Benz not made for high power audio?

[Espresso]

It's late & I just didnt know what to name the thread. I am tired, ect.. so this could turn into a rant.

Anyway. I am sitting here thinking...The Benz isnt made for alot of SPL is it? I am SO frusterated/disappointed with this car right now. I have foam deadened( not expand foram) & dynamatted everything but the roof. I am now no longer pushing out the seal on the windshield, but that reared other PROBLEMS. The door panels, center console(arm rest & cup holder cover deal mostly), glove box & damn near EVEYTHING on the inside of the car rattles. I mean for fuck sakes, the damn engine cover & headlights rattle when I have it parked.
Also now that the windshield is sealing. It is pushing up on the sunroof & starting to wear out the seal( it seeps water into the car when I have the music at a spirited level), plus the slide brackets are now making noise( I can hear metal rattling to the beat of the subs).
I mean I honestly do not know what to do. I want my system..I NEED my system. But the car just cannot handle it. I need it to be a good DD, so I cannot add all the braces & brackets I normally do on a dedicated SPL vehicle.
Is anyone else with a good system experiencing all the rattles? Or have you & what have you done?

The first week on Jan. I am going to have it DB'ed & am actulayy set up teh system properly...if the car lets me.

i have no other complaints other than rattles. The charging system is rock soild(so far) I have no problems with anything, except these fucking rattles & ofcourse it is to the point to where it rattles even without the system turned up. My wife fucking hates it mor ethan I do. Ofcourse she blames it on me( well it IS my fault). But hell. It is embarassing to me when friends get to "A nice ass Mercedes" & we have to talk loud because of shit rattling.

Before I have either taken otu the panels completely, or just made custom shit. But I do not want to with this car.

So I am open to any & all sugestions...BESIDES..
1. Turn it down.. I refuse to.
2. Build custom panels.. I want it to remain stock loking
3. Live with it.. I refuse to do so. I know it can be made better. I would just like more than one brains input.

Thanks for listening. Any advice is welcome.

[VIP_MBZ]

My system is more SQ-oriented but I'm sure I'm hitting at least 120 dB -- I know where you're coming from, I get the most problems from the sunroof area and where the seatbelt goes into the interior panel, and still undecided as to how to address that. I've noticed though that 99-00 is a little better off than earlier years, I guess they started adding more dampening.

One thing to try is to get a big block of non-hardening clay from Michael's and start mashing it into some of the nooks and crannies where you think the vibration may be coming from. Even though for simplicity's sake I used dynamat in my trunk area, from my experience the clay actually works a lot better.

When I started giving each of my door speakers 400w RMS, I had a lot of door vibration issues, but nothing that gobs of clay didn't fix.

Hope this helps.

-Ray

[Espresso]

Most of it are coming from things the armrest plastic to plastic rubbung. But things like the CF trimming is starting to rattle( & I broke my passenger side mirror..upgrade time)
What I have done so far when it comes to rattles around screws & push clips. I uses a black RTV on the threads & back of the head. That does work a little bit. But the console still rattles against the bracs holding to on.

[VIP_MBZ]

It sounds like you're pushing the 140+ dB range, in which I'd expect any car to start complaining, so to answer the original question, I think the w202 is still actually a better platform than most in terms of panel ridgidity.

Black RTV works really well, as that's the main ingredient of what's inside Dynamat Extreme anyway.

But in any case, at this performance level, you will run into rattles wherever there are clips involved, so designing custom panels may be the only way to go. A demo car I've seen fixed this using a thin layer of cement where necessary. Fair warning though that cement is very heavy, so if performance was ever a concern with your car... =P

P.S. oh and for this application I would definitely completely remove major problem items like the sliding moonroof cover, the cup holder, upper center console tray, and ash tray insert. Lots of plastic parts -- trying to dampen those is probably just a losing battle.

... or just live with it. *shrug

-Ray

[jnolte]

the worst is the upper lights and moon roof controls, i cant figure out how to dampen them properly because the buttons rattle!

[OCKlasse]

Originally posted by jnolte
the worst is the upper lights and moon roof controls, i cant figure out how to dampen them properly because the buttons rattle!

