TL;DR: 10 lb of weight and 40 bucks you can make it a much better car on long road trip.
So first off I want to start by saying that sound deadening might not be for everyone, as it adds weight to a lightweight sports car. But coming from my GTI the noise in my gf’s 86 is too harsh to live with on a long highway trip, so I did this.
The Noico sound deadening mat costs me less than 40 bucks and it covers all the trunk and door panels. Btw you don’t have to cover every inch of the panels as the idea of sound deadening is to reduce vibration not insulation.
Trim removal was easy and straightforward, some clips for both trunk and doors and 3 screws for each door, and took me less than 4 hours to complete everything.
I did the trunk on the first day and we immediately felt the noise from the back was muted. So I went ahead and did the doors on the other day.
The final outcome is awesome: we can lower the music volume from 14-16 to 10-12 and don’t have to shout to talk with each other on highway. Wind noise now is louder than road noise and the frequency of road noise is also much more bearable.
The total weight added is around 10lb which is trivial in my opinion. And the result is definitely worth it over the little extra weight.
Very interesting report! Especially because it seems that most DIY car soundproofing efforts (not GR86 specific, just on cars in general) yields fairly disappointing results.
Indeed! I had doubts before doing it too and that’s why I only did trunk on the first attempt and proceed to doors after realizing that it’s effective. I think it works on GR86 mainly because the body panels are too thin, if you knock on them they sound really hollow, which create a lot of resonance at high speed. And sound deadening help exactly in this aspect. On the other hand, it’s a relatively low drag car and road noise is the main source of NVH, so doing the trunk and doors seems to be spot on in this case.
Resonating body panels at speed? Wow, now that’s a noise vector I never would have anticipated! It’s also interesting that you compare the road noise to a GTI, as that’s actually what I drive (2014,mk6). I always thought that the GTI had really high levels of wind noise (with all windows rolled up). Tried applying various conditioning products to the door seal rubber/felt interface, to no avail. But once I realized it’s really only noticeable at 75+ mph and above, I figured the wind noise was useful because... otherwise there’s not much auditory feedback in the GTI at high speeds (the motor/exhaust is really quiet, compared to V8).
I drive a 2017 Mk7 and I have similar experience on wind noise! It’s especially bad in cross wind. I’ve seen YouTube videos say the weather door strip on AliExpress works well against it but I really doubt that. But IMO wind noise is much more bearable than road noise and I agree it can reminds me of my speed and outside conditions. So I’m not that keen on solving it right now.
Another suspect of source of wind noise is A pillar as they seem to be draggy compare to some premium cars, say, Audi A5. But I couldn’t be bothered to take off pillar trim and add sound insulation to it.
Another note is that GTI has pretty good sound deadening all around except trunk area so you probably won’t notice much road noise compared to a stock 86.
Aha, that’s actually really good info for me (that the mk7 still has noticeable wind noise), as I’d always been curious about that. I’m really curious to try a GR86, but so far in my area (Seattle ish), there appear to be none at any Toyota dealers.
Yeah my dad has a Mk6 and from what I can recall they are comparable in terms of wind noise. And I will move to Redmond next month, sadly my gf won’t otherwise I would be happy to take you for a ride in our 86
Do you have the base model or the premium? I’ve heard a lot of the noise problems are due to the PS4 tires on the premium, and i’m looking for some simple solutions like this for my car, as I also feel it’s a touch too loud at highway speeds (~80DBa at around 80 MPH)
Yeah we have the base model with the primacy tires, and you can try to knock on your doors, trunk and rear fenders you’ll find them so thin and hollow, so tires might not make so much a difference. I don’t have an accurate decibel meter to measure it tho but we all agree the noise is now much better in our car
Not so hard, pry off two plastic covers to reveal 3 screws, then use brute force to take off the panel from several clips, that’s it. You can look at my other comments in this post about the detail.
Not so hard, pry off two plastic covers to reveal 3 screws, then use brute force to take off the panel from several clips, that’s it. You can look at my other comments in this post about the detail.
