Seeking opinions re: sound cancelling insulation

[RAV4EVLovr]

Hello everyone!
I recently bought a used RAV4 EV 2012 model and am loving it!

I have noticed though, that because the car is so quiet, I hear a lot of the road noise during high speeds on the freeway.

Was searching around Amazon and came across the Dynamat sound deadening material: http://amzn.com/B00020CB2S

Questions are: Has anyone ever installed any kind of noise cancelling material on their RAV4 EV? What are your thoughts and experiences?
Is it worth it? Does it add alot of weight to the car?

Any advice, suggestions, opinions, recommendations, lessons learned would be greatly appreciated!

 

[fusiondynamics]

Using this material will add a bit of weight to the car. I don't think that it would impact our car that much. Make sure you buy the butyl type material regardless of what brand you use. You will find that people from other forums will recommend using roofing material. That stuff does works but smells like toxic chemicals especially hot days. I would not get into the hype of getting thicker is better. I have done a few cars have notice very little difference from the thinner ones to the thicker ones. I did notice a bigger difference when adding an additional layer of foam that greatly reduced road noise.

If you do plan to do it. Make sure you go all out. Don't waste your time doing only the doors. I mean the all the doors, under your seats and possibly the trunk area. I would recommend maybe using Raamaudio.com. They have combo sheets that give your the mat + foam.

Make sure you wear old clothes when doing the install and invest in a nice pair of gloves. Most are aluminum lined and will cut your hands badly. The butyl is like glue that will stick to your clothes and ruin them. If I were keeping my lease, I would definitely invest in sound deadening this car. It will be night and day once you do it right.

 

[Ampster]

I did my VW conversion with Dynamat. It was easy because the VW was stripped down with the door panels off and the seats out. I can't imagine how long it would take to do a RAV and then replace all the panels and carpeting.

 

[evbuddy]

how heavy is dynamat?
any estimate on how much weight it would add in total?

 

[RAV4EVLovr]

Thank you very much for the feedback and suggestions! Very much appreciated!
My EV is a used 2012 that I purchased, but I do plan on keeping it for a while.

Sounds like I'd need to do both the layer and insulation. I'll check out Raamaudio.com as well.

Questions though: how would I also apply the material to the floor? Is it just simply underneath the floor mats and seats, as opposed to somehow removing the floor carpeting and whatever may be beneath that?
What about the ceiling/roof? Do I need to do that area too? Is there a way to remove the covering to do it?

 

[fusiondynamics]

You would have to remove all the seats and floor carpet to apply the sound deadening.

 

[4EVEREV]

To do this properly on a RAV would be costly and with a big weight penalty. I would not do it.

 

[dipper]

Thank you very much for the feedback and suggestions! Very much appreciated!
My EV is a used 2012 that I purchased, but I do plan on keeping it for a while.

Sounds like I'd need to do both the layer and insulation. I'll check out Raamaudio.com as well.

Questions though: how would I also apply the material to the floor? Is it just simply underneath the floor mats and seats, as opposed to somehow removing the floor carpeting and whatever may be beneath that?
What about the ceiling/roof? Do I need to do that area too? Is there a way to remove the covering to do it?

I have done sound deadening with my 2011 Sienna. I had dynomat all around the doors and back of van. It worked great. I would not bother with floor though, as the carpet has already have some sound deadening already. In my van, the back is so quiet that my ears are not used to it. The only noise I hear are from the windshield and thru firewall (engine noise). With the Rav4EV's extra thick glass, the sound is not the problem. I can hear the sound mostly coming from the door panels on the Rav. You should start there first.

When installer got the Sienna apart, the installer showed me a piece of 3"x3"x12" of foam block in the middle of the door to minimize vibration, no real sound deadening at all. That is the extend of the insulation for most Toyota now-a-day. You need to buy Lexus before Toyota care about customer's cabin noise. That is one reason I like the Honda Accord and Ford Fusion as they use active noise canceler (like Bose noise-canceling headphones) without the weight penalty.

Raam mat (from Raamaudio.com) has a product that includes both sound deadening materials. You just peel like a sticker and stick on the surface. Their website has good instruction to do the work

So if you want to pull this off yourself, I recommend to start with the 4 doors with Raam mat.

 

[4EVEREV]

Frankly the benefit is low for the cost and time and the RAV needs to shed MUCH weight not gain any weigh.

 

[fusiondynamics]

Check this out and it will give you a idea of what you need to deal with.

http://www.rav4world.com/forums/98-...tml?utm_medium=email&utm_source=42#post705897

I think it's worth doing if you own the car. You are not adding that much more weight.