I thought this would be really nice to compare with others.
Since I bought my 01 GLE I was really annoyed by the amount of road and wind noise the car exhibited at cruising speed aka between 65-80.

So in the last 2 years, I did the following mods to reduce noise... my aim was solely to make the interior more quiet.

1. Secondskin audio sludge in all 4 wheel wells only.
2. raammat in all 4 doors, rear deck, roof and trunk lid.
3. raammat ensolite closed cell foam in doors, roof, rear deck.
4. Mass loaded Vinyl along entire floorboard/carpet, in all 4 doors, under rear seat and rear deck.
5. Foam tape in the window channels.

I used the JL audio db meter app on my iphone to do this testing.

Sadly, I got my iphone only in Aug last year so I did not have a before and after reading. However, this past weekend, I had a good friend over who has an 07 Maxima SL and a family friend with an 08 Toyota Sienna XLE. We did a couple cruising runs with the following:
1. Sound system turned off
2. AC on blower speed 2. This is really unfair for my 01 since our blower at 2 is actually louder than the blowers on the others since they have i guess a 6 or 7 speed fan.

We drove on the same stretch of I-95 and was on all Tar road. Drove about 2-5 miles each and measured our low and high db levels. The JL audio app was used on an iphone 4 with no setting changes(you can calibrate it if you want, we left it as is)

Here are the results:
Car Speed Sound Level
07 SL: 70mph/75mph 75db/79db
07 Sienna 70mph/75mph 73db/78db
01 GLE 70mph/75mph 69db/73db

All three cars had good condition tires:
Michelin MXV4 on my gle and the sienna, goodyear eagle GT's on the SL.

We drove my 01 first and then the 07 SL... and immediately we could feel the extra road noise.. it comes mostly from the back. the sienna feels quieter at speeds below 50 but at cruising speeds road noise crept in bad. If you feel your maxima has bad wind noise.. you have to drive it to know how loud wind noise can really get!

It would be fun if you guys have an iphone and could post your sound levels with road surface and tire makes listed

 

Can I haz participation?

Headers + 3" Catback + 4AT =

I want to look into one of these meters. Interesting observations.

 

try it
I think the only drawback of the app is it cant pick up over 100db LOL!

 

I will try this when I feel better. I have a radio shack db meter reading up to 127 I think (Dont use it since my system hit 138.8 db )

I have a full trunk dynomat installed in the trunk and lid and rear deck. and dynomat in the front doors outer and inner shell. I have yet to do the rear doors but planning on it. I also installed foam in I think just the rear door channels.

Fun thread.

 

What audio setup are you running?
And OP with all that work I was expecting lower numbers in comparison to the other vehicles

 

It is a 10 year old car.

 

You do realize that db levels are logrithmic? even a 3-4 db drop is actually a big drop in sound level?

do you know that a lexus ES350 which is counted as one of the most quiet cars registers 68db at 70mph and that is with double insulated sandwich glass for the windshield and side windows and all that lexus insulation? I think my 69 compared to that is perfect for a car designed in 2000!!

 

Its insane what work has to be done to gain 1db. At least in car audio when the number is already large. I have heard in the industry that to gain 3db you have to double your power output.

I am running

Pioneer 80mp
Kicker 1500.1 amp
Kicker 650.4 amp
Kicker QS65.2 Components (2)
Kicker 12 inch L7 (2) in kicker enclosure
Deka Intimidator second battery in trunk
Upgraded 270 amp alternator from dc I think it was
All kicker 0 guage wire including big 3 and distribution blocks out the butt


I am planning on making my own box for competition.

My rear deck goes nuts. I have used screws foam the works. I got more work to do on that.

 

Just realized I thread jacked. Sorry im sick and the meds got me nuts. I promise I will make it up to you with a db reading.

 

Also I think these numbers might be pretty good considering that the car from the factory has a very high road noise level.

 

Hey no worries! I like healthy discussions!. Nice audio setup.

One suggestion... the rattle from the rear deck also accounts for the trunk spring bars inside the trunk that rattle under and the plastics of the seat belt and latch anchors... Have you deadened those?

I'm going to keep updating this thread with numbers from other cars. I do oil changes for a lot of my friends so I can get more numbers for comps!

 

I do have to also say... once I did all the deadening work... the Bose doesnt sound all that bad I can only wait to hear how it will sound when I put in the Pioneer 4300DVD and a set of polk components I have sitting around

 

Thanks. I have not given attention to the bars and never thought about it. Very simple issue I over looked. I will be addressing that. How did u address the bars? Tied them stiffer? wraped in mat?

 

The bars are held in a couple of places by plastic clips and in the closed position they tend to rattle.
I added a foam tape in the plastic clips and also put some mat over the bars at a couple of places.
Basically, if anything was hanging under there, I put mat on it. I also put mat on the bose subwoofer metal plate and that area. I assume you have that removed? if so that opening might cause a rattle so mat in that area will help for sure too.

 

The rear deck in my car used to rattle terribly. This may sound ghetto, but what I did was I put a black piece of hose/rubber tubing down behind the rear deck so that it is touching the window and so it holds the entire thing completely stiff. Nothing rattles from there anymore.

 

Thanks. I know what your talking about now. Yes sub is removed plate is still there and the whole deck has mat on it when I only ran the factory sub and did the whole deck. It made the factory sub come allive big time.