An online friend put me on to the idea of adding sound deadening in the front fenders. Actually, I thought about it but I didn't know how effective it would be, and I wasn't sure about taking the fender liners off the car. I've heard stories about the brittle plastic parts breaking on reinstallation. It turned out to be a non-issue. The job was easier than I thought it would be, and the return on effort was well worth it. With breaks to stretch the old codger's back and legs, it took about three hours on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Here's how mine went.
I started by jacking up the car and removing the front wheels to make access easier. It was also a good time to do a quick visual on the brake pads and rotors. I had to remove the splash guards I installed a few months ago, and also took off the front fender cladding at the time. Removing the fender liners is easy - all you need is a #2 Phillips screwdriver and some patience when dealing with the plastic retainers. A little careful maneuvering brought the liners free.
On the right side, I applied RAAMmat to the insides of the body near the door hinges and also on the plastic liners from the 9:00 position to the 12:00 position. I applied two layers of sound absorbent foam to the mat on the body and then started to put the fender liner back in place. It was then I noticed something that my friend mentioned in a message: There is precious little space, a half inch or less, between the metal body at the leading edge of the door frame and the plastic fender liner at about the 10:00 position close to one of the mounting screws. I finally got the liner back in place and attached, but it took a little creative moving of parts.
On the left side, I applied RAAMmat to the body and the fender liner at about the same points, only on that side it would be from the 12:00 to the 3:00 position. I was a little more conservative with the absorbent foam, but I also used a little Rubatex I had left over from my previous noise abatement additions to the front doors and the rear fenders. As careful as I was in the tight location, I had to cut away a small part of the Rubatex to get the liner back in place. Also, I noticed in the front of the left fender there is a section of the air intake tubing for the engine that passes through the space behind the left fog light. Since this may be, in effect, a resonant cavity for noise from the intake, I put some RAAMmat inside the fender liner and wrapped some asphalt impregnated cork tape around the flexible tube. Maybe it didn't help much, but it couldn't hurt.
Twenty-twenty hindsight suggests I could have put some RAAMmat and absorbent foam on the box sections at the top of the body inside the upper parts of the fenders, but I'm not sure if it would have improved the result. Putting mat and foam on the entire fender liners might help some, too, but again, I'm not sure if it would have been worth the small extra effort and expense in material. Lining the fenders? Maybe, maybe not.
However, the result was WELL worth the effort! Engine noise is noticeably lower, and so is road noise! Thanks, guy! You da MAN!
