Ziebart undercoating review
I finally got around to having Ziebart apply their "sound barrier" undercoating to my van in an attempt to decrease road/tire noise. I told them to pay special attention to the wheel wells, the spare tire well and the third seat well. Although I haven't had it on a rack to really get a good look, it appears they did a good job and kept overspray off the mechanicals and exhaust system. I took some before and after readings with my SPL meter on various road surfaces. Looks like about a 2 to 4 db drop on average. Not much, but other factors such as wind and engine noise were not effected by the undercoating.
Subjectively, I think it was money well spent ($219.00). Road noise on new, smooth asphalt surfaces is almost non-existent and the "singing" noise on concrete is greatly reduced. The low frequency road noise when driving on worn, coarse asphalt is still very audible, but unless I'm fooling myself, to a lesser degree. I'm guessing that much more of this noise enters through the body panels than I originally expected, rather than through the floorboard.
One thing I have noticed is that the effectiveness of this sound barrier undercoating seems to improve as it cures and hardens. It was very tacky/sticky initially, and with our hot & humid weather down here, it is slow to cure. Each day seems to bring an improvement.
Subjectively, the BIG surprise is how much more a QUALITY feel there is about the van. I can't put my finger on it, but the van just imparts a better built, more luxury-like ambiance. Alot of that cheapness-sensation that really bugged me is gone. This hard-to-quantify improvement alone makes it a worthwhile investment in my opinion.
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