E30 Zone

I am planning on driving around the NC500 later this year, however I live in the South and it is going to be quite a few hours of motorway to get up there.

Looking at putting some extra sound deadening in my 316i to make the trip more pleasant.

How far can you reasonably lift up the carpet without taking it out?

I have no interested in cutting the carpet to remove it or enough time before the trip to remove the heater core.

Simply would like to install a few small squares of Butyl sound deadening and some Mass Loaded Viynl in the foot wells and over the transmission tunnel if possible.

Here is the door I did when I fixed my door lock - Forum Thread:

You'd have to at least remove the speaker covers, door sill covers, B pillar covers, to get any kind of access at all and that would still be quite limited. Taking the seats out would give you a fair bit more room to play with.

TurtleDesignTech wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 07, 2021 8:22 pm

I am planning on driving around the NC500 later this year, however I live in the South and it is going to be quite a few hours of motorway to get up there.

Looking at putting some extra sound deadening in my 316i to make the trip more pleasant.

How far can you reasonably lift up the carpet without taking it out?

I have no interested in cutting the carpet to remove it or enough time before the trip to remove the heater core.

Simply would like to install a few small squares of Butyl sound deadening and some Mass Loaded Viynl in the foot wells and over the transmission tunnel if possible.

Here is the door I did when I fixed my door lock - Forum Thread:

PXL_20201219_131552708.jpg

Doing the NC500 early May so will let you know how it goes!

I just had to lift the drivers footwell a bit so I could do some welding. No problem I thought.....

I'd buy some decent speakers or earplugs.

Elsalmon wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 08, 2021 10:08 am

Doing the NC500 early May so will let you know how it goes!

Good luck! Make sure you post up some pictures.

Have you got an exact route planned yet? I have had a look but other than just driving around clockwise and stopping whenever I get to something interesting, I am struggling a bit as there are so many landmarks based on online guides.

Cloggy Saint wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 07, 2021 11:52 pm

You'd have to at least remove the speaker covers, door sill covers, B pillar covers, to get any kind of access at all and that would still be quite limited. Taking the seats out would give you a fair bit more room to play with.

Quite happy to remove all the trim and seats, just don't want to go down the rabbit hole of removing the heater core/dash to take out the carpet itself at this stage.

Is the carpet reasonably flexible? Can it be bent without damaging it?

Hoping to lift it up from the back so that I can get access along the entire transmission tunnel up to the heater controls. I think doing the footweels should be easy enough from each side.

You will not damage the carpet, however much you pull and twist it.
Never removed a heater or dash to completely remove an E30 carpet yet.

TurtleDesignTech wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 09, 2021 6:42 am

Elsalmon wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 08, 2021 10:08 am

Doing the NC500 early May so will let you know how it goes!

Good luck! Make sure you post up some pictures.

Have you got an exact route planned yet? I have had a look but other than just driving around clockwise and stopping whenever I get to something interesting, I am struggling a bit as there are so many landmarks based on online guides.

Am doing 7 days from Inverness (2 either side to get up and down) which seems to be a fairly standard amount of time. Looked at a couple of guides for 7 days and then settled on the end point for each day and booked hotels accordingly. After that worked out activities between the two points which seemed fairly standard for each of the guides unless you want to go 'off-route' and spend a day bagging a munro!

To be honest a lot of the stuff is along the route so won't take a huge amount of time or detour. Ie a quick 10 mins to look at a waterfall or a ruined castle...it seems a lot but most stops are short and also the days are very long up there in summer!

OK Guy`s , for the knob`s like me , let us know what on earth you are talking about please ?
Start another thread if you like but pop up some pic`s or maps as I have been all around Scotland over the years.
Viva HC on Cross ply, Viva HB on cross ply, MK 1 Escort, Rover 316 (?) e46 330 se, e46 ,e46 330 M Sport and other guy`s pile`s of crap !!
But it is soooooo cool up there

Mart.

Can't be that loud a 316i?

Brianmoooore wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 09, 2021 10:34 am

You will not damage the carpet, however much you pull and twist it.
Never removed a heater or dash to completely remove an E30 carpet yet.

Your knowledge is always much appreciated. If all that is required is to remove trim and seats to get the carpet out, that sounds like good news to me.

Hopefully I can get MLV to cover most of the entire floor pan.

Satan wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 09, 2021 7:37 pm

Can't be that loud a 316i?

316i isn't that loud most of the time, although I believe they do come with less sound deadening from the factory than M20 lump cars.

No idea if the M20 is quieter or more refined than the M40 vibrations wise due to being a six cylinder.

The main issue I have is that I have been spoilt by siting in modern cars recently on the motorway. The E30 starts to wear after a while over 65-70 mph. I often find I am doing 80mph+ to get around all dangerous weaving and break jamming that happens in the middle and slow lane these days.

There's still a couple of inches to cut, above the steering column, unless you want to go to the trouble of removing it, and I said 'remove' the carpet. Getting the bit under the heater box back in place is challenging.

Got around to this before going to on my trip to the NC500.

Managed to get the carpet out as Brian said. No need to cut around the heater core, although you do need to cut about an inch above the steering column (I didn't consider this to be that big of an issue - no one will ever notice).

Carpet Out Overall the floor was pretty mint. Just gave it a vacuum and a clean down.

Sound Deadening Method
There is a lot of nonsense all over the internet about what you need to do to decrease sound effectively.

In short there are 3 materials you really need:

Butyl Sound Deadner
(These are the silver tiles you can see below.

Often referred to as Dynamat in the USm which is the main brand in the US. I used a brand called Noico. At the end of the day, use what you want - this is just some silver foil with a Butyl mixture on the back.