YESS!!!! I had it caulked, but it helped only slightly.

[Abuimad]

will my friends X5 rattles like crazy and the thing is pretty much brand new, so i think the 202 isnt as bad as i thought it would be for a 8 year old car, HOWEVER...its driving me crazy, i had the screws and bolts on my dash strengthened, i went all out for sound proofing the car, but the thing still rattles, and i think thats pretty much expected when u got 2, thousand watt pionners in the trunk, i still cant figure out how to fix the moonroof, and the center consol is also rattling like crazy...

[Benzon]

What kind of systems are you guys running? I'm getting ready to put a bunch of stuff in my car but not going to be running 400w to the door (or did you mean 400x4). Anyway I really hope that mine doesn't give me too much trouble, that will suck.

[benzonline]

I have a 12" sub in the trunk coupled to the Bose sound system. It rattles the lower part of the bumper somewhere, under high volume with low bass note. Otherwise nothing in the car rattles. The Bose subs used to make the rear deck rattle but I fixed that.

[Espresso]

I have a Sony deck(GT-805DX) a MTX amp & 2 12" MTX subs. MTX told me I am running a true 421W rms.

The door & dash speakers are stock.

[c280nz]

so you put that much wattage of subs in and did nothing to the mid / higher range door speakers?
thatd be bassy as hell with 2 12s

i only got one infinity 12" perfect with a little lanzar amp, but the only trouble i get is from the parcel tray a bit, but my dash rattles to but that ant even from bass just driving/bouncing.

if you make the door speakers louder you wont here the rattles as much :D

[Proven Guilty]

there was a HUGE difference going from ported subs to sealed in my car.

[VIP_MBZ]

Originally posted by Benzon
What kind of systems are you guys running? I'm getting ready to put a bunch of stuff in my car but not going to be running 400w to the door (or did you mean 400x4). Anyway I really hope that mine doesn't give me too much trouble, that will suck.

I'm definitely in the "extreme" category when it comes to front stage... most people won't ever run anything close to 400w RMS per front channel. But yes, I have a McIntosh MCC404 bridged in stereo, which makes a clean 400x2. Each door has a DLS UR6S, whose woofers are soon getting swapped out for Morel Elate 6 SW's.

For bass I have two Eclipse SW7108's in a sealed box getting 400w RMS.

95% of the population will not ever encounter serious issues with the w202, except if you need a lot of power or a big hole to have good sub bass.

-Ray

[khristian]

i recently had a system put in and have found some problems with sutff rattling. the clay idea sounds interesting, i might have to try this. i aslo would agree once you get to the 120+ db range there is going to be and issue in any car.

[Markland556]

dont want to steal the thread but id just like to throw this in there... what is better in you guy's opinion, ported or sealed.. im running an MTX 9500 with a JL1000/1 amp.

[Espresso]

Depends on what YOU like.

I prefer ported.

You may want to read this.
http://www.klausaudio.com/articles/c/subwoofer-box-help/sealed-vs.-ported.cfm

[ncd]

hey ... this might help some of you..
http://www.rivetwise.co.uk/productrange/wellnut.htm
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7035419.html
http://www.vibrationmounts.com/RFQ/VM02011.htm
http://www.noxudolusa.com/

[vaspen]

I have a 12" sub in the trunk coupled to the Bose sound system. It rattles the lower part of the bumper somewhere, under high volume with low bass note. Otherwise nothing in the car rattles. The Bose subs used to make the rear deck rattle but I fixed that.

way I fixed that is its the tank cover take a floor jack and push up on the back half oh so slightly to actualy bend the cover then in the center take the jack and slowly push up to where its gonna stay firm in place without rattle but not enuf to move tank or harm anything

[vaspen]

Also chaps .. I had a bad rattle on the deck I fixed it by shoving pollyfill under it
it's light and deepens audio because it soaks the waves and dampens rattles :D and a big 60 ounce bag is like 8$
Talk about a cheep fix yo :D

Btw u use it everynight u sleep with a pillow it's what they usually use n it's at Wal-Mart's craft section

[c230]

Dynamat, expandable foam, and home insulation works. I did this on an old mustang because the exhaust was too loud inside.