Additional Sound proofing

[RzrAzr]

18 hours ago, Sam Ekkert said:

I absolutely know what you're talking about 🙂 The best door closing sound I had in a car was in an Opel (Vauxhall) Grandland X: super solid, respectful and reassuring thunk. Loved it. However, Corolla's doors aren't too bad either! It's surprising because the doors do sound hollow if you knock on them. 

Have you done any insulation in your Corolla?

Not yet. Need to start planning it. Doors on my FJ are sound insulated, it actually hurts when you knock on them and I do miss that super solid door feel with the corolla 

[Persimmon]

I've been in contact with a local soundproofing shop, will probably order a pretty comprehensive insulation soon: wheel arches, 4 doors, bonnet, boot and tailgate. Not sure whether floor is worth it as it seems there is some factory insulation there. 

I've measured noise level on a highway doing 100 km/h with studless winter tyres (Continental Viking Contact 7), and it is around 75dB. Hope to reduce it to at least 70 (that was the noise on my previous Honda CR-V and I remember it being pretty pleasant on long journeys, apart from the butt-numbing seats.

 

[Stopeter44]

1 hour ago, Sam Ekkert said:

I've been in contact with a local soundproofing shop, will probably order a pretty comprehensive insulation soon: wheel arches, 4 doors, bonnet, boot and tailgate.

What's the budget you are looking at ?

[Persimmon]

Around 900€ 😰

[Persimmon]

It's getting warmer (around 1C today), so I checked the tyre pressure. Both front and back tires were at 2.6 kPa (done by the dealer upon delivery). Toyota's recommendation is 2.3 front and 2.1 back. I deflated them to said values, and the car became noticeably softer over bumps and just a tiny bit quieter. 

[TonyHSD]

My personal opinion about noise in this model, just buy the best tyres possible and keep checking tyre pressure regularly and you will get use to it. If you have time and money and like to do changes on your car then sound proof maybe the next step but I personally wouldn’t be doing it, just can’t afford to keep the car off the road for a few days just for the sound, no, no. My Toyota needs to keep rolling 🚗🏁👍

[clix]

I am slowly getting into this project. During the weekend, I had some time (and two butyl sound deadening samples), so I took the plunge and remove left side of the boot trim in my TS. This is how it looks like:

Wheel arch is covered by cca 5mm foam/felt type sound absorbing material. There is also a sound absorbing "sponge" located behind a rear wheel arch. And sound absorbing felt is covering the ventilation holes.

I put some sound deadening material on the rear quarter panel and also on the rear wheel arches. Quarter panel does definitely now sound more dead, but for the wheel arch the difference was not that big. If you taped it before, it did have some resonance, but it is fairly high frequency. After I added sound deadening material, the difference was not that big. It looks like the factory spray on material does a fairly good job at managing lower frequency resonances.

I also put butyl mats in the spare wheel opening:

before:

after:

With a knock test, this part now feels noticeably more damped, but if it will actually translate to quieter ride, we will see. I hope that it will at least reduce a bit the loud "ping" noise, when you ride over a dilatation on the motorway. It is quite intrusive.

Few days before, was the first time, that I actually spent some time in the back seat, on the motorway and in the tunnels. In my opinion, back seats are even louder than front seats. What was actually surprising, was how much noise was coming from the rear cabin vent. Especially in the tunnels. 

When I removed this part of the trim, it had a sticker on it:

It would imply, that the same part with the felt exists and probably for a reason. But due to reducing cost and weight, some cars don't have it (maybe all?). Next step is to get some sound deadening foam, felt or maybe eve sound absorbing thinsulate and better insulate this part of the car. I will probably stuff something behind the quarter panel, stick some felt on the trim and also try to put some material in the vicinity of the vent, to absorb as much sound as possible. The good thing is, that sound absorption material is usually not as heavy as a sound deadening or sound blocking material.  🙂 

I would like to point out again, that I am not going for the "put all the materials everywhere" method, mainly because I would like to avoid adding to much mass to a car, that originally has a low payload capability and a weak engine (1.8).  Sound deadening only on "strategic" places, and sound absorbers in the quarter panels and doors. I already received more sound deadening material, that will be used in the future.

Overall, considering the amount of sound insulating material car comes with as standard, and what some other cars have, my guess is, that the car will become a bit quieter, but sadly the low frequency rumble will probably remain.. Low frequencies are verry hard to block/absorb/eliminate. You can check, some Tesla Model 3 and Y forum posts. It already has much more sound insulation material by default, but a lot of users are complaining on low frequency noise, on anything but the smoothest roads. And sound deadening never helped them a lot with this.

[Hardy888]

Thanks for putting this post up! Really helpful insight. I'd love to see how you get on with the rest.

[TonyHSD]

Thanks for sharing your great work👍✅ I think main reasons for sound going into the cabin are door insulation (seals) and car suspension. The body itself has as much sound proof as German cars. Also hybrids maintain lower rpm on motorways and that may affect noise levels but at speeds over 50mph there is no matter if the car has engine been hybrid or electric as the common noise source at that speed and above are wind and tyre noise (road noise). The 18” wheels are also a big contributor to the noise because of the low profile uhp tyres. If someone has an excel Corolla and change the tyres to 16” premium brands will have the quietest of all Toyota Corollas 👍

[Spo2]

For reducing noise via seals, try using Honda's Shin-Etsu Silicone grease. There are other similar stuff but this is apparently very highly rated, and my experience has been very good.

