[Kenco]

I purchased a 2008 XB last year, and loving the car..... but....
although the sound system is great, the cabin noise on most highways is rather overwhelmingly loud.
Am used to the quiet cabin of my previous Camry (great car), and hard to get used to this noise.
Am I the only one who has this problem? or is it common to the XB? and....
anyone have ideas for noise reduction?
Appreciation is at hand. Thanks.

 

[Parkers09xB]

Yeah this bugs me too even I usually drive with all the windows down and music relatively loud.
When I'm on the highway, I roll the windows up, and the music gets hard to hear.

This weekend I tried something to fix this: I stuffed my rear hatch with Poly-Fil pillow stuffing. I saw someone do this on Club xB, and I figured for $6 I'd go for it. Now when I tap the hatch from the outside, it's a super deep thud, unlike the doors which sound hollow and thin.

Tomorrow I'm taking the xB from Fort Worth, Texas to Norman, Oklahoma, so we'll see if it makes much difference...

Dynamat and the like are just sooo expensive.

 

[Aljay]

Wow I thought the B was pretty quiet as far as road noise went. I just took off the Goodyear eagle gsa tires and my road noise went down even more.

 

[jack75]

Hi! Welcome to the site.Its so glad to meet you.I hope you have a good time here.

 

[boblamb58]

I purchased a 2008 XB last year, and loving the car..... but....
although the sound system is great, the cabin noise on most highways is rather overwhelmingly loud.
Am used to the quiet cabin of my previous Camry (great car), and hard to get used to this noise.
Am I the only one who has this problem? or is it common to the XB? and....
anyone have ideas for noise reduction?
Appreciation is at hand. Thanks.

I had a lot of wind noise after mine got side swiped, but the body shop fixed it. Do you have wind noise or noise from the tires on the road? You may just want to try a different set of tires. I run Coopers on stock rims. I think mine is pretty quiet. It's more quiet than my Beetle ever was.

Poly-Fil.. I LIKE that idea!

 

[Parkers09xB]

Poly-Fil.. I LIKE that idea!

Thanks! I definitely recommend doing this - you can't go wrong.

Used about a bag and a half, and it was FULL. The picture shows it not quite finished I think… Don’t remember exactly.

Eventually, I’m gonna get something to stuff the area around the spare tire with. That area should get rid of some road noise hopefully.

 

[Chrevis]

Did it sound better? or could you tell much of a difference?

 

[Parkers09xB]

Yeah it really did help. It's without a doubt more solid feeling at least.

Like I said though, I'm gonna stuff the spare tire compartment with something similar to get rid of the rest of the sound back there. My friend is gonna let me borrow some of that pink attic insulation, so I'll probably use that for now.

 

[boblamb58]

pink attic insulation.

You sure you want to go that route? Fiberglass is no picnic to get out of your skin....

 

[Parkers09xB]

pink attic insulation.

You sure you want to go that route? Fiberglass is no picnic to get out of your skin....

Yeah I know... I'd wear gloves to put it in if I do, and I always have work gloves in my car incase I need 'em. My friend put this stuff in trash bags and stuffed it in parts of his truck haha. It's free, so I might as well try it.

Does anyone have another idea of what could be used for this not including Dynamat, Fatmat, etc? I'm excited to experiment with this for some reason.

 

[Parkers09xB]

Instead of insulation, I put a big thick packing/moving blanket over the spare tire. Big difference.

 

[bsmart]

rear hatch

Thanks! I definitely recommend doing this - you can't go wrong.

Used about a bag and a half, and it was FULL. The picture shows it not quite finished I think… Don’t remember exactly.

Eventually, I’m gonna get something to stuff the area around the spare tire with. That area should get rid of some road noise hopefully.

how did you safely get that cover panel off the rear hatch door? Did you ruin any of the pins that attach it to the metal door? I need the secret to removing it so I can stuff the door too. Have you tried stuffing any of the side doors with insulation ? I seem to have a loose rear bumper cover that 'rattles' when hitting potholes etc. I put some foam rubber stuffing in there to quiet that down some. I stuffed some 3" insulation in the area below the spare tire and the storage bins in back which seemed to help too. Still not satisfied with the noise levels overall. Have you tried anything in the wheel wells ?

 

[Boat]

how did you safely get that cover panel off the rear hatch door? Did you ruin any of the pins that attach it to the metal door? I need the secret to removing it so I can stuff the door too. Have you tried stuffing any of the side doors with insulation ? I seem to have a loose rear bumper cover that 'rattles' when hitting potholes etc. I put some foam rubber stuffing in there to quiet that down some. I stuffed some 3" insulation in the area below the spare tire and the storage bins in back which seemed to help too. Still not satisfied with the noise levels overall. Have you tried anything in the wheel wells ?

I did this myself, and I noticed a difference in noise reduction. All you need to do is pick a corner and pull firmly straight out and away and it will pop loose. Then move your hand and do the same all the way around until it pops off. There are little black plastic washers that may fall off so keep your eyes peeled.

Some of the pins may stay in the tailgate, but just pull them out with needle nose or something. The panel has slots that they slide right back into. I've taken mine off again to do the LED plate lights and the second time was easier and all the pin stays in the panel...

 

[joebxr]

An yone tried the Ziebart noise deadining package they offer?

 

[bsmart]

stuffing the hatch

I did this myself, and I noticed a difference in noise reduction. All you need to do is pick a corner and pull firmly straight out and away and it will pop loose. Then move your hand and do the same all the way around until it pops off. There are little black plastic washers that may fall off so keep your eyes peeled.

Some of the pins may stay in the tailgate, but just pull them out with needle nose or something. The panel has slots that they slide right back into. I've taken mine off again to do the LED plate lights and the second time was easier and all the pin stays in the panel...

Boat, well i did just as you suggested and took that panel off the hatch. I stuffed it full of fiberglass insulation w/o the paper much like was done with the down-fill. I also removed the 3rd back-up light assembly and put some foam rubber in there to stop some rattling. I then removed the panels by the rear lamp assemblies and put some insulation in those empty spaces also as well as in the access panels to the rear shock absorber bolting on top. I haven't driven it yet but will see how this affects noise next drive. I also noticed that the rear bumper had a loose styrofoam dampner that was loose and rattling when tapped. I stuffed some foam rubber between the bumper cover and the styrofoam to stop that rattle. Found the same problem on the front bumper cover, so did the same treatment. And, did the same treatment in the front wheel wells above the tires at about 11 oclock and 1 oclock positions. There are some wires that run across the top of the wheel well and they need some dampening to stop rattles, so i did that as well. We'll see if its quieter tomorrow when driving.

 

[bsmart]

OK, where did all that 'booming' in the rear area of the box go ??? Now i notice other 'noises' to go target, mainly coming from the front end area of the vehicle. Tire noise, front cowling etc.

 

[bsmart]

Still looking for more ways to quieten the front area of the xB. Anybody tried undercoat in the front wheelwells? Maybe a can of Flexseal would do the trick. I noticed when i went from the steel wheels to the alloys, some of the tire noise went down. I'd really like to see what can be done to the coil springs to absorb some road noise.

 

[bsmart]

Ok, this worked.....I put some insulation on top of the front strut towers. Stuffed it between the top bolts and the cowling that catches water running off the windshield. Much less tire noise.

 

[WaggOn]

Try dynamat inside your doors. It will also make your audio sound better. A friend of mine used cheap Home Depot roof insulation (it had the adhesive on one side n lookes like a paper bag on non sticky side)in his jeep and cut down road noise. My car is noisy as well I just haven't tried it.