Wheel well sound insulation

Just wondering if anyone here has attempted to line the inside of the wheel well with foam or carpet to dampen the sound of the tires.

It seems like this should make a bit of difference to the whine the tires make when cruising. Ofcourse this doesn't help much with strongs winds, as you can't dampen the wind noise.

Rather than trying to insulate away the tire noise, wouldn't it make more sense to just buy quieter tires? The OEM tires that come on the North American version of the car are pretty darned quiet, IMO

Don

I have no idea if the tires that came with the car are OEM or not, considering the 60k km they must have been exchanged atleast once. Atleast we have quite a bit of choice for tires here in NL.

I'll have to look it up.

The OEM tires on the US models at least are Dunlop Enasave. I've found that these have the best combination of range, handling, noise, and ride quality. Yokohama tires are quieter and ride better, but the range takes a hit. Continental tires wear well, but are noisier, hit bumps harder, and don't handle as well. They do give a slight range improvement over the Dunlops, though.

Since putting Dunlop tires back on the front and taking the Continental tires off, my car behaves better on the highway and drive effortlessly. The Continentals always tried pulling me to the right (my steering wheel's "neutral" position was at 1 o'clock. I'd be sore after a long drive trying to hold the wheel straight.)

As for insulating sound, I get more wind noise from the air going around the car than I do from the tires. Heck, even the gearbox whine above 50 MPH is louder than the tires.

Maybe Spray-in Bed liner , in a can?
Will be more expensive, but they also have a roll on too.

I am thinking of doing this to the inside of the Doors, under the carpet inside the cabin so that maybe it will have better insulation from the cold and noise.


Funny, for years I have been wanting to do this to the bed of my pick up but have never done it.... now that I need it for heat and sound control I am much more motivated !

I've seen some of the other providers of Liquid rubber seal advertise them for the 'underwork' of the car, so yes, that does make sense. Probably easiest applied with a wool paint roller.

When I was working under the car today to insulate the heating hoses I had a look at the wheel well protection, there is almost none. The liner doesn't even properly go to the bottom of the chassis.

It also explains why I hear so much when I drive through some grit. The wheel well is also quite huge, so a bit of insulation wouldn't hurt in the bit. I've got some 10mm adhesive insulation over from earlier, I think I'll just apply some of that.