The '00 GLE has heavy doors, rides quiet. The '00 GXE - Not so much. Ideas?

[sixteenXnine]

The GXE is the lightest model, and I suspect that a lack of sound insulation is a big part of the weight difference.

Shutting the doors on the two cars you notice a big difference. Large disparity in road noise as well, and it just feels like the GLE is welded to itself and the road, where the GXE feels like almost every part has just been allowed a bit more leeway on the manufacturing floor.

So when I do my suspension etc. I'd also like to consider the following way to add just a bit of weight and promote better sound insulation. I'd like to use either brushable canned truck bedliner stuff or sprayable rubberized undercoating on the insides of all my doors.

Yeah I could get the expensive sound insulation sheets and stuff like that but I feel that the alternate routes explained above should suffice. Feedback?

ALSO: Foaming the unibody does not appear to be very expensive and IMO would probably deaden noise as well as stiffen the ride... anyone around here ever do that to one of their Maximas?

Yes, I'm going for ride quietness over 1/4 mile times. I only want to hear and feel the CAI/Megan Racing equipped VQ, not everything else attached to it.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I'm surprised the two would be so different.

My guess is it has more to do with the individual cars and less to do with the fact that one's a GXE and one's a GLE. Maximas have never differed much from trim to trim at the core. It's just transmission, suspension, and options that change.

Adding sound deadening is certainly worth a try, though. Don't MacGuyver it with bedliner, though: use real sound insulation (even if it's brush-on type).

If you have a sunroof, be careful when using the expanding foam. Sunroof drain tracts generally run down one forward and one rearward pillar, so if you accidentally fill them in, bad things could happen. Same goes for a lot of the lower unibody frame structures: it's all designed to drain and flow a certain way. If foam interferes, you can have standing water which can mean rust... I'm not saying don't do it...just make sure you're careful.

[maximaman]

... And I'm going to have to say most of the noise ur hearing is ur suspension letting everything in ur car rattle around. Switching up to better struts/shocks/springs is ur best bet to kill the noise. On top of that the floorboard is where alot of the sound comes from not the doors. I would spray ur under carraige if i were to foam anything at all.

[sixteenXnine]

... And I'm going to have to say most of the noise ur hearing is ur suspension letting everything in ur car rattle around. Switching up to better struts/shocks/springs is ur best bet to kill the noise. On top of that the floorboard is where alot of the sound comes from not the doors. I would spray ur under carraige if i were to foam anything at all.

I'll agree with you there on the fact that most of the noise is my current suspension. I'm sure that new springs/struts/bushings/fstb will really tighten things up.

There is an almost 100 lb difference in curb weight between the GXE and GLE though... I'm really puzzled as to where that weight is... what, do they list the GLE as stock with a spoiler (mine does not have one), and maybe the bose system (individual amps in the doors, right? ... and isn't there some sound baffling or whatever it is that Bose did to make their speaker sound *special*?) adds a bunch of weight? I know the GLE serves as the basis for the i30 whereas the GXE does not... that's what makes me think that there's better sound insulation already installed on the GLE that is not present in the GXE.

Sure, I might do some spraying of undercoating in some places that will need it, but as far as foam is concerned, I'm definitely not going to do that unless I seriously do it right... as in pulling all the drain plugs, documenting them, setting the car level and understanding where drainage might take place, and then filling the right body cavities (lol) correctly. I wouldn't foam my unibody sunday morning all hung over with one tube of foam, one roll of tape and only an hour to spare in other words. If I do it, it will be done right, and those d00ds on YouTube™ that did if to their project S14 will be jealous of my workmanship.