Hi everyone. Purchased a low mileage 07 SS this fall and absolutely love the car. My only dislike is the excessive road noise. Not that it is bad though I drive over 60 miles a day and bought the car for both the power and the luxury.
I have decided to embark on soundproofing/sound deadening. I am going to start in the trunk and work myself forward with the hopes of finishing in three steps equating to three weekends to ensure I can get the car back together to drive after each step. So I have been doing some prep look over and got some questions:
1. I notice in the lower right trunk area aft of the XM receiver is some type of a vent with felt flappers. I suspect this is one of two things. Either something to prevent pressure build up or a silly way to be able to get exhaust rumble into the car. I hope it is the first. Is this necessary or can this be covered?
2. Curious how the running board trim is held on? I am guessing it is similar to the door and aft trim though looking for some answers to hopefully stop any breakage.

Appreciate any input.

 

The vent thing is for the pressure build up, if you have a sub you will notice it flapping a bit, if i were you i would just leave it.

By the running board trim, what exactly do you mean? if its the side skirt, i believe there are screws beneath the car, but if you mean the actual door sill i can't really help you there, i don't have it on my 04.

for the road noise, before dropping lots of money on sound deadener i would look into the condition of the tires, do they look old with some cracking in them from sitting on the lot or in a driveway or are they worn down? good tires could take care of most of that noise if that's the case.

 

The wheels are in good shape. They are eagles which I understand are noisy anyway. The droning if sitting in the back seat is loud. By the way I was going to play around with the frost king duct insulation which is not expensive. I have seen much poo-pooing on this stuff probably from the ones making the expensive stuff. Let me only state that I am an aircraft mechanic that works on commercial airline aircraft and almost all of these aircraft use a very similar product as the frost king. The only difference is it must meet FAA burn requirements. It is used all over the aircraft for noise deadening and used because of the light weight. If done properly I would put this up against any product out there. (Can't wait for the bashing)
I am talking about the plastic trim that runs on the floor next to the door.
Also have one more question? I cannot view pics on one of the threads that shows pretty good pics of getting the door panel off. Any suggestions?

 

The road noise should be taken care of with the sound proofing measures you're taking. But as you know, the tires also have a lot to do with it. I noticed a big difference in noise when I replaced the factory Goodyears with the Toyo's I currently have on my warm-month wheels (I put snow tires on in winter).

The flapper is the pressure release vent. All the 2000 and up Montes have them. I highly doubt GM would install something that adds noise into the passenger compartment of the Monte. Since the Monte's were classified as "Luxury Sport".

 

What toyo's did you use? I am starting to believe the tires are a big issue and they hydro plane horribly when it rains. I may still decide to do some sound proofing for more of a fun project though if the tires resolve noise I may limit how deep I go into the sound proofing.
I have one of those annoying door rattles that I need to tear into as well.

 

I had Toyo Versado LX tires (a "luxury touring" all season tire) installed a couple years ago. They ride much softer than the Goodyear RS-A's that came from the factory.

My main issue was hydroplaning in rain, and the lack of decent traction in snow. At the time, I didn't want to do the snow