We have all suffered the agony of driving in a noisy car. As you increase speed you find yourself increasing the radio volume as well. This is not an ideal situation and unless you are driving a high-end sports car or an electric vehicle you may want to go through the effort of sound deadening your car.
I assume that you are looking for a cheap way to soundproof a car?
After all, that’s why you’re on the Soundproof Guides website.
Now, I think I can help you, with a process below that will result in their being far less noise inside your vehicle.
With my easy to follow process, you will experience an overall improvement in the sound quality in your vehicle. It will mean that you can not only sound deaden your car cheaply, but also truly appreciate your expensive audio system without having to compete with engine noise and random panel vibrations.
This guide aims to give a few practical examples of how to sound deaden your car cheaply, what materials to use and where to find these products. I believe this is the best online guide you will find that shows you simply how to soundproof your car using DIY sound deadening materials.
Let’s get started: In order to remove all sources of noise you will have to cover the four main vehicle noise generation culprits. These are vibration, sound waves, road noise and resonance.
Step 1: Sound Deadening Noise from the Engine Bay
There are a few sources of sound on a vehicle, with the most obvious and annoying being the engine. This can be combatted by adding sound insulation to the engine compartment.
My recommendation is the Guteauto sound deadening mat (view on Amazon).
It’s really simple to fit, ticks all the boxes you would need for sound deadening a car cheap, and comes delivered in large enough rolls to let you fully soundproof your engine bay.
What you need to do is add this material underneath your bonnet as well as anywhere between the engine and the cabin of the vehicle.
Make sure that you have cleaned off any grease or oil from the areas where you want to stick the material as it will come loose if you try and paste it on a dirty surface.
Fitting the mat under the hood
After you have cleaned the bonnet interior, you can begin measuring up the sheets. You can cut this material with either a carpet knife or heavy-duty scissors. If there are any seams in the insulation, make sure that you do not leave any gaps as this will reduce the effectiveness of the insulation.
You can also spray some expanding foam into any hard to reach areas to eliminate vibrations. There’s a specific product designed just for car sound proofing – see on Amazon.
Step 2: Soundproofing the Car Doors
The next area to tackle is the car doors.
You won’t need to a heat, fuel and oil resistant material in this case, so no aluminum backing is required.
To save you from having to use messy spray on adhesives, get an insulation material that has an adhesive backing, such a material can be found on Amazon (click here).
First you will need to remove the door panels. This will be different for every car, so you will have to consult your owner’s manual on how to best remove the panel.
After all the door panels have been removed, you can measure out and cut the foam into the required shapes.
Try and fit the insulation between any separate panels as this will help to eliminate any vibrations and resulting resonance.
If you cannot insert the insulation into some of the gaps you can spray some expanding foam into these hard to reach spaces (use my recommended spray from step 1).
The foam will expand as soon as it leaves the can, during this expansion process the foam will press against any surface it comes into contact with. This will reduce its ability to move and vibrate, thus will help to stop noise and sound deaden your car.
Step 3: Sound Deadening the Floor & Wheel Arches
The final step is to insulate your floor, transmission and wheel arches. This will require a fair amount of work as you will have to remove all the carpeting and possibly the seats of your car.
Once you have removed the carpets you will need to measure and cut out the insulation material. For this you can use a specialized damping pad that is designed for use underneath factory carpets. I like the Stinger material on Amazon.
In this case the material does not have an adhesive backing and will require a spray on glue (Dan Tack is very good). If there are any open, hard to reach areas, you can use spray on foam insulation to close any final gaps.
Once the glue has dried you can use the same adhesive to glue your carpet back over the insulation you added. Make sure that all the areas of your carpet are firmly glued down.
Conclusion on Sound Deadening Your Car Cheap
The above steps will address four largest causes of annoying car noise. Sound deadening your car cheaply is by no means a simple task, it will take time and effort, especially if you want to do a proper job.
The result of all these changes will make a massive difference inside your car as you will definitely feel like you are driving in a brand-new, noise free car.
You might also be interested in my guide on how to make your car quieter from road noise. That guide has helped thousands of people already this year with reducing noise by fitting DIY sound deadening material to their car.
