After using the search function at length to get a feel for all the ways people have fixed their Bose deck rattle, I decided to take the advice of BiggD23...with a little modification. His thread is at http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....workbench+feet. I completely removed the rear seats, C-pillars, and rear deck from the car and put my ears to work. The rattle problem is NOT the carpeted rear deck rattling on the metal shelf. Just like BiggD23, I found the rattles were there 100% with the deck removed from the car. The source? Two spots: General resonance from the metal around the sub and significant rattles from 2 of my 3 seatbelt units. I removed the seatbelts from the car completely and found this to be true. I reinstalled them and found that if jammed my finger in between the seatbelt kit and the plastic molding around them the rattle disappered. Obviously removing the seatbelts isn't an option for a permanent fix, so I ran out to Circuit City and bought a door kit of Tsunami Silencer (12 sq. ft.). This is a generic sound deadener that's supposed to be comparable to Dynamat Extreme. Came to around 60 bucks.

I added the sound deadener inside the plasic seatbelt cases and wedged small squares on the side of the cases to tighten the units. I also removed the metal sheet the sub mounts to and added Silencer to it as well. Before reinstalling everything, it was time to crank it up. The results? The rattles were gone! However, the sub sounded really weak. Then it hit me, no shocker, the seats are out. The Bose sub is designed to operate as a "free air" baffle setup, so without the seats installed the sub can't perform properly. I threw everything back together, and WOW. What a difference. No more muddy bass! The sub sounds significantly clearer and stronger and is much tighter than before. Now it's still no "boomer" (I miss my 2 Orion 10's...), but this was an impressive improvement. I've gotta think this is what Bose had in mind. I know many have claimed installing foam mattress pads on their rear deck has fixed their rattle. However, I think this is just "masking" the rattle since the foam covers up the sound of the rattling seat belts and metal around the sub. IMHO, using Dynamat in the manner I've outlined on my site is worth the extra $$ because it not only removes the rattles, this fix actually produces cleaner and stronger bass. I spent $60, but I had quite a bit left over. I used it to do my plate. Thanks to BiggD23 for the inspiration!

I have posted a how-to complete with pics on my site. I look forward to hearing impressions from others.

 

Yeah but people with sub's in the trunk cannot use dynomat on their rear decks.

Using dynomat on the rear deck will prevent bass from entering the car. I recommend using 1/4" foam.

 

housecor...glad to hear everything worked out for you.

Igor911...as housecor mentioned, once you get the rear deck removed and you really get to hear where the rattle is coming from you realize that foam alone will not help the problem at all. It comes from 2 main places...

1) The seat belts and child seat anchors
2) The metal piece that the Bose sub itself attaches to

Simply stuffing foam between the rear deck and the metal deck itself won't do anything. Believe me, I tried.

 

I just bought some 1/2" foam. I will fix this rattle issue tomorrow since I took off. You will see my friend, you will see

The rattle just drives me up the wall!

 

To clarify, this fix was aimed at those with a stock factory BOSE system. However, I'd still recommend applying a quality sound deadener (Dynamat, Brown Bread, etc.) to the rear deck and seatbelt units for those with an aftermarket sub in the trunk as well. Dynamat's purpose is to convert vibration to heat, not necessarily to block noise. While it may block bass from the trunk to some limited degree, I serioulsy doubt it would amount to a significant loss. Also, anyone who replaced their Bose sub with an aftermarket in the trunk could easily port their deck by removing the Bose sub.

 

No, you will see. I've already had the whole rear deck and back seat apart twice, I know what I'm talking about. There is simply no way that foam alone is going to take care of the rattling problem, period. But I wish you the best of luck. Make sure you take off the metal plate that the Bose mounts to and try to lay foam between that plate and the metal deck itself. If you don't do something with that metal plate and the seatbelt and child safety anchors you're wasting your day off. Simply laying foam between the rear deck and the metal deck won't get the job done because the rattle IS NOT coming from the rear deck itself. Good luck.

 

I put foam and dynamated the rear deck and trunk. I cut a hole the size of the factory bose sub hole and bought the bose grille to cover the hole. The rear deck doesn't rattle not one bit and it's not muffled from all the sound deadening because of the hole. See my page 4 for some more pics of what I did.

http://www.cardomain.com/member_page...=313259&page=4

 

How much (square feet) sound deadener is used just to do the trunk?


~limsandy

 

It took me 50 sq ft for the trunk floor, sides, wheel well, trunk lid and then I had some extra to cover some of my rear deck. Inside where the jack is and under the rear deck were also covered. 50 sq ft should be plenty.

