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Sound deadening work begins next week: will report before and after data

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On Monday I'm dropping my Model S off at Don Sambrook's shop in Manchester, Maryland for him to begin work on sound deadening the car. Don is one of the top experts in the field and I'm very fortunate that his shop is only 20 miles or so from my home and that he could even take me as a client (he works himself on only 2 or 3 cars a year). Don's website is a source of incredible depth on sound deadening techniques and materials but this will be the first Model S he's evaluated and done. He teams up with Bert Miller on all of the installation work. Bert's expertise is doing all the the tear downs of the interior that are necessary to do the job the right way.

Between now and then I'll be taking and saving a series of sound measures to record the sound levels on my drive to and from work every day. The route has a great mixture of road types with different surfaces — two lane country road with some speed bumps, busier two lane road, four lane, Interstate, city streets, and parking garage. So I’ll have some very good before and after measurements for comparison of results.

When the work is finished at the end of next week I'll take new measurements along the same course and post the comparative results.

Yes, I know the car is pretty quiet as it is, but this was inspired by my friend, SUPRKAR, who sound deadened his entire Model S over a period of 3 months. He told me the results were astounding -- it was like having a different car. He did all of the work himself. Although I intended to do this myself as well, when I looked carefully at what would be required I concluded that didn't have have the time or adequate work space to do it all. So I was fortunate to find Don, whose rates for both labor and parts are very reasonable.

I'll report back when I deliver the car to Don next Monday.
 
Do you think it will help with noise transfer from the tires?

Most of what I hear is road and wind noise, and at speed it's pretty annoying, made worse by the fact that there's no engine noise to mask it all. So the wheel wheels and front and rear trunk areas will be a focus. Based on SUPRKAR's results, substantial improvements can be made.

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I saw once a video of the Model S inside the cabin while running and the noise inside the Model S was really negligible. So I wonder why to deaden sound inside the cabin of the Model S?

Not the case at speed. Some ICE cars are as good or better, which shouldn't be the case. So I think Tesla did not pay enough attention or put enough resources into noise deadenig.
 
Agreed. At high speeds, the S is quieter than a regular car but there's still a lot of wind noise.

And apparently, the noise is much worse in the back seats ... of my car at least. Not sure if they fixed that in more recent builds or not.
 
On Monday I'm dropping my Model S off at Don Sambrook's shop in Manchester, Maryland for him to begin work on sound deadening the car. Don is one of the top experts in the field and I'm very fortunate that his shop is only 20 miles or so from my home and that he could even take me as a client (he works himself on only 2 or 3 cars a year). Don's website is a source of incredible depth on sound deadening techniques and materials but this will be the first Model S he's evaluated and done. He teams up with Bert Miller on all of the installation work. Bert's expertise is doing all the the tear downs of the interior that are necessary to do the job the right way.

Between now and then I'll be taking and saving a series of sound measures to record the sound levels on my drive to and from work every day. The route has a great mixture of road types with different surfaces — two lane country road with some speed bumps, busier two lane road, four lane, Interstate, city streets, and parking garage. So I’ll have some very good before and after measurements for comparison of results.

When the work is finished at the end of next week I'll take new measurements along the same course and post the comparative results.

Yes, I know the car is pretty quiet as it is, but this was inspired by my friend, SUPRKAR, who sound deadened his entire Model S over a period of 3 months. He told me the results were astounding -- it was like having a different car. He did all of the work himself. Although I intended to do this myself as well, when I looked carefully at what would be required I concluded that didn't have have the time or adequate work space to do it all. So I was fortunate to find Don, whose rates for both labor and parts are very reasonable.

I'll report back when I deliver the car to Don next Monday.

Do you know how will this impact your vehicle's warranty?
 
Do you know how will this impact your vehicle's warranty?

Can't imagine this will have any impact as all this involves is lining interior and wheel well panels with sound deadening material.

In any case, below is the sound data from my first reading today on a 15 mile drive home. As noted in my first post, this route involves many different roads and road surfaces. Today I reach a maximum speed of about 90mph in a short burst and averaged about 70 mph on the Interstate, with much lower speeds on the other roads.

The sound meter is my iPad mini with the SoundMeter+ app (accurate to plus or minus 2dBA). A very cool and highly rated app for accuracy (almost equal to a separate sound meter), and very easy to use. I placed the iPad mini on the center console and it was locked into place with a magnet. All future tests will use the same mounting and mounting point.

As I take more readings I'll put all of this in an easy-to-compare table.

