Forum
Welcome to the official website / forum site for Suzuki Swift Sport Owners Club (SSSOC).
How to: Sound deadening + Insulating your Suzuki Swift
Swift Sport is an amazing car but has one major downside, it's an especially noisy car especially on the highway. Luckily there are product out there that can help manage the noise, it will not transform the car into a luxury car but I personally feel it made the car that much better to drive. Disclaimer: I did not measure before and after using DB meter, I also always drive any car with no radio on hence my preference for a quieter cabin. I'll break this down into multiple parts as the forum only allow 5 files and I do not have picture hosting account :).
As a background, there are many ways addressing road noise in a car. First is adding mass into the body panel which makes it harder for sound wave to vibrate the panel hence less wave being transmitted into the cabin, product for this is usually aluminium sheeting coupled with butyl or asphalt product (lets called this Constrained-Layer Damping or CLD panel). Second, add insulating layer to absorb more of this sound wave and stop panel rattling with each other, foam or cotton blanket works well for this purpose. Third, blocking noise with heavy material such as Mass Loaded Vinyl.
This is the tools and product I use. Missing from this picture is Isopropyl Alcohol for cleaning the surface prior to sticking CLD panel, utility knife to cut CLD to size and hairdryer (important!! especially if you live in an are with cold and damp weather). You must ensure the panel you are going to cover is moisture free, otherwise rust may develop overtime if any is trap behind CLD panel.
Uploaded files:
Front Doors - removal:
In my opinion, door would make the biggest impact in terms of cabin quietness. Swift is not great in this department, a quick knuckle test reveal how tinny the door panel (or any other panel on the car) is coupled with feather light door skin that has no insulation at all. A decent sound treatment on this department would yield great result. My advise is to do all the door panels at once if possible, otherwise you will experience some odd acoustic inside the car like I did.
Removing the door skin is relatively easy, two screws and one push pin. One screw behind the latch handle and one inside the door handle, as per pictures. Tweeter cover need to be remove before the skin can come off as it needs to slide upwards (make a note of this for reassembling).
Uploaded files:
Front Doors - removal cont'd:
Once all the screws and pin has been removed, slide your hand as shown on the third picture (there's a handy hand size hole, again great for letting noise into the cabin!), yank the door skin outward, you should hear some clips disengaging. You can now run your hand around the perimeter to release the pins. They can be quite stubborn if it has never been removed previously.
For the driver side, there are two wiring harness that need to be release, the black harness press pin is located at the bottom and the white one on each sides, just press and pull out, you can use the cable as leverage. Once removed you can now slide the skin up, you will be greeted with the door panel cover with vapor barrier.
Uploaded files:
Front Doors - Door Skin:
This is how my front driver side skin looks like. As the panel is quite thin, I added CLD panel to add mass and then foam insulation to reduce noise coming out from the door panel. The foam insulation that I use is a combination of open and closed cell foam at 10mm thick, it's a tad thick but is compressible, I had no issue refitting the door skin as long as tight area is avoided.
Disclaimer: This happen to be the first door skin i treated hence I was being cautious by under applying the foam. I apply 20-30% more on the other door skins.
Uploaded files:
Front Doors - Door Panel:
There are many ways of treating door panels. As you can see there are quite numbers of 'Service Hole'. Some people like to cover these holes with CLD panel or even as far as 3D printing plastic panel to cover this completely. I opted for leaving those alone, treating the outer panel with CLD and let the foam insulation absorb the noise instead.
The plastic sheeting is held in place by butyl paste, you can peel this off gently and re-attach it after you have finished. I only peel the sheet to access the largest hole. Also, what I didn't show is I also removed the speaker for ease of access.
Keep in mind that law of diminishing return apply when you apply CLD panel, you don't have to cover every single inch of the panel to achieve the desired result, usually 50 - 70% coverage is plenty. Always reach for that low hanging fruit first (ie: the easiest place that your hand can reach)
I would prepare CLD panels into some rectangular pieces that fit the hole. Use back of the roller tool to press firmly into the panel, you want to avoid trapping any air bubble.
Disclaimer: I had previously treated the door, I only removed the panel for this purpose, whilst in there I added some extra CLD panel :). The silver one is an older CLD panel from the same company, the new product (black) is thicker.
Uploaded files:
Front Doors - Re-assembly tip & optional:
Before finishing up, do a knuckle test to see if desired effect has been achieved.
I recommend lowering the window as the door skin need to slide into a channel near the window as per photo. Best way to do this is rest the skin into the door handle then slide the top portion starting from the back (furthest from tweeter) working towards the tweeter.
I also added felt tape for the screw cover to avoid panel rattle.
Lastly, check that all electronics is working.
Uploaded files:
Rear Doors - Skin Removal:
Removing the rear door skin is very similar as the front door's. Instead of tweeter there's the upper door handle and no push pin.
Location of the screws is the same as the front door. Again there's a hand sized hole to grab the skin and yank out.
As you can see from the photo I added CLD panel and foam insulation into the upper door handle plastic cover as there's a gaping hole behind it and it's at ear level.
The wiring harness on this door on my car is impossible to remove, what i did instead is removing the switch entire assembly, secured by one screw (shown on the last photo) and clips on each side (shown on the next photo).
Uploaded files:
Rear Doors - Door panel & Door skin:
I peeled the plastic sheeting all the way to the bottom for easier access. As the service hole on the rear door is bigger, I was able to apply more CLD panel. I also apply considerably more foam insulation on the door skin.
Uploaded files:
Rear Doors - Optional tips:
As per front doors, re-assembly tips apply, lowering the window is recommended.
I added some felt tape on the top corner where the door skin meet door panel as it can potentially cause some rubbing.
I also added EPDM rubber sealing (second photo) as per Mr. Saten's You Tube video. I think this piece of rubber helps with sealing out road noise and makes the front door that much nicer to close. Cost 20 AUD from Aliexpress. Link: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000643169069.html
Uploaded files:
