Soundproofing 2.0 Corolla TS. Finally had the time to do it.

[nielshm]

I finally had the time to take my car apart. It takes 6 hours, and costs 70-80£ in materials.

And was it worth it??

Njaaa, a sort of nice result, but nothing outstanding.

From factory, the Corolla is extremly poorly soundproofed. Boot, wheel arches in the back, rear fenders, allmost nothing has been installed to keep wind- and road noise away.

Door panels has a little insulation glued to the door panel, but the door itself, nothing but (thin) steel. A car so expensive and a premium brand, I would expect more from the factory.

I've added extra rubbersels on the doors, but finding the right types and sizes to close the gaps, can be difficult.

The greatest challenge? Taking the car apart is not very hard, once you learn how everything is clicked in place. Installing sound proofing materals is much harder.

In the back, the 12V. Battery is installed in the right rear fender, and you might want to remove it. To the left, there's a lot of wires and 'small things' in the way, making it impossible to apply sound proofing to a large area.

My car had a rust protection 3½ years ago, and its still feels sticky and slippery. And the sound proofing can't stick to that on vertical surfaces.

Back doors got a nice layer of sound proofing, just behind the inner door panel, and not on the outer steel plate. (Speakers did in a small area)

Speakers are very easy to remove, remember to sound proof the door panel behind the speakes. Just maybe, sound quality will be a bit better.

Where can I hear the most noise? My car is left hand drive, and as a driver, the area around the right back door and boot takes in 60% of the noise, I can hear in the cabin. Passengers  sitting right or left, can hear noise from other parts the car.

[Mojo1010]

Well done.

When I get the new yaris will mainly do the boot area as don't want to be taking door cards off on a new car. 

[nielshm]

5 minutes ago, Mojo1010 said:

Well done.

When I get the new yaris will mainly do the boot area as don't want to be taking door cards off on a new car. 

A smaller car may not have the same issues. My wifes 2015 Aygo is more quiet on the motorway in terms of wind- og wheel noise, than the Corolla. 

The Aygo engine is much more loud, as expected for a car in that price range.

[flash22]

The floor has next to no sound deadening also you need the correct product for the job, be it mat, sludge or foam amongst the many different types

[Popama]

11 hours ago, nielshm said:

... A car so expensive and a premium brand, I would expect more from the factory...

Folks over at Lexus would like a word with you.
Nothing premium in a regular Toyota Corolla or C-HR, even RAV4 has to be PHEV in order to be built with materials and options similar to premium brands.

[AndrueC]

I just turn up the volume on the infotainment unit 🙂

But seriously - well done for putting the effort in.

[Niky]

I've done mine as well. All 4 doors + the boot's floor. Didn't have time to remove the material sitting on top of the rear wheel arches, so I left them without adding anything

Originally I thought the result wasn't great, until I got to drive a C-HR for a day while mine was in for a Service. Then I realised how much quieter has become mine, with the added soundproofing. 

I do recommend to find a way of driving similar car, only then you can be sure of the result you've got....

Mine is 1.8 TS 

[JoaoM]

What materials did you guys used? Any fotos?

I've done the doors when I upgraded the Speakers but wondered if I should do some more areas.

[Tomv]

Yes, some pictures for inspiration would be nice.

[nielshm]

I used a 2 mm. Butyl rubber sheets. One side is coated with aluminium.

It's heavy and makes any metal plate go dead, without vibrations during a drive. It's flexible and does'nt absorb water or moisture. 

I think the extremly thin high strength steel is the primary reason for the noise in our cars.

[JoaoM]

The thin metal may be one cause but not the only one. The car has a flat plastic surface underneath for aerodynamic reasons that contributes to the noise resonance 

[2badmice]

If you're in the UK, declare these modifications to your insurance company, because they won't be replaced in a repair/replacement should you claim against your insurance.

[Niky]

9 minutes ago, 2badmice said:

If you're in the UK, declare these modifications to your insurance company, because they won't be replaced in a repair/replacement should you claim against your insurance.

I tried to declare this with Aviva, only to find out any modifications under £1000 do not need to be declared with them. Wasn't worried about not getting those repaired or replaced, but if they would invalidate my insurance, if those weren't declared in case of a claim.....

[AisinW]

If you want Audi A6 level sound proofing, probably only Lexus GS, ES, and RX are close enough. Corolla is considered to be colleges student's car long ago. Only recently, I saw it is as a family car. 

I think the glass/wind noise and tire noise are the biggest issues. We can reduce them using accoustic glass, and sound proofed underbody and wheel Wells. Something that most DIY never do.

The sound proofing could be minimal, but the rust proofing, suspension and power train are excellent. Those are where most the RnD and money are spent. The interior is also as good as Golf these days. Probably only Mazda3 and Civic has better interior materials, only marginally. 

It is a lot for the money. We will never get that level of technology and reliability from any other brands. 

[TonyHSD]

I haven’t tried a Corolla but once I had an Auris from 2013 on motorway and it was the worst car I ever had or remember as road and wind noise. The reason might not be lack of sound proofing material, there are other reasons behind and it’s not so simple to change that just with application of extra matts here and there. They will make the metal panels feel more solid but that’s it. The noise people are complaining it’s from gaps in the doors and , door seals , and as mentioned wheel arches covers. Also suspension set up and the carpet floor. The mats that people stick on bare metal panels add  almost no sound insulation to outside world, this is is what Toyota cars lack really. On top on the fact that their power trains are quieter and make passengers more sensitive to road and wind noises. That’s what I believe, I might be wrong but either way I find my Auris as good as Audi A3, golf , bmw 1 or any other same size hatchback from that era. 

[AisinW]

Yes, the first iteration of Auris 2 got revision in 2015 (facelift). It added more insulation especially the TS on the trunk areas. The wheel well is also made out of carpet materials. 

If you open the engine bay of Lexus ES, it has more padding materials than Camry. The underbody are also all made out of carpet materials, not hard plastics. The sound system by Mark Levinson is also a real upgrade that further increase accoustic. 

I know that the after market is flooded by heavy butyl rubber. It can reduce the noise tone to lower frequency but not so much on absolute noise (dB level). It is an art on reducing noise. Placing heavy carpet materials can reduce road noise significantly but rubber butyl won't. 

The quietest Toyota was actually camry, Avalon, Sienna and highlander with V6 3.0 to 3.5 L engines. That engines is very quite even at full throttle. The 2.5L fks engines is very rattly from direct injection tone, fortunately we have mostly hybrid in RAV4, not as loud as non hybrid in full throttle. Insulation on engine bay helps a lot on the 4 cylinder engine. 

[JoaoM]

7 hours ago, AisinW said:

Yes, the first iteration of Auris 2 got revision in 2015 (facelift). It added more insulation especially the TS on the trunk areas. The wheel well is also made out of carpet materials. 

If you open the engine bay of Lexus ES, it has more padding materials than Camry. The underbody are also all made out of carpet materials, not hard plastics. The sound system by Mark Levinson is also a real upgrade that further increase accoustic. 

I know that the after market is flooded by heavy butyl rubber. It can reduce the noise tone to lower frequency but not so much on absolute noise (dB level). It is an art on reducing noise. Placing heavy carpet materials can reduce road noise significantly but rubber butyl won't. 

The quietest Toyota was actually camry, Avalon, Sienna and highlander with V6 3.0 to 3.5 L engines. That engines is very quite even at full throttle. The 2.5L fks engines is very rattly from direct injection tone, fortunately we have mostly hybrid in RAV4, not as loud as non hybrid in full throttle. Insulation on engine bay helps a lot on the 4 cylinder engine. 

I have looked my father in law's 15 years old Mercedes C class, and it has some z shaped rubber seal at the lower part of doors as well as at the front part (near the fender on front doors and B pilar on the rear ones). It is a well noise insulated car as one would expect from a premium (expensive) brand. Not as reliable as one would like with some issues during its life, always quite expensive to repair (€500 for the passenger auto door lock module!).

Do you think one should invest in some kind of rubber seal for the doors? And what about this:

https://a.aliexpress.com/_EumFxgD

Do you think it worth the effort of disassemble the wheels arcs?

[PCM]

I did my car ( an IQ ) over the past few week.

I bought almost everything from here ( https://www.deadening.co.uk/ ) and used, alcohol cleaning wipes from old Covid tests for cleaning surfaces, DODO MAT DEADN HEX SHEET and DO BARRIER PRO. They both felt very solid. I also used some extra door seal rubber, from Amazon and some bitumen type spray for the outside rear wheel arches.

I 'did' the very front and very back, bonnet, floor, small amount of the roof, doors, rear seat, rear non-existent tyre well, inner arches where I could reach, rear hatch.

As I didn't take noise readings before I started, any difference is subjective. But it DOES sound much quieter and better audio sound and quality. My all season tyres help, I'm sure.

[TonyHSD]

Yes rubber seals. My dad’s car a Passat estate from 2001 sport variant it’s so much plusher than any other new car I had recently. Once you sat in and close doors , windows it’s like you are in another world, almost no noises from outside. This is the point that I always make here, doors and windows seals are the key. Even on its Passat these are covered in felt like smooth material, the windows never rattling when halfway open, doors shuts with thud sound, no wind whistle when at speeds, very different type of car. 

[JoaoM]

On 5/29/2023 at 9:19 PM, nielshm said:

I used a 2 mm. Butyl rubber sheets. One side is coated with aluminium.

It's heavy and makes any metal plate go dead, without vibrations during a drive. It's flexible and does'nt absorb water or moisture. 

I think the extremly thin high strength steel is the primary reason for the noise in our cars.

No rubber seals on the doors?

In fact I saw a lot of people doing that (ruiner seals on the doors) on Teslas because the quiet engines enables to hear too much road noise.

Even tyre manufacturers are trying to reduce noise levels because of hybrids and EVs (eg. Goodyear Asymm 6)

[AisinW]

Yes, the first best upgrade of noise is tire choice. Goodyear Asym 6 is quiter than most tires. All seasons tires are also often quiter than winter tires and performed as well too. 

Beside the pading and insulation, Lexus have more vibration dampers on suspensions that also alter the resonance of the road noise. German luxury cars are the gold standard on insulation. But Lexus are as quiet as most German but with Toyota reliability. However, NX,UX, and IS are not as quiet as RX, ES, and LS. 

[JoaoM]

I have this on my favourites for a long time: WTS: 3M Thinsulate for SoundProof DIY Kaki~ (lowyat.net)

This and several D, P, Z shaped rubber seals (don't know which on is better).

[Tomv]

does anybody know what shape and size of seals would fit to corolla in the vertical gap between front a rear door?

[Tomv]

sry, cant delete wrong post, so just edit

Edited June 1, 2023 by Tomv
wrong post

[2badmice]

On 5/30/2023 at 6:59 PM, Niky said:

I tried to declare this with Aviva, only to find out any modifications under £1000 do not need to be declared with them. Wasn't worried about not getting those repaired or replaced, but if they would invalidate my insurance, if those weren't declared in case of a claim.....

That's very good to hear, and as long as they have a record of it their engineers should honour it if a repair / replacement is carried out.  You'd need to make your damage assessor aware before they get authority to proceed so that they can add the mods to the assessment.  They may ask you to order the parts yourself, but they may fit them.