DIY Soundproofing

JMAC · Apr 8, 2015

I'm looking at soundproofing the doors on my ST.

I've already bought some Silent Coat 2mm sheets and will be apply them to any metal surface I can, without blocking any holes or plugs.

Is there any need to also add any sheets to the back of the door card itself or should I look at getting a sound deadening mat and so that I've got two layers of proofing, foam on the card and pads/sheets on the inner door?

I'm paying a local Audi specialist to remove the cards and then refit for me afterwards (I'd rather not risk braking trim) so I'd like to do a good job whilst I have access.

If I have enough left then I'll probably do the boot too as that's an easy to access area where I can get to bare metal without lifting carpets and trim.

Any thoughts and advice?

Deleted member 98136 · Apr 8, 2015

Would just add that in respect to the boot area, I was very surprised to find after lifting the carpet in this area, that the spare wheel area/ floor pan is just painted bare metal, with no sign of sound proofing, unlike previously owned cars.

JMAC · Apr 8, 2015

Yes, it's just bare metal in the boot which will be made even worse if you don't have a spare wheel. You've basically created a drum!

I've just spoke to Mike @ Sound Deadening Shop (no affiliation, found via google/forum reviews):

http://www.deadening.co.uk

He advised on a good method of fitting and also what products to go for. For the ST he advised a 20 pack of Silent Coat 2mm Mat and 15mm Absorber foam for the back of the door cards. Should also leave enough for the spare wheel well in the boot too.

Mike was really helpful and was in no rush to get me off the phone, just talked me through the reasoning behind proofing and the 'best practices' to get the most out of the product. Top bloke!

I've just ordered some door clips and trim removal tools from eBay so I should be good to go.

So all in I've spent £85 quid which is cheaper than the time off work and fuel to visit a dealer to have the rattles sorted and they want proof that it's actually happening saying they may need the car overnight. Meh!

I found a clip on You Tube for removing the door card, is it really just two screws and then a pull in the bottom corner to remove the clips? How many clips are in the driver/passenger doors?

simmo1 · Apr 8, 2015

My car has soundproofing as well (let speciefic company to do it).
They have done doors, boot, rear wheelarches and hood. In my opinion also the floor should be done, the road noise is still quite high on rough asphalt.
I have no loud door card rattles, only at some rough roads i hear some minor ratteling now and then on the driver door and I guess the fault is on the door clips. So make sure you add some tape to the door clips as well.

Deleted member 98136 · Apr 9, 2015

Well I'm glad that someone else has noticed how the much the road noise increases on rough asphalt.

Previously had Renault Scenics x2 then a Peugeot 308 before this Leon, never noticed any discernable road surface noise in either of the Scenics, but I did in the 308, then when driving the Leon that was one of the first things that was obviously worse than my previous cars.

Luckily I am not suffering from any rattles, as several posters on here appear too, just the annoying road noise bugs me.

Tyres are Michelin "Energy Saver", and I wouldn't have a clue if they contribute to the road noise.

simmo1 · Apr 9, 2015

I lowered tire pressure -set the front feels pressure the same as in back 2.0 bar. This helped a little bit too

Orbiter · Apr 11, 2015

JMAC said:
I'm looking at soundproofing the doors on my ST.

I've already bought some Silent Coat 2mm sheets and will be apply them to any metal surface I can, without blocking any holes or plugs.

Is there any need to also add any sheets to the back of the door card itself or should I look at getting a sound deadening mat and so that I've got two layers of proofing, foam on the card and pads/sheets on the inner door?

I'm paying a local Audi specialist to remove the cards and then refit for me afterwards (I'd rather not risk braking trim) so I'd like to do a good job whilst I have access.

If I have enough left then I'll probably do the boot too as that's an easy to access area where I can get to bare metal without lifting carpets and trim.

Any thoughts and advice?