[AndrueC]

On 2/4/2022 at 9:24 PM, TonyHSD said:

It seems like the boot is a major noise entrance to the car cabin, I wonder why my old auris is a quieter one as there is a hybrid battery in the boot, a spare tyre and a couple of boot covers with sound insulation on them, the negative is that there is almost no boot space , but it’s just fine for 2-3 shopping bags 

Glad mine is filled with golf gear then. Maybe that's why I don't find noise to be a problem 🙂

[TonyHSD]

21 minutes ago, AndrueC said:

Glad mine is filled with golf gear then. Maybe that's why I don't find noise to be a problem 🙂

Definitely helps 👍 here what I called a proper sound boot insulation 😂

[AndrueC]

People said I had too much in my boot and there was no room for anything important. I proved them wrong though - I found space for a second pair of golf shoes 🙂

[twintopp]

being hard of hearing i find the corolla a nice quite ride,

[Niky]

Hi all

A quick and easy insulation of the trunk on a TS, without removing much - no tools needed

Removed the main felt/fabric bit from the trunk's floor, also took off the spare wheel. Put 3 sheets of sound deadening on the area above the spare wheel and put 2 wool pieces (from those cool food boxes we get some food deliveries from Riverford for example) under the spare wheel. Put everything back and the car is much quieter now. If I have more time soon I would add something on the wheel arches to improve further. I am sure, only the wool under the spare wheel would be enough to see an improvement. Another tip is to turn the floor another way around with the fabric facing down - the fabric reflects some of the noise too, whether the plastic doesn't. That's like 2 minutes job and I am sure you will see an improvement 

[fourbanks]

On 2/4/2022 at 9:09 PM, Cyker said:

I assume it's a weight+cost saving thing, as older Toyotas were much better; I remember the previous gen Corollas and the Avensis had much better noise damping than any of the current gen vehicles. It was one of the noticeable downgrades when they replaced the Corolla with the Auris way back when.

Toyota do seem like they're deliberately trying to be less luxurious and more bare-bones practicality, which I suspect is to avoid overlap with Lexus.

Quote

Toyota do seem like they're deliberately trying to be less luxurious and more bare-bones practicality, which I suspect is to avoid overlap with Lexus.

Correct the base price for the Lexus is cheaper FROM £30,965.00 then the 2 litre corrola GR SPORT 

Starting from

£32,115.00

[Spo2]

25 minutes ago, fourbanks said:

Correct the base price for the Lexus is cheaper FROM £30,965.00 then the 2 litre corrola GR SPORT 

Starting from

£32,115.00

If Lexus had something like C-HR or C segment hatchback, i would have gone for Lexus as I like quite cabins. UX is poor with both rear and boot space. 

[fourbanks]

31 minutes ago, Spo2 said:

If Lexus had something like C-HR or C segment hatchback, i would have gone for Lexus as I like quite cabins. UX is poor with both rear and boot space. 

The thing about the Lexus UX is that on the outside it looks very bland, but fantastic paintwork. On the inside, again very good. i only pad £26000 for my GR sport 1.8, so I can't complain however if a paid £30000 at the time of ordering then that would be a bad error on my part because the Lexus would have been the better bet 

[TonyHSD]

12 minutes ago, fourbanks said:

The thing about the Lexus UX is that on the outside it looks very bland, but fantastic paintwork. On the inside, again very good. i only pad £26000 for my GR sport 1.8, so I can't complain however if a paid £30000 at the time of ordering then that would be a bad error on my part because the Lexus would have been the better bet 

The entry level Lexus are poorly equipped and I will avoid them at all cost. Fully spec Corolla like gr or excel is better choice. Btw these two Corolla are as god as Audi or bmw inside. 👌👍

[forkingabout]

41 minutes ago, Spo2 said:

If Lexus had something like C-HR or C segment hatchback, i would have gone for Lexus as I like quite cabins. UX is poor with both rear and boot space. 

I considered the UX but to get a decent F Sport spec with Takumi pack would take you over the £40k luxary vehicle tax limit which isn't ideal.

Plus at the time the old fashioned touch pad infotainment system wasn't appealing.

Rear & boot space isn't really important to me as its only ever me & missus in the car.

 

[Spo2]

13 minutes ago, forkingabout said:

I considered the UX but to get a decent F Sport spec with Takumi pack would take you over the £40k luxary vehicle tax limit which isn't ideal.

Plus at the time the old fashioned touch pad infotainment system wasn't appealing.

Rear & boot space isn't really important to me as its only ever me & missus in the car.

 

Yeah, i think the new facelift brings latest NX like infotainment.

[forkingabout]

Just now, Spo2 said:

Yeah, i think the new facelift brings latest NX like infotainment.

Doesn't really matter to me as I'm extremely happy with my C-HR plus the Toyota dealer is much nearer then the Lexus one. 

[Spo2]

18 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

The entry level Lexus are poorly equipped and I will avoid them at all cost. Fully spec Corolla like gr or excel is better choice. Btw these two Corolla are as god as Audi or bmw inside. 👌👍

Corolla didn't feel like A3 or Golf 7.5 at all with respect to refinement or built quality. Though i agree a higher trim of Toyota could be better than lower trim of Lexus. Found CHR even in mid level trim to be more quieter than UX but this might be due to run flat tyres in the UX. 

[Spo2]

9 minutes ago, forkingabout said:

Doesn't really matter to me as I'm extremely happy with my C-HR plus the Toyota dealer is much nearer then the Lexus one. 

Likewise!  Actually we don't have a Lexus dealer in Oxford. My nearest one is in Reading and Milton Keynes would be similar distance I guess. 

[forkingabout]

4 minutes ago, Spo2 said:

Likewise!  Actually we don't have a Lexus dealer in Oxford. 

My nearest Lexus dealer is in Milton Keynes.