In my younger years I never minded a loud car. My old 99 2.5RS had an fairly obnoxious exhaust and I loved it. That, however, was when I was younger and didn't have kids in my life. Once I traded in my RS for my XT one of the first mods I did was the downpipe and a Sherwin (Cobb Knockoff) exhaust. ruhrohh on forester.org had a decent write up about basically the same exhaust here... http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f94/ebay-cobb-replica-catback-dnamotoring-115650/ The exhaust tone is what I wanted but like a lot of exhausts on an open cabin like the Forester plus the lack of sound deadening material from SOA, the drone can get annoying. Especially for myself, wife and 2 young boys when we drive 3 hours to visit my parents or 45 min to visit the in laws. Add in the fact that 2 kids, 2 dogs, and a mortgage will leave most people strapped for cash. I'm all for car mods on a BUDGET! With that said dynomat, rammat, and the other brands out there were not an option for me. Enter LOWES! After searching around at Home Depot, Menards and Ace hardware I found some material at Lowes in their Carpet section that i figured would work a lot better then poly-fill like some members have utilized. It is 3' wide and is sold by the linear foot (length) at around $3. I ended up buying 6 linear feet totaling about $20. After installing the initial drive was noticeable quieter. The drone was much less noticeable and overall I am quite pleased with my maybe $25 investment. I'll give an update on my first road trip back to my parents as that will be, for me, the real test. I used carpet tape to hold it in place. From there I started with the spare tire area and just cut and fitted as needed. There was no exact measuring done, just lay it down mark here and there and make a few cuts to accommodate for the curvature of the wheel well. The Rest of the pics are the 40 min or so process. Rear cargo area 40" or so section test fit Cut and test spare tire test fit Taping down wheel well section Trim and test fit left side Right side Reinstall
This is a good idea for the budget-minded. I wish I knew about this before I sold my TurboXS stealthback. Do we know how much sound gets absorbed by this mod?
I can still hear my exhaust through the cabin. It just doesn't resonate nearly as bad. There was a "perfect" rpm range that just resonated like crazy through the cabin when I was on the highway due to the open cabin and lack of sound deadening material prior to this. After the mod I have yet to hear that and have just enjoyed hearing the Turbo spool more and the low mellow tone of the exhaust. I'm sure if there was an actual comparison with a decibel meter, the difference across the entire spectrum would not change much as I can still clearly hear my exhaust and road noise. The amplification that came with the exhaust note to the steel directly above is definitely reduced.
And sorry, I have been looking for budget solutions for a while and just came across this. If I could have found it earlier it would have been up earlier. Depending on how picky you are to interior noise it may or may not have been enough for your prior exhaust.
Awesome....I used a little of my leftover floor laminate underlayment, which is a blue foam type substance. It made a huge difference, but I think I might upgrade to this thicker stuff to make it even better. Great idea!
This works very well too. http://www.lowes.com/pd_154017-81326-PS625_0__?productId=1018733 It is essentially the same thing as dynamat just a little thinner. I used it in my old forester for the back cargo/spare tire well and front doors. it made a world of difference with road noise and made my front door speakers sing beautifully!
I went with some carpet pad and it worked great. It got rid of the louder droning and just leaves a good sound. It even passed the wife test.