How about some deadening pads on the exterior of the doors, this will also protect against those nasty bumps in car parks?
More seriously, road noise seems to be a bit of a 'relatively' common comment from Leon drivers. Do you think some of the noise is directly attributable to the tyres as the difference between brands can be considerable? I wonder why the VW Golf with the same floorpan is considered very quiet. Perhaps they use slightly thicker metal or just had noise reduction as more of a priority when designing the car?

Please let us know which of your soundproofing solutions are the most effective.

kazand · Apr 11, 2015

Orbiter said:
How about some deadening pads on the exterior of the doors, this will also protect against those nasty bumps in car parks?
More seriously, road noise seems to be a bit of a 'relatively' common comment from Leon drivers. Do you think some of the noise is directly attributable to the tyres as the difference between brands can be considerable? I wonder why the VW Golf with the same floorpan is considered very quiet. Perhaps they use slightly thicker metal or just had noise reduction as more of a priority when designing the car?

Please let us know which of your soundproofing solutions are the most effective.

The road noise in the current Cupra (on Bridgestone's)is certainly a lot less than the previous R (on Pirelli's / Goodyear Assy's) .
I know not all models have it but the artificial sound generator could be part of the noise issue.

JMAC · Apr 15, 2015

I got round to attempting this yesterday. Once I figured out how to remove the door cards I started applying the sound proofing, see here:

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=417453

Tools and spares used:

Trim removal tool:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SCRATCHLE...058?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5b0ea3d9b2

Spare door clips (I used 5 on two doors, some originals were reusable):

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-T5-DOO...Domain_3&fits=Car+Make:VW&hash=item5d331b54e4

Seam roller:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Harris-Pr...245?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5661ab625d

Deadening matt (I used 3.5 for front doors):

http://www.deadening.co.uk/products/silent-coat-2mm-mat-door-pack

Absorber foam (I used 3 sheets for front doors):

http://www.deadening.co.uk/products/silent-coat-absorber

The Silent coat products were recommended to me by Mike @ deadening.co.uk after I explained what problems I was having and what I wanted to achieve.

Firstly, there's no need to cover the whole skin of the door. Circa 40% coverage gives the same amount of benefit as a completely covered door. Mike also said working in chewing gum size strips is probably the best thing to do if you're unsure (I tried to stick to this advice).

The 2mm deadening matt can be cut with regular scissors, careful though as you get sharp edges. It is self adhesive, just pull off the backing sheet and apply then use a seam roller to ensure you get good contact. I wrapped my hand in a tea towel and worked the matt in areas that were tight, contoured and also on the outer door skin were I couldn't work the roller:

So here's the completed driver door (inner skin):

Seeing as you can access the outer skin of the door, I applied half a complete matt here too:

Then the speakers. The passenger speaker was the source of much annoying resonance for me.

The speakers are fixed using 4 torx screws and there's also two locating pins close to the top two screws (just slot in). There's a single connecter block at the rear of the speaker.

After advice from Oliver @ deadening.co.uk I applied the deadening matt to the outer skin of the door and on any metal surfaces in the cut out too. I then applied the Absorber foam directly on top of this. To finish off I created a sort of 'gasket' around the where the speaker is fitted:

(Note I accidentally covered the top left pin screw and locator pin holes, foam was recut accordingly).

I then covered the rear of the door card with the Absorber 15 foam sheets. The rear of the door card doesn't have many flat surfaces, so I cut the sheet and applied to areas that were practical to do so and butted up any edges where possible. I can't find the photo I took of the door cards but I'll upload one when I do the rears.

The whole process took roughly 3.5 hours for both doors but the second door took half the time once I knew what I was doing with trim removal. I simply copied the pattern I did on the first door using a photo on my phone for reference.

The sound system sounds noticeably better both stationary and at motorway speeds.

The front of the car must be quieter as I'm now really conscious of the amount of noise coming from the rear seats and boot area. It's also apparent that my rear driver side door trim is vibrating.

I am going to order some more Absorber foam to complete the rear doors. I will also need to figure out how to remove the trim/carpet in the boot so that I can fit some deadening matt to the bare metal of the wheel arches as apparently that will get rid of a lot road noise.

