but everyone has their own little obsessions and one of mine is road noise. That's one of the reasons I'm back in a Phaeton, but I'd like to spend a little time seeing if I can do more.
I'm thinking here of tyre and suspension noise/vibration: I love the sound of the engine and it's quiet enough at any speed, there's no exhaust noise to speak of, and there's a tiny bit of wind noise around the front mirrors/ A-pillars at "higher" speeds but I don't see how I can do anything about that.
So.... last time I went out in the car, I took a load of pillows and duvets with me and experimented with stuffing them in various places in the car, to see where the remaining road noise was coming from. My completely unscientific tests suggest there's some coming through around:
1) the trim panel between the rear passenger seat back and the rear passenger doors;
2) the front footwells, where they are up against the front wheel arches;
3) the lower portions of the doors / door seals.
I think I've managed to improve 1) by carefully feeding some noise-absorbing foam into the gap between the seat and the trim and curling it round and round so it sits snug against the trim panel and the metal behind it. You can do this without removing the trim panel, though removing it makes it easier initially to see what you're up against. I think this is a worthwhile "mod": it's made a pretty small difference, but it's only 20 minutes work. I used a specialist foam that I've used before on other cars: "Second Skin" Overkill Pro.
On investigating 2), I found there wasn't much that could be done easily and discreetly. The carpet in the footwells has very carefully moulded noise-absorbing foam stuck directly onto the back of it in most places, and I doubt much noise is getting through that: it looks like a lot of thought has gone into its composition and placement. I took off the trim panel that runs along the door sill and managed to wedge a couple of layers of foam in behind that, particularly the large squarish area at the front end of that panel, which doesn't seem to have much insulation under it as standard. You have to be clever here not to disturb the wiring and connectors that run behind the panel.
Dealing with 2) took another 30 minutes and I'm not sure it was worth it.
I've also put some special liner in the trunk/boot floor: it's a sandwich of two rubber layers with a foam middle layer. That may also have reduced the small amount of road noise coming from the back. Not sure, but I was going to do it anyway to protect the boot carpet.
Anyone else experimented with noise insulation ?
Now, don't get me wrong, the Phaeton is a very quiet car on the motorway/freeway at 70mph, but everyone has their own little obsessions and one of mine is road noise. That's one of the reasons I'm back in a Phaeton, but I'd like to spend a little time seeing if I can do more.
I'm thinking here of tyre and suspension noise/vibration: I love the sound of the engine and it's quiet enough at any speed, there's no exhaust noise to speak of, and there's a tiny bit of wind noise around the front mirrors/ A-pillars at "higher" speeds but I don't see how I can do anything about that.
So.... last time I went out in the car, I took a load of pillows and duvets with me and experimented with stuffing them in various places in the car, to see where the remaining road noise was coming from. My completely unscientific tests suggest there's some coming through around:
1) the trim panel between the rear passenger seat back and the rear passenger doors;
2) the front footwells, where they are up against the front wheel arches;
3) the lower portions of the doors / door seals.
I think I've managed to improve 1) by carefully feeding some noise-absorbing foam into the gap between the seat and the trim and curling it round and round so it sits snug against the trim panel and the metal behind it. You can do this without removing the trim panel, though removing it makes it easier initially to see what you're up against. I think this is a worthwhile "mod": it's made a pretty small difference, but it's only 20 minutes work. I used a specialist foam that I've used before on other cars: "Second Skin" Overkill Pro.
On investigating 2), I found there wasn't much that could be done easily and discreetly. The carpet in the footwells has very carefully moulded noise-absorbing foam stuck directly onto the back of it in most places, and I doubt much noise is getting through that: it looks like a lot of thought has gone into its composition and placement. I took off the trim panel that runs along the door sill and managed to wedge a couple of layers of foam in behind that, particularly the large squarish area at the front end of that panel, which doesn't seem to have much insulation under it as standard. You have to be clever here not to disturb the wiring and connectors that run behind the panel.
Dealing with 2) took another 30 minutes and I'm not sure it was worth it.
I've also put some special liner in the trunk/boot floor: it's a sandwich of two rubber layers with a foam middle layer. That may also have reduced the small amount of road noise coming from the back. Not sure, but I was going to do it anyway to protect the boot carpet.
Anyone else experimented with noise insulation ?