The purpose of this is similar to the tar BMW poured in the foot wells back in the day. It deadens the sound, but making making the metal resonate at a lower frequency, hence deadening the sound.

You only need about 25% coverage for this to be effective. Literally tap the sheet metal. If it rings, apply a square of sound deadner.

Foam
Foam should be the next layer if you plan to build a car with a "bad ass" sound system.

This "decouples" the sheet metal from the layers you put above the foam, reducing the amount of sound waves transmitted inside the cabin of the car.

Considering I was only doing this to reduce noise on the motorway and the E30 carpet is basically made of foam I skipped this step.

Mass Loaded Vinyl (MLV)
The final step if you are really trying to stop noise getting into the cabin is a sound barrier. This doesn't deaden sound. It stops it by literally blocking it.

This is the black material you can see in the pictures below. MLV is actually a modern substitute for lead.

The only way to black sound, despite all the marketing wank you will find, is to actually put some mass between the source of the sound and yourself, hence why MLV is used.

The MLV I used was 5kg/m2. I used a whole roll of 1.25m by 3m from Amazon.

Applying Butly Tiles Cutting and Sticking MLV

Floor Before Carpet

Carpet Cleaning
Whilst the carpet was out I gave it a good steam vacuum clean!


Final Result
Very pleased with the overall result. The first time I drove the car, I thought I had left a window open - all the road noise was at the window level with very little sound coming from under the floor plan.

Considering this only added about 25kg to my car and cost about £40, it has to be one of the best things I have done.

My recent road trip up the the north coast and around the NC500 was far enjoyable that it otherwise would have been. Motorway driving was very comfortable even at 80mph and didn't need to raise my voice when talking to my girlfriend. The car was much less tiring to drive as a result of the reduced road noise.

What is next?
It would be nice to occasionally listen to music in my E30 or use handsfree to answer calls. I did order a popular retro looking Continental radio before the trip, but it didn't arrive in time.

FYI - You can modify the LED's and the screen LCD polarisation to make the radio to look nearly factory. See this post here.

I have since discovered I need to do a bit of wiring to remove the mess made by the dealer when the "upgraded" the car to the optional Panasonic radio my car came with.

I have also ordered some speakers to replace the originals which have disintegrated around the cones and a new antenna to replace my manual antenna which is corroded in place!

This is excellent stuff! I actually bought the noico stuff a few years ago to deaden our Audi A3 but never got around to it at the end.
I'd love to do the same to the E30 but a part of me dreads what I'll find once the carpet is removed
How much mlv did you need? Was the stock 1.25x3m enough?

twenty wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 05, 2021 8:14 pm

This is excellent stuff! I actually bought the noico stuff a few years ago to deaden our Audi A3 but never got around to it at the end.
I'd love to do the same to the E30 but a part of me dreads what I'll find once the carpet is removed
How much mlv did you need? Was the stock 1.25x3m enough?

I was quite lucky not to find anything under the carpet!

The 1.25x3m roll of MLV was exactly the right amount to cover the floor of my 4 door. I tucked it right up against the firewall at the front and all the way around up the sheet metal at the back, stopping where the rear seats clips in/at the front of the fuel tank access hatches.

I probably only used a few sheets of Noico out of a pack.

TurtleDesignTech wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 06, 2021 8:35 pm

twenty wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 05, 2021 8:14 pm

This is excellent stuff! I actually bought the noico stuff a few years ago to deaden our Audi A3 but never got around to it at the end.
I'd love to do the same to the E30 but a part of me dreads what I'll find once the carpet is removed
How much mlv did you need? Was the stock 1.25x3m enough?

I was quite lucky not to find anything under the carpet!

The 1.25x3m roll of MLV was exactly the right amount to cover the floor of my 4 door. I tucked it right up against the firewall at the front and all the way around up the sheet metal at the back, stopping where the rear seats clips in/at the front of the fuel tank access hatches.

I probably only used a few sheets of Noico out of a pack.

I'll go will go with a smaller pack of Kilamat then. Speak of MLV - did the Amazon version come with self-adhesive backing? I was looking at https://standartplast.com/catalog/gold- ... oiseblock/ but the Amazon variant seems a lot cheaper

twenty wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 06, 2021 9:08 pm

TurtleDesignTech wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 06, 2021 8:35 pm

twenty wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 05, 2021 8:14 pm

This is excellent stuff! I actually bought the noico stuff a few years ago to deaden our Audi A3 but never got around to it at the end.
I'd love to do the same to the E30 but a part of me dreads what I'll find once the carpet is removed
How much mlv did you need? Was the stock 1.25x3m enough?

I was quite lucky not to find anything under the carpet!

The 1.25x3m roll of MLV was exactly the right amount to cover the floor of my 4 door. I tucked it right up against the firewall at the front and all the way around up the sheet metal at the back, stopping where the rear seats clips in/at the front of the fuel tank access hatches.

I probably only used a few sheets of Noico out of a pack.

I'll go will go with a smaller pack of Kilamat then. Speak of MLV - did the Amazon version come with self-adhesive backing? I was looking at https://standartplast.com/catalog/gold- ... oiseblock/ but the Amazon variant seems a lot cheaper

The Amazon stuff was just a roll of MLV - no adhesive. Was very easy to cut with a Stanley knife and a straight edge.

I used aluminium tape and pushed the MLV over any fixing points, which allowed any studs to poke through to remount interior trim and helped keep the MLV anchored in place.

EDIT - Updated links.

what was the trick to get the carpet out without removal of entire heater box?

I'm going to be pulling the dash and going to replace carpet. I will be replacing heater core etc but dont want to pull the whole box contraption out so any tips in advance would be appreciated