The average dBA of 67 is equivalent to a busy library. The max of 97.7 (for only 9 milliseconds) is roughly equivalent to a car horn from 15 feet away or a train passing 100 feet away. The low of 34 is equivalent to a very quiet room fan at low speed from a distance of 1 meter.

So not surprisingly, we're starting with very good performance, so it will very interesting to see how the sound deadening affects the highs, lows, and averages.

Here's a great online resource that explains much of the math and theoretical basis for measuring sound pressure.


Sound pressures readings, Artsci's Tesla Model S P85, August 14, 2014 at 6:23:47 PM EDT

[SLM METER]
Average Level : 67.0 dBA
Instant Level : 47.4 dBA
Weighting Type : dBA
Response Speed : Fast
Max Level : 97.7 dBA , Hold Duration : 9 msec
Min Level : 34.1 dBA , Hold Duration : 30 msec
Custom Calibration : None

[NOISE DOSIMETER]
Projected DOSE : 6.99%
Projected TWA Level : 70.8 dBA
DOSE : 0.39791%
TWA Level : 50.1 dBA
Elapsed Time : 00:27:19

[IMPULSIVE NOISE METER]
Transient Noise Peak : 85.4 dBA
Transient Noise Duration : 160 msec

Health Message : Safe level for your ears. Sound is moderate. Similar to neighborhood, moderate rainfall.
 
I saw once a video of the Model S inside the cabin while running and the noise inside the Model S was really negligible. So I wonder why to deaden sound inside the cabin of the Model S?

You haven't driven on Texas roads. Many have a large aggregate size that makes a lot of noise. It's better in the Tesla, but it's still loud. Sound deadening is one of the things on my wish-list.
 
Seems to me the biggest issue with sound on the Model S is the 21" tires and the lack of dual pane glass on the windows. Although they might be able to mute the tires sounds with deadening materials in the wheel wells, unless you are planning on replacing all of the windows with dual pane laminate glass (like I had on my Lexus LS600hL) I doubt there is much they can do for the noise that comes through the windows.
 
Artsci: I will wait for your results , with interest. My biggest 'sound issue' is 'tire noise'. Would you mind asking how much of this noise they might think could be reduced with just treating the wheel wells once they get their first look at your car? Do you think they would do another 'local' (Delaware) car? Thanks Al
 
Seems to me the biggest issue with sound on the Model S is the 21" tires and the lack of dual pane glass on the windows. Although they might be able to mute the tires sounds with deadening materials in the wheel wells, unless you are planning on replacing all of the windows with dual pane laminate glass (like I had on my Lexus LS600hL) I doubt there is much they can do for the noise that comes through the windows.

From what I've read on the topic most of the road/tire noise comes through the lower parts of the car -- wheel wells, car floor, frunk, and trunk. That's what SUPRKAR focused on and he said it made a great difference.
 
From what I've read on the topic most of the road/tire noise comes through the lower parts of the car -- wheel wells, car floor, frunk, and trunk. That's what SUPRKAR focused on and he said it made a great difference.

Ok. We just cross posted: I would be interested in this as well. Let me know if they are interested in doing another S. Approximate cost? (PM that or other details if you feel that is more appropriate.) Thanks
 
Ok. We just cross posted: I would be interested in this as well. Let me know if they are interested in doing another S. Approximate cost? (PM that or other details if you feel that is more appropriate.) Thanks

I have an estimate of $1,800 - $2,000 but that's without their having seen the car. But that includes a guarantee on materials, so the only variable is labor. I'll post the final cost when the job is finished.

The whole purpose of my doing this, assuming it makes a worthwhile difference, was to provide Mr. Sambrook with the basis for developing a kit of some kind for the Model S. When I see him next week I'll ask if he's willing to take on more Model S's at the Manchester shop. Since Bert does most of the installation work with the advice of Don, I don't see why not.
 
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One of the great things about the remote app is that I've been able to monitor what part of my car is being worked on by just observing when the doors, tailgate, and frunk lid are open. A few emails exchanges with Don confirm my assumptions.

It's been in Don and Bert's hands since Monday am. For the first several days they worked on the floor and trunk. Yesterday work continued on the floor. Today they did the doors and liftgate and now they're working on the frunk and front wheel wells. The entire car is being sound deadened.
The second day I noticed that I had left the AC on and that it was running the whole time they had the front doors open and draining the battery. So I shut it off remotely. Too much:)

I pick up the car tomorrow anticipating driving it will be a whole new sonic experience.