road noise - BRZ vs FRS

[P@ul]

I pound about 20k miles a year. There is a ton of road noise. It got worse on my Eagle Super Cars, and equally bad on Pilot Super Sports. I've tried some mild NVH improvements, just helped the stereo quality. It's pretty annoying and I don't like long roadtrips with it... Last 9 hour road trip I went on, I just got a rental car.

[leoh007]

I did notice a difference in sound between the two although, the suspension is different on both and I was wondering if the spring rate differences are the reason for the BRZ riding ALOT smoother than my 14 frs monogram. I would like to point out that I compared my car with the same equivalent 14 limited brz. Anyone have any input on this? I have the springs off of a BRZ and was wondering if this would make my car ride at least noticeably smoother and less quiet?

[darkphantom]

^interesting.

On a separate note...I am also cross-shopping an E46 m3 along with the 370z now...the German fan in me is leaning towards the M but it is hard to find anything less than 100k for around the low 20s.

Back to the matter at hand...I do often drive from Austin to Houston, that is an easy 3 hours. I guess I'll have to do some "decibel testing" to really figure out how it compares.

[MGPAX]

I came from an '09 Infiniti G37 coupe that I picked up at 13K miles and I find my SuBRZ much more comfortable with less road noise and better manners.
I think the only thing I miss is the incredible service at the Infiniti dealership you just don't get at Subaru.
Just my .02

[Vracer111]

Road noise is not that bad at all to me... besides road noise is only heard at low rpms - this replaces the road noise with engine song:



If I really want to filter out road noise I wear my Yamaha EP-50 earbuds as hearing filters and crank the car music volume to ~30 on hear mode. Or just forgo the music and still wear the earbuds and hear the exhaust as I go through the entire rev range on a drive. Stock exhaust was really the one thing I couldn't live with - so annoying with how quiet it is - I want to at least hear my downshifts and the motor rev, sheesh!

P.S. getting rid of the rear fake factory 'diffusor' plastic area kind of helped with road noise as well...in addition to helping the rear feel more planted at speed.

[Rookie84]

If the OP is considering 370Z along with the twins, this is a great review:


GT86 vs. 370Z vs. used Cayman by Chris Harris

Honestly, if you want something quiet and comfy, this is not the car for you. This car makes all sorts of noises.

[AustinG]

Originally Posted by darkphantom

well, for those that have sound deadening dampening added - does it detract from the noise at WOT? Not to say that the BRZ has a special exhaust note, but just wondering what difference the deadening really makes.

I've got deadening and it just reduced the road noise, not so much the engine or exhaust noise (which is exactly what I wanted).

[darkphantom]

You know what mistake I made today? I walked into a VW to look at a 370z and then a Golf R appeared...

The Germans are doing something right that the Japanese can't seem to do, HANDLING FEEL and quality interiors (don't get me wrong, the BRZ is decent at handling but the German cars are just worlds apart)!!

That Turbo-4 AWD was impressive and it was only a few grand more than the used Z I was looking at! The transmission shifted SO smoothly! The interior was FULL of high-quality materials.

I had no idea they were so nice on the inside! Now I'm confused :'(

On a side note, I drove a 2014 BRZ today instead of the FRS at a carmax, definitely an improvement over the FRS! I don't know why they were asking for $26k for a 2014 limited with 16k miles - is that the asking price? Aren't 2016s coming on the lots?

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by darkphantom

You know what mistake I made today? I walked into a VW to look at a 370z and then a Golf R appeared...

The Germans are doing something right that the Japanese can't seem to do, HANDLING FEEL and quality interiors (don't get me wrong, the BRZ is decent at handling but the German cars are just worlds apart)!!

That Turbo-4 AWD was impressive and it was only a few grand more than the used Z I was looking at! The transmission shifted SO smoothly! The interior was FULL of high-quality materials.

I had no idea they were so nice on the inside! Now I'm confused :'(

On a side note, I drove a 2014 BRZ today instead of the FRS at a carmax, definitely an improvement over the FRS! I don't know why they were asking for $26k for a 2014 limited with 16k miles - is that the asking price? Aren't 2016s coming on the lots?

Different cars made for different reasons.


Curious as to what you found better on the BRZ (serious question not sarcasm or hating)?

[Tcoat]

OK, so I am going to start this post with an apology to all the guys I thought were crazy for saying the road noise is bad!


My revelation:
I have snows on the car for longer than I have summer tires. They were as noisy as hell and I expected that but they were also hiding something from me. The vast majority of my driving is done on major Canadian highways that are paved with relatively smooth asphalt. This week I had the summers put back on and breathed a huge sigh of relief as things quieted right down to a whisper again.
Then I took my weekly trip to Detroit (first one on the summer tires), hit the Interstate and all hell broke loose! That grooved concrete you guys use for the highways there is noisier with the summers than the snows. Even the "good" sections were loud as hell. It would get on my nerves pretty quick if I had to drive that every day and sound proofing would be very quickly included in my plans. I was never so glad to get back where even the occasional concrete section of road was not nearly as horrid as those Interstates were.

[donoman]

My car is sound deadened from a professional stereo shop and it's rather acceptable in terms of road noise. Too bad you live so far otherwise you could ride in my car.

For reference, I've thought all my BMWs were acceptable in terms of noise but my Miata was unacceptable.

[Mim]

The elephant in the room (with sound deadening) is the added weight. Our cars are so light that you can pretty easily tell the difference from having a full tank of gas to having half a tank. Adding sound deadening to the doors and boot would equate to adding half a tank of gas (in weight) to your car. Makes me cringe at the thought.

You can counter that with fitting some weight reduction, like a lighter drive shaft, but then what effect on handling would that lighter drive shaft have had had on the car with no sound deadening? Car mods can be quite the deep rabbit hole!

[chaoskaze]

Originally Posted by donoman

My car is sound deadened from a professional stereo shop and it's rather acceptable in terms of road noise. Too bad you live so far otherwise you could ride in my car.

For reference, I've thought all my BMWs were acceptable in terms of noise but my Miata was unacceptable.

Man I wanna ride in urs & listen before I do it! Maybe if I can meet up with u at some big 86 meet in Cali.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Mim

The elephant in the room (with sound deadening) is the added weight. Our cars are so light that you can pretty easily tell the difference from having a full tank of gas to having half a tank. Adding sound deadening to the doors and boot would equate to adding half a tank of gas (in weight) to your car. Makes me cringe at the thought.

You can counter that with fitting some weight reduction, like a lighter drive shaft, but then what effect on handling would that lighter drive shaft have had had on the car with no sound deadening? Car mods can be quite the deep rabbit hole!

For the DD/cruising crowd an extra 50 pounds of material spread evenly around the car is not going to be that big a deal. Obviously a bigger problem if you are trying to win races or tracking but in those cases you probably aren't too worried about noise anyway.