The doors also have a more reassuring thunk when you close them and the cards now feel much more solid when you give them a good tap.

Deleted member 98136 · Apr 15, 2015

Very useful post JMAC, Thanx

I'm particularly aware of the road noise from the rear part of the Leon and would be very interested in your soundproofing of that area.

simmo1 · Apr 15, 2015

In order to remove the trim / carpet from boot are you need to loosen some screws from the boot (should be visible if you take close look). Also if I remember correctly you need to remove rear seat pad (just pull it up an you will get it loose) then you can get access to the screws which are holding wheel arches plastic in place

And keep us updated with the nice pictures, I am sure also others want to see how it should be done

JACUPRA280 · Jun 24, 2015

JMAC said:
I got round to attempting this yesterday. Once I figured out how to remove the door cards I started applying the sound proofing, see here:

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=417453

Tools and spares used:

Trim removal tool:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SCRATCHLE...058?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5b0ea3d9b2

Spare door clips (I used 5 on two doors, some originals were reusable):

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-T5-DOO...Domain_3&fits=Car+Make:VW&hash=item5d331b54e4

Seam roller:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Harris-Pr...245?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5661ab625d

Deadening matt (I used 3.5 for front doors):

http://www.deadening.co.uk/products/silent-coat-2mm-mat-door-pack

Absorber foam (I used 3 sheets for front doors):

http://www.deadening.co.uk/products/silent-coat-absorber

The Silent coat products were recommended to me by Mike @ deadening.co.uk after I explained what problems I was having and what I wanted to achieve.

Firstly, there's no need to cover the whole skin of the door. Circa 40% coverage gives the same amount of benefit as a completely covered door. Mike also said working in chewing gum size strips is probably the best thing to do if you're unsure (I tried to stick to this advice).

The 2mm deadening matt can be cut with regular scissors, careful though as you get sharp edges. It is self adhesive, just pull off the backing sheet and apply then use a seam roller to ensure you get good contact. I wrapped my hand in a tea towel and worked the matt in areas that were tight, contoured and also on the outer door skin were I couldn't work the roller:

So here's the completed driver door (inner skin):

Seeing as you can access the outer skin of the door, I applied half a complete matt here too:

Then the speakers. The passenger speaker was the source of much annoying resonance for me.

The speakers are fixed using 4 torx screws and there's also two locating pins close to the top two screws (just slot in). There's a single connecter block at the rear of the speaker.

After advice from Oliver @ deadening.co.uk I applied the deadening matt to the outer skin of the door and on any metal surfaces in the cut out too. I then applied the Absorber foam directly on top of this. To finish off I created a sort of 'gasket' around the where the speaker is fitted:

(Note I accidentally covered the top left pin screw and locator pin holes, foam was recut accordingly).

I then covered the rear of the door card with the Absorber 15 foam sheets. The rear of the door card doesn't have many flat surfaces, so I cut the sheet and applied to areas that were practical to do so and butted up any edges where possible. I can't find the photo I took of the door cards but I'll upload one when I do the rears.

The whole process took roughly 3.5 hours for both doors but the second door took half the time once I knew what I was doing with trim removal. I simply copied the pattern I did on the first door using a photo on my phone for reference.

The sound system sounds noticeably better both stationary and at motorway speeds.

The front of the car must be quieter as I'm now really conscious of the amount of noise coming from the rear seats and boot area. It's also apparent that my rear driver side door trim is vibrating.

I am going to order some more Absorber foam to complete the rear doors. I will also need to figure out how to remove the trim/carpet in the boot so that I can fit some deadening matt to the bare metal of the wheel arches as apparently that will get rid of a lot road noise.

The doors also have a more reassuring thunk when you close them and the cards now feel much more solid when you give them a good tap.

Hi mate, apologies if this has already been answered - I'm going to follow your shopping list and do this job next week.

