[Fronzdan]

Great summary, I agree with all those points.

Adding to your #6..
The other rattle point is at the end of the door release cable...the end opposite the one that snaps into the door panel. There is a plastic fitting where the metal cable connects to the latching mechanism. When the cable isn't under tension, that little plastic thing rattles around. I think that caused some of the buzzing I used to hear. I basically smashed some of the sticky black gunk from spare pieces of DynaMat around it so it wasn't so loose. Seems to work so far.

The white connectors do come with thin black pads that go BETWEEN the connector and the metal door. You'll notice most of these stick to the metal when you remove the cover. It's best to pull them off the door and put back on the plastic fastener so they don't get lost. But they SHOULD have some kind of rubber dampening on the other end of the fastener, where they slide into the notches on the door panel. I guess this is where you put cloth? Rubberizing that end would be nice.

[squidlyboy]

Originally Posted by Fronzdan

Great summary, I agree with all those points.

Adding to your #6..
The other rattle point is at the end of the door release cable...the end opposite the one that snaps into the door panel. There is a plastic fitting where the metal cable connects to the latching mechanism. When the cable isn't under tension, that little plastic thing rattles around. I think that caused some of the buzzing I used to hear. I basically smashed some of the sticky black gunk from spare pieces of DynaMat around it so it wasn't so loose. Seems to work so far.

The white connectors do come with thin black pads that go BETWEEN the connector and the metal door. You'll notice most of these stick to the metal when you remove the cover. It's best to pull them off the door and put back on the plastic fastener so they don't get lost. But they SHOULD have some kind of rubber dampening on the other end of the fastener, where they slide into the notches on the door panel. I guess this is where you put cloth? Rubberizing that end would be nice.

haha.. great thought. I didn't do anything with the door release plastic fitting, but i did apply some Dynamat gunk to replace one of the think black pads that fell off and got lost. Maybe i'll go back in this weekend to secure it. Thanks for that tip!

I didn't notice any rubber dampening material on the other end of the fastener where they slide into raised housing notches (i believe what you are referring to is that little cavity where the yellow arrow is pointing to in the first pic). That hollow space (for my car anyways) is just bare hard plastic. And there's a lot of play in there where the connector just rattles around on its own. When i hold the door panel and shake it, all the white connectors just rattle away (hard plastic on hard plastic). This could explain some of the plastic squeaking noises in my car when the car is in motion.

In any case, i just wedged some cloth fabric in that hollow housing cavity where plastic meets plastic. Now the connector is immobile. Afterwards i held up the door panel and all the noise was gone. The car drives much more noticeably quiet now

[phant0m]

I think I need to reopen my right passenger door and re do it. There's a bad rattle on bass heavy songs.

[Fronzdan]

Whoa....squidly....you matted the inside surface of the door panel???

I'm a bit obsessed with this stuff. Now I want to rip all mine off and put it there as well. Does is seem to make any difference?

When the weather is warmer, I'm going to pull out the OEM subs and Dynamat there as well.

[squidlyboy]

Originally Posted by Fronzdan

Whoa....squidly....you matted the inside surface of the door panel???

I'm a bit obsessed with this stuff. Now I want to rip all mine off and put it there as well. Does is seem to make any difference?

When the weather is warmer, I'm going to pull out the OEM subs and Dynamat there as well.

Yah, i know... i kinda went overboard a little bit I just figured i didn't wanna go back in there to do it again, so i figured i'd just take the entire weekend and just ... go big.

I'm not a sound engineer, but i spent a few nights reading up on acoustics and how sound travels and i learned enough just to be dangerous. The dynamat stuff was a slam dunk as we know that vibrations from metal hitting its resonance frequency is something we all hear, especially when the bass and/or volume is turned up. And that was my main goal... getting rid of those vibrations/rattles - because i like my music loud.

The acoustic foam was a little more esoteric, used for sound absorption, but whether that makes a lick of difference i don't know. But it was only $40 for a huge 2ft x 4ft sheet from the guitar/music store, so i decided to just add it in the mix.

i will say, not everyone's style, but i can crank up the volume full blast now and those rattles/vibrations are gone.

[squidlyboy]

^
the last two pics are of the door pin receptacle that little door pin rattles against that hard plastic receptacle ... put some electrical tape around the receptacle to make the bumpin a little softa .... i know... im stoooooopid

[Fronzdan]

Oh I see you pulled back the foam stuff that's on the door. Can it be stuck back on easily?

I have loads of the acoustic foam...is there a place to stick it without interfering with the window?

[squidlyboy]

The seal on that foam moisture barrier is some sort of re-usable gummy putty compound that holds its shape. When you first pull back the barrier, some of it separates and sticks on the metal door and some on the barrier.

With a little bit of patience and practice, its easy to slowly pull the barrier back and keep all of it on the barrier, using both hands (one to pull back the barrier, and the other to guide this gummy material off the metal to stay on the barrier). And that way, you can pull the barrier off and put it back on as many times as you want and it will re-seal the cavity each time like it was the first time you took it off.

The front door cavity seems to be larger than the rears. I purchased some spray-on adhesive with the thought that i could spray it on the acoustic foam and dynamat foil and have it stick together, but I was able to wedge the acoustic foam in the cavity and have the window glass clear the foam with ease without the adhesive. You'll find that inside the front cavity, there is a little track/lip on the bottom that acts as a ledge that holds the foam in place. If you wedge the acoustic foam against on that ledge, the glass will clear it easily, and it keeps it in place.

I was not able to put the acoustic foam in the rear cavity as the glass did not easily clear that ledge/lip. The rear cavity is not as large as the front. It was getting late, so i didn't even attempt to try to glue it onto the dynamat on the outer door skin. I just gave up.