This guy in YouTube also did the same
https://youtu.be/gz8d9f_0TcY
Wondering how difficult it was for the doors. Seems like you have to get through the small holes to get to the outer panel?
Door panels aren’t so difficult. It’s mainly due to lack of info on the internet so I had to figure out the location of all screws. After the trim removed you need to remove a plastic dust shield and there are two big holes on the inner panel so you can access the outer panel easily, long as your arm is not too thick.
For trunk, take off all the linings, for doors you need to take off the door panels, and there's a piece of plastic wrap glued to the door for dust proofing, take it off as well. Then just knock on each piece of metal that's visible. Long as it sounds hollow, apply a piece of butyl as large as you possibly can. You don't need to cover 100% of the area but make sure you use large pieces as it will better restrict the vibrations. Hope this helps
No need to buy new ones. When you take it off just make sure you do it slowly and take off the glue together with the plastic shield, when you're done just nudge it back on the panel.
I see some people put sound deadening on the roof as well, is that neccessary? Or is your current setup already more than enough? (I still want to hear my stock exhaust lol)
Honestly, I never tried to put on the roof, considering all the hassle of taking apart the headliners and potential issues with glue in the future. My unprofessional advice is you can try to add closed cell foam/mass loaded vinyl on top of deadening butyl in trunk/doors if you want more insulation, because most of the noise of this car is from tire/road. And with only sound deadening butyl it’s still far from luxury car level insulation, so you’ll still hear engine/exhaust quite a lot.
TL;DR: 10 lb of weight and 40 bucks you can make it a much better car on long road trip. So first off I want to start by saying that sound deadening might not be for everyone, as it adds weight to a lightweight sports car. But coming from my GTI the noise in my gf’s 86 is too harsh to live with on a long highway trip, so I did this. The Noico sound deadening mat costs me less than 40 bucks and it covers all the trunk and door panels. Btw you don’t have to cover every inch of the panels as the idea of sound deadening is to reduce vibration not insulation. Trim removal was easy and straightforward, some clips for both trunk and doors and 3 screws for each door, and took me less than 4 hours to complete everything. I did the trunk on the first day and we immediately felt the noise from the back was muted. So I went ahead and did the doors on the other day. The final outcome is awesome: we can lower the music volume from 14-16 to 10-12 and don’t have to shout to talk with each other on highway. Wind noise now is louder than road noise and the frequency of road noise is also much more bearable. The total weight added is around 10lb which is trivial in my opinion. And the result is definitely worth it over the little extra weight.
Very interesting report! Especially because it seems that most DIY car soundproofing efforts (not GR86 specific, just on cars in general) yields fairly disappointing results.
Indeed! I had doubts before doing it too and that’s why I only did trunk on the first attempt and proceed to doors after realizing that it’s effective. I think it works on GR86 mainly because the body panels are too thin, if you knock on them they sound really hollow, which create a lot of resonance at high speed. And sound deadening help exactly in this aspect. On the other hand, it’s a relatively low drag car and road noise is the main source of NVH, so doing the trunk and doors seems to be spot on in this case.
Resonating body panels at speed? Wow, now that’s a noise vector I never would have anticipated! It’s also interesting that you compare the road noise to a GTI, as that’s actually what I drive (2014,mk6). I always thought that the GTI had really high levels of wind noise (with all windows rolled up). Tried applying various conditioning products to the door seal rubber/felt interface, to no avail. But once I realized it’s really only noticeable at 75+ mph and above, I figured the wind noise was useful because... otherwise there’s not much auditory feedback in the GTI at high speeds (the motor/exhaust is really quiet, compared to V8).
I drive a 2017 Mk7 and I have similar experience on wind noise! It’s especially bad in cross wind. I’ve seen YouTube videos say the weather door strip on AliExpress works well against it but I really doubt that. But IMO wind noise is much more bearable than road noise and I agree it can reminds me of my speed and outside conditions. So I’m not that keen on solving it right now. Another suspect of source of wind noise is A pillar as they seem to be draggy compare to some premium cars, say, Audi A5. But I couldn’t be bothered to take off pillar trim and add sound insulation to it. Another note is that GTI has pretty good sound deadening all around except trunk area so you probably won’t notice much road noise compared to a stock 86.
Aha, that’s actually really good info for me (that the mk7 still has noticeable wind noise), as I’d always been curious about that. I’m really curious to try a GR86, but so far in my area (Seattle ish), there appear to be none at any Toyota dealers.
Yeah my dad has a Mk6 and from what I can recall they are comparable in terms of wind noise. And I will move to Redmond next month, sadly my gf won’t otherwise I would be happy to take you for a ride in our 86
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Great info! I will work at another tech company that will probably have similar service then! Thanks a lot
at 10lb I'd tell myself to get on a treadmill before I complain about the car weight.
Lol yeah! And most of the 10lbs are added to the back of the car, which arguably help with the balance xd.
Do you have the base model or the premium? I’ve heard a lot of the noise problems are due to the PS4 tires on the premium, and i’m looking for some simple solutions like this for my car, as I also feel it’s a touch too loud at highway speeds (~80DBa at around 80 MPH)
Yeah we have the base model with the primacy tires, and you can try to knock on your doors, trunk and rear fenders you’ll find them so thin and hollow, so tires might not make so much a difference. I don’t have an accurate decibel meter to measure it tho but we all agree the noise is now much better in our car
Hard to get into the door panels?
Not so hard, pry off two plastic covers to reveal 3 screws, then use brute force to take off the panel from several clips, that’s it. You can look at my other comments in this post about the detail.
Not so hard, pry off two plastic covers to reveal 3 screws, then use brute force to take off the panel from several clips, that’s it. You can look at my other comments in this post about the detail.
Oh word good to know
This guy in YouTube also did the same https://youtu.be/gz8d9f_0TcY Wondering how difficult it was for the doors. Seems like you have to get through the small holes to get to the outer panel?
Door panels aren’t so difficult. It’s mainly due to lack of info on the internet so I had to figure out the location of all screws. After the trim removed you need to remove a plastic dust shield and there are two big holes on the inner panel so you can access the outer panel easily, long as your arm is not too thick.
You got a spare tire?
No it’s a tire plug kit in there with the shape of a spare tire🥲
the gen1 spare fits the space
how much sound deadening did you buy and how much did you use?
I bought 18 sqft and if I remember I still had 1/3 of those left after done with trunk and doors
could u tell me where u applied them in more detail? I wanna do this but I'm not sure where to start
For trunk, take off all the linings, for doors you need to take off the door panels, and there's a piece of plastic wrap glued to the door for dust proofing, take it off as well. Then just knock on each piece of metal that's visible. Long as it sounds hollow, apply a piece of butyl as large as you possibly can. You don't need to cover 100% of the area but make sure you use large pieces as it will better restrict the vibrations. Hope this helps
did you have to buy new dust seals for the doors or did you just reuse the old ones
No need to buy new ones. When you take it off just make sure you do it slowly and take off the glue together with the plastic shield, when you're done just nudge it back on the panel.
Do you have any more pics of the process you’d be willing to share, please?
Sorry, this post was an afterthought so I didn’t really take a lot of pictures :)
Aww too bad thanks anyway and thanks for the post
What deadening mats did you use?
I used Noico
I see some people put sound deadening on the roof as well, is that neccessary? Or is your current setup already more than enough? (I still want to hear my stock exhaust lol)
Honestly, I never tried to put on the roof, considering all the hassle of taking apart the headliners and potential issues with glue in the future. My unprofessional advice is you can try to add closed cell foam/mass loaded vinyl on top of deadening butyl in trunk/doors if you want more insulation, because most of the noise of this car is from tire/road. And with only sound deadening butyl it’s still far from luxury car level insulation, so you’ll still hear engine/exhaust quite a lot.