After you remove all of the clips what wires are there to disconnect behind the door cards? Is disconnecting them and reconnecting them relatively simple? I have limited finger mobility in my right hand due to an accident four years ago so it may be tricky?

Much appreciated!

Pew. · Jun 24, 2015

Do the patrols have deafening under the hood ?
My 2.0TDI doesn't so was considering it

Sent from my LG G Flex2

JMAC · Jun 25, 2015

IIRC there's two connector blocks to remove and the window winder cable too. If you wish to insulate the speaker housing too then there's an additional connector block for the speaker. I had to use a trim removal tool for the connector blocks as there's there are small retaining latch that needs to be pushed inwards whilst you pull the connectors apart.

Could be tricky if you have limited hand mobility.

Rest the door card on a stool or similar when you start disconnecting things.

Curtly · Jun 25, 2015

I need to give this a go soon, i've got the clips and mats just lackinh the confidence to do it :/. I don't have any rattles at the moment so I don't really want to create any. How did the rear doors go?

Orbiter · Jun 25, 2015

But how effective is it?

Are any of you disappointed with the results you have achieved? In cars that I have applied soundproofing to in the past It hasn't always been completely successful and I think my main objective would be to just get rid of a few door rattles. I have often found if you reduce one noise it make another noise more apparent.
I read in a couple of road tests that the Leon wing mirrors can create wind noise, but my car certainly doesn't seem to and I have not seen this mentioned on the forums.

JACUPRA280 · Jun 25, 2015

JMAC said:
IIRC there's two connector blocks to remove and the window winder cable too. If you wish to insulate the speaker housing too then there's an additional connector block for the speaker. I had to use a trim removal tool for the connector blocks as there's there are small retaining latch that needs to be pushed inwards whilst you pull the connectors apart.

Could be tricky if you have limited hand mobility.

Rest the door card on a stool or similar when you start disconnecting things.

Thanks JMAC. It may be worth me asking a local stealer to remove the door cards for me and to then put them back on after I've completed the soundproofing? How likely do you think it is a stealer will agree to this? I'll be supplying the clips of course.

JMAC · Jun 26, 2015

Orbiter said:
Are any of you disappointed with the results you have achieved? In cars that I have applied soundproofing to in the past It hasn't always been completely successful and I think my main objective would be to just get rid of a few door rattles. I have often found if you reduce one noise it make another noise more apparent.
I read in a couple of road tests that the Leon wing mirrors can create wind noise, but my car certainly doesn't seem to and I have not seen this mentioned on the forums.

TBH I didn't do it because of the rattles. I wanted to make the most of the so-called 'up-rated' stereo. When listening to music with anything remotely bassy the passenger side door speaker would vibrate awfully, to the point I disconnected the sub and turned everything down via the equalizer. I can honestly say that it now sounds better than the Bose system in my mates A6 and Q7.

The plastic fairing around the rear view mirror also started vibrating recently so I had to remove that and fit some insulation foam before refitting. It's now sorted.

In terms of soundproofing though, it must have made a difference as I instantly became aware of the road noise from the rear of the car, particularly from the noisy Conti SC 5's.

Fellow forum member and Cupra 280 owner Ocularis also commented on the heavy 'thud' of the doors compared to his uninsulated doors.

JMAC · Jun 26, 2015

Curtly said:
I need to give this a go soon, i've got the clips and mats just lackinh the confidence to do it :/. I don't have any rattles at the moment so I don't really want to create any. How did the rear doors go?

Exactly the same as the front in terms of where the clips are and the process involved. Looks pretty much the same too, once the card is off.

JACUPRA280 · Jul 11, 2015

Update!

Completed soundproofing my passenger door yesterday, and it now sounds noticeably better. No more rattles!

I'll be completing the driver's door (which also rattles like a bit**) sometime late this month, as I may be having the door card replaced (http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=420586).

I didn't find disconnecting the wires tricky. There was good leeway with the length of the cables so I didn't have to faff about too much. My concern was not being able to physically see what I was trying to unplug due my hand mobility.

But it all went swell! Thanks for the guide.

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