The acoustic foam i used was about 3 inches thick at the thickest point, so if i had used something thinner, i could have easier got it into the rear cavity as well, but since i didn't, i just gave up on the rears, and just left it after dynamatting the cavity in the inside of the door

[squidlyboy]

Here are some before and after vids of the door sound-deadening work i did. The noises you hear in the before are 100% from those white connectors. I promise i did not turn down/off the audio in the after vid

BMW F30 Door Panel (before sound deadening)

BMW F30 Door Panel (after sound deadening)

The result of a few tiny strips of old t-shirt fragments :-)

To be fair though, the rattles you hear in the before vid won't be heard once you put the door panel back against the door. The pressure of the connected door panel to the door keeps it from rattling free like you hear in the video. However, the connector could still produce a squeak as it rubs against the hard plastic housing (plastic on plastic) when the car is in motion. The purpose of the fabric was to add a buffer layer between the two plastic pieces to deaden the sound of the hard plastic connector against the hard plastic housing (squeaks).... i don't hear the squeaks anymore

[tclardy]

Installed mine today. I had one problem with my order, one of the midrange speakers came wired incorrectly, no blue connector, two black connectors. I will see how easy it is to get this take care of, hope customer service is good.

I followed the video instructions and it was pretty easy. I did not break any of the fasteners. I did make a few boo-boos and had to take a panel off due to forgetting a step.

Definitely a worth while upgrade, sounds more detailed and smoother. Next up amp, have to decide which one to go with.

TC

[bri1042]

You won't regret adding an amp. The Bavsound speakers do well with more power. Stick with what's worked for folk here...the JL 6 or 8 channel or the Helix 8 channel. The DSP functions of the Helix make it the winner, IMHO.

[tclardy]

Do I really lose any functions if I go with the JL 600/6 amp and don't have a center channel? I really don't want one anyway as I feel as if it screws up sound staging. Has anyone out there who has run this amp with no center channel noticed any loss of functions such as alerts, chimes, cell phone voice, anything like that?

[bri1042]

I am very anti-center channel....I tried it and just couldn't enjoy it. You won't lose any functionality, but you will gain actual stereo separation.

[ossanboy]

How is this upgrade compare to HK system?

Thanks

[bri1042]

I haven't spent a lot of time with the HK system, but amp'd and dsp'd it's pretty brilliant.

[_bdiddyb_]

@squidlyboy, i'm surprised you are getting noise vibration from the doors and not the side skirts. After I put the 2 underseat woofers on my JL amp, the side skirts vibrate big time!

[squidlyboy]

Originally Posted by _bdiddyb_

@squidlyboy, i'm surprised you are getting noise vibration from the doors and not the side skirts. After I put the 2 underseat woofers on my JL amp, the side skirts vibrate big time!

Oh jeez... that might be next :-)

I listen to music that has heavy bass (house, trance, electronic, dance, rock, pop), and I typically listen to it loud. Thats probably most of the problem.

But with certain songs, the bass would just start to distort and rattle the doors big time. And its not like i crank up the bass setting to max. Its just +1 or +2 above center. After the sound deadening, the rattling/vibration when those notes are hit is much improved. I did notice on Friday when i was outside of the car doing work when the music was on, the vibrations on the outside of the car are just ridiculous. It wasn't just the side skirts, but almost the whole car.

I do plan on replacing the OEM amp with a JL XD600/6 in the next phase, then in the final phase, upgrading the floor woofers with Earthquake SWS 8" woofers along with powering them up with some inexpensive 200W mono amp. i heard they really need to be powered with at least 100w-150w to be most effective, and i wasn't sure if the XD600/6 could produce that, given they need to power the other door speakers. I'm not looking forward to hearing what that will do with rattling after the woofer upgrade.

Which woofers did you end up getting and how's your amp configuration look like to those woofers? Any fitment issues you had to deal with? Any additional sound deadening work under the seats?

[_bdiddyb_]

Originally Posted by squidlyboy

Oh jeez... that might be next :-)

I listen to music that has heavy bass (house, trance, electronic, dance, rock, pop), and I typically listen to it loud. Thats probably most of the problem.

But with certain songs, the bass would just start to distort and rattle the doors big time. And its not like i crank up the bass setting to max. Its just +1 or +2 above center. After the sound deadening, the rattling/vibration when those notes are hit is much improved. I did notice on Friday when i was outside of the car doing work when the music was on, the vibrations on the outside of the car are just ridiculous. It wasn't just the side skirts, but almost the whole car.

I do plan on replacing the OEM amp with a JL XD600/6 in the next phase, then in the final phase, upgrading the floor woofers with Earthquake SWS 8" woofers along with powering them up with some inexpensive 200W mono amp. i heard they really need to be powered with at least 100w-150w to be most effective, and i wasn't sure if the XD600/6 could produce that, given they need to power the other door speakers. I'm not looking forward to hearing what that will do with rattling after the woofer upgrade.

Which woofers did you end up getting and how's your amp configuration look like to those woofers? Any fitment issues you had to deal with? Any additional sound deadening work under the seats?

Didn't mean to hi-jack this thread, I will answer you here. I went with 2 sets of MB Quart QM200.3 and hooked them up to the JL XD800. I had to retrofit to make the tweeters fit in the sail. The mids fit perfectly, the 8" woofers dropped in perfectly. I custom cut holes to fit the tweeters in the rear doors. I went with a pair of JL 10w3v3-4 (sealed box) each on its own JL JX500/1. The carpeting on the F30 is pretty thick, I didn't see a need to deadened that area. I did layered dynamat in the doors though.