 

I am attempting my mission today Wish me luck fellas hehehehe

 

Good luck man, It took me something like 20 hours to complete my job. I guess I'm just extremely slow and I wanted to do everything right double checking everything. The time is well worth it if you have send almost 2K on stereo equipment. Have fun

 

Just to clarify, foam will not help much with an aftermarket system. My system actaully causes the metal part of the rear deck to flex, thus causing rattling. Silly flimsy metal...

EDIT: a small write up I posted a little while back.

From outside the car, there are 2-3 main rattles. One is the trunk lid, for which there is little hope. I will get more and more layers of SS on there, do weigh the lid down. Another is the spoiler - same deal, except there is no hope other than to tighten the screws that hold it in place.

The one rattle that sounds like absolute farting ***, is the air filter that is behind the rear left side marker. It is there in case anyone ever gets stuck in the trunk, they will have air to breathe. It is a pretty small (maybe 10"x7") box with little rubber gaskets that open and close with the air. So when the bass hit, the rubber things make really bad fart-like sounds. A completely useless annoyance, if you ask me.

I tried to get the box out, but I could only loosen it, but not take it out (oh what I would do for small hands at that point). So, I did the next best thing - I ripped out the little rubber flaps (90% of them). I need to go back and try and rip the rest out, but the sound has lessened significantly.

Hope that helps.

 

So Igor911, what's the scoop? Eager to hear whether the foam worked out for you.

 

Lithiumax: I bet my 2 12" koves hit a lot harder than that one 15" kicker and ther is no rattle of the rear deck. Did you apply foam to the rear deck after removing the rear deck. If you did you would have noticed that that metal it not flimsy at all. It has many holes and a huge hole where the hose sub would be (I'm non bose). I put down sheets of sound deadening material over those holes then the foam between the rear deck.

Housecor: If you do the job right, it will stop the rattle. Go to my car domain page and check out my pics. The foam I used was the thinnest bed foam if seen and it was from Target. The rear deck will stick up a little bit so just shuv something under the child safety seat hooks on the rear deck to push it down. I have pics on my page if you don't what what I'm talking about. Afraid that all this would just dampen the sound coming from the trunk I ported the rear deck. I would recommend doing it because the bass sounds so much cleaning after doing so. If I ever sell the car it will have the bose grille there, just with no bose.

 

Depends on your definition of "do the job right" I guess...

As housecor and I both mentioned, the rattle **IS NOT** coming from the rear deck itself. I had my rear deck removed and sitting on a work bench on the other side of my garage, at least 10 feet away from my car, and the rattling was still as bad as ever. The rattling is coming from the metal deck that the Bose subwoofer attaches to, which then bolts to the metal rear deck itself. And also from the child safety and seat belt anchors. Putting bedding foam under the rear deck alone is not going to do anything, I know this because I tried.

To me doing to job right means using Tsunami or Dynamat and taking care of the actual problem, not shoving bed foam under the deck that isn't rattling anyway and calling it a fix. Just my $.02.

 

Thanks for clarifying BiggD!

 

You're on crack, Al.

Take off all that hard work, and turn up your bass. See the actual METAL PART of the rear deck flexing? Yeah, good luck with getting rid of that. And if you aren't getting any flex, then your subs are NOT hitting as hard as my 1 15".

 

I never got around to doing it on tues. I will do it on saturday. I will let u know how it goes.

 

technically, you're not supposed to "hear" bass. you're supposed to feel it. you are in no way limiting your sound output by deadening your deck. using those theories, is it bad to deaden your trunk lid? deaden trunk floor? deaden side fenders and wheel wells? no. this just creates less resonance and a stiffer trunk for frequencies to reflect off of.

yes, if you make a hole, thus creating in essence a port, then that will help sound, but prior to the deck having sound deadening, it was flimsy metal. adding the sound deadening will not lessen the power output as more it will clean up that gay *** rattle.

as someone mentioned above. the best thing is to deaden the deck, cut the hole and cover it with a grill.....

 

and u told me to use foam because.....

 

get rid of the rattle.
using either sound deadening or foam will not affect sound. they will both do the job of getting rid of the rattle. both have their own methods of absorbing the shaking. i plan on using velcro strips like somoene used prior. it ended the rattle because the metal had nothing to rattle against. i have not rattle from metal to deck lid. but now because my foam is TOO thick, it hits against my rear windshield, so i have rattle there. thinner foam pads or velcro strips and the job is just the same accomplished.

 

I couldn't find 1/4" anywhere so I just bought 1/2". I hope I can do something about it not hitting the glass.

 

PoLo, foam will NOT stop the actual metal rear deck from flexing from the bass - only sound deadener (a lot of it) will help. It's a sight if you have seen it.. the metal vibrates with the bass, and flexes all over the place. No good for sound..

 

well it's not like it costs so much ($8)
i used 1/2" and it seems thick. maybe i used too much. let's see how you do.
i will search high and low for 1/4". if not, i'll do velcro.

 

i'll agree with that.
but i look at it this way
i want to get rid of the rattle.
i know this may be asking a lot, but if you can put 2 exact cars, 1 with sound deadene deck and 1 with foam. neither will have rattle but 1 is "stiffer". will i actually hear something different in the sound quality. we "should", but will we. by deadening the lid, fenders, floor, you've already deadened enough to have a good 90% stiff trunk.

scientificaly, and under sound guidelines, yes it should provide a difference, but if i don't hear a difference in sound quality, and foam did the job of ending the rattle, then i'm fine with that.

i'm very open to suggestions, so i can also do the lid with dynamat itself. just don't feel myself losing sound quality (by what i can hear, not by what audio signal meters show)

 

First of all, sound deadener increases resonation, which in turn gives you a slight decibel boost (anywhere from 1-3 or so dB's). It may not seem like a lot, but a 3dB increase in sound doubles what the human ear hears. Secondly, when I had the puny Bose sub, the foam pretty much made it perfect - no rattle. When I took it out and put in the new sub, the story changed. Lotta rattle, a lot of which has been killed off.

Still, with time and a lot of bass, more things will become loose in the car and will start to rattle. Neverending process, really.

 

Wrong!!! Cheap bed foam alone will not stop the metal-on-metal rattling because it isn't the carpeted deck that is the problem. I feel like a parrot, repeating the same thing over and over.

 

Even though foam may MASK the rattle to some degree, only Dynamat (or some equivalent) offers noticeably enhanced clarity and bass output from the factory Bose sub. IMHO, this more than warrants the extra cost.

 

Lol yeah maybe. If the rear deck carpet rattles up and down I guess so does the rear metal deck it only makes sense. As for the foam, I guess it just absorbs some of the vibration and my rear port allows more vibration in the cabin and not on the rear deck.

 

I admire what you guys are doing in trying to fix the rattle and the poor sound quality. Since this is a manufacturer defect, why can't Nissan fix it? The rattle in my car is not bad (when I play CDs or tapes), but the FM stations are bad, particularly when I tune in hip-hop or hard rock stations. The bass is mostly muddy and boomy, not solid at all. The Bose system in my other Max, a 96 GLE, sounds solid and crisp, and that car doesn't even have a subwoofer in the rear deck. I think Nissan and Bose are using cheap stuff in the new cars. I laugh when they call the Bose system in my 03 GLE as "premium." What a shame and a joke!!

 

Well, it's amazing how my impressions of the system have changed since completing the rear deck sound deadening. I was quite disappointed by the weak and sloppy low frequency response as well and at first I blamed the equipment, but the sub no longer sounds muddy at all. Clear and noticeably stronger! As a guy who's spent 1000's on aftermarket equipment over the years, it's still not a "wow", but it's now good enough to keep me from reaching for my wallet at the local audio store. I'll spend my mod $ elsewhere.

 

ok so yest i removed the rear deck and dynomatted it. Even with the rear deck off of the car, i still get rattle!!! and that is after i applyed dynomat extream!

 

So you're saying you were still getting rattles after applying dynamat to the entire rear deck and the seat belt housings? Are you running the stock Bose setup or using an aftermarket sub? If you use sound deadening on all of the deck and liberally on the seat belt housings you should be rattle free (and much stronger and cleaner!) with the stock Bose setup.

See my site for details: http://www.cardomain.com/id/housecor

 

Yeah i did the deck and seat belts. I have the stock bose + 12".

 

Ah! Well, there you have it. Doing just the rear deck is enough to quiet rattles from the lil' boy Bose, but I suspect you're going to have to hit the trunk as well since you've enhanced your low end. The joys of sound deadening with aftermarket subs...I've been there. So what's you plan of attack now?

Also, are you still running the Bose sub as well? If so, I'd be interested to hear how you're getting signal to your 12". I assume you used speaker level inputs and spliced into the Bose sub's wiring?

 

I plan on doing the entire trunk aswell.
I have my NF pre-out on my radio going to my PG amp that powers my 12" DA m6.

on my PG amp, i have a 2nd line out for RCA so I run that to another amp thats powering the stock sub.

 

how much does a 100 sqt ft of dynamat wieght

 

i would say like 30lb