Berlingo road noise reduction?

[sonneur]

I have a 2019 Flair XTR pack 1.5 Hdi Berlingo (current shape), and my problem is road rumble on bad surfaces. We've had 3 Berlingos, and they all suffered from this. On a good road it's acceptable, but now I do regular long A303/A30 trips it's bugging me. This car has sound deadening retrofitted throughout and new quiet(er) tyres, but on a bad surface (maybe 100 miles of this trip) the road rumble effectively takes out the mids in rock and pop music and reduces it to tinkly guitar top end and higher vocals. I suspect this is coming off the tyres and through the body, despite the noise reduction panels on all areas. Otherwise the car does exactly what I need, so I'd be sorry to have to change it for e.g. a C5 Aircross. A retrofit active noise reduction system might do it, but I can't find any in UK. Any ideas? Thanks, Max

[Multispacer]

I have a 2019 Flair XTR pack 1.5 Hdi Berlingo (current shape), and my problem is road rumble on bad surfaces. We've had 3 Berlingos, and they all suffered from this. On a good road it's acceptable, but now I do regular long A303/A30 trips it's bugging me. This car has sound deadening retrofitted throughout and new quiet(er) tyres, but on a bad surface (maybe 100 miles of this trip) the road rumble effectively takes out the mids in rock and pop music and reduces it to tinkly guitar top end and higher vocals. I suspect this is coming off the tyres and through the body, despite the noise reduction panels on all areas. Otherwise the car does exactly what I need, so I'd be sorry to have to change it for e.g. a C5 Aircross. A retrofit active noise reduction system might do it, but I can't find any in UK. Any ideas? Thanks, Max

I know the feeling well, also doing regular A303 trips down to Devon to visit relatives, the Ilminster by-pass stretch of road being especially noisy!  As it sounds as if you've tried most things by your list, there probably isn't much left. I was going to suggest an active noise cancelling system but it would probably be horrendously expensive even if you could find one and not sure how effective it would actually be. The other thing I would say given the state of UK roads would a different vehicle be that much better to warrant the cost of a change of vehicle?

I know it may not be ideal but if the music quality is very important to you how about a pair of good quality noise cancelling ear-buds/ear phones? Even buying expensive set[s] would be cheaper than a new vehicle 

[sonneur]

Thanks Multispacer. Road noise appears to be a problem with many newer cars, some of which are quiet apart from big wheels and low profile tyres. Autocar magazine sometimes publishes interior noise Db levels in road test, and the Citroen C5 Aircross came out pretty well in those compared to some £££
MPV's- but which model C5, what roads, etc? The C5's also reputed to have a better stock sound system than the Berlingo, but it's smaller inside (sigh).

[LukeC]

Driving the enterprise version of the 2018 B9, I have found a lot of cabin noise. This was significantly reduced when I got new tyres, which were put on the back, when I rotated them to the front, and an old pair of landsail tyres were put back, the noise increased again, but not as much as there was with the odd 2 on the back previously. The ones that brought the noise volume a lot are a pair of Kumho. Maybe this will be of some use, maybe not.

[Multispacer]

Thanks Multispacer. Road noise appears to be a problem with many newer cars, some of which are quiet apart from big wheels and low profile tyres. Autocar magazine sometimes publishes interior noise Db levels in road test, and the Citroen C5 Aircross came out pretty well in those compared to some £££
MPV's- but which model C5, what roads, etc? The C5's also reputed to have a better stock sound system than the Berlingo, but it's smaller inside (sigh).

I think it's always going to be harder to deaden noise in a 'Berlingo type' vehicle because of all the space, you're effectively sitting in a big echo chamber. I suspect all vehicles of a similar type would be the same. 

I'm not sure how effective 'active noise cancelling' systems would ever be on a car. I've only ever had experience of these systems on aircraft and in that case they do work well, as the main noise you are trying to cancel in an aircraft cabin is the engine noise, which tends to be within quite narrow parameters whereas the whole spectrum of road noise is pretty hard to predict/cater for.

As a practical vehicle it is hard to beat. I had both a M59 Multispace and then a B9 Multispace. Both were good vehicles, I actually preferred the earlier M59 [I had one of the last made and as a special edition, it had loads of extras] and probably would have kept it going, had I not been rear ended in a motorway shunt. The B9 version ended up having to go this year, just because I no longer do the miles to justify a diesel plus living on the edge of the London ULEZ zone [but outside it] and needing to visit family/friends inside the zone, it was non-compliant.  

I suppose if the noise levels are bothering you to the extent of a vehicle change, then see if you can get weekend type test drives on all your 'short list' vehicles and actually try them out on some of the routes you know are noisy?

[evdama]

In our county there's only around three miles of tarmac that you will notice rumbling.
The rest of it is crashing and banging.

[LukeC]

There is definitely more pot hole than tarmac these days. I almost find myself trying to avoid the tarmac as that's what gives the suspension a horrible bump.

[geoff]

" if the noise levels are bothering you to the extent of a vehicle change, then see if you can get weekend type test drives on all your 'short list' vehicles and actually try them out on some of the routes you know are noisy? "

I did a similar thing a few years back only I did a weekend " car hire " on a few cars I fancied.

I deliberately asked to rent the car with the highest mileage on it ( for the model I was interested in ) so that it would be more of a real life insight since " new " cars are always quieter than slightly older ones.

Just a thought maybe you need MORE sound proofing both inside and outside the cab ??

[shtu]

As mentioned already they're big tin boxes, and not especially well constructed really.

If you've already insulated the floor, arches and doors\sidepanels, there's not a lot left there, so I'd probably suggest looking at replacement speakers and maybe seeing if the head unit can drive an external amplifier.

There's some amp suggestions - and some std. head unit setting suggestions - in here https://www.berlingoforum.com/thread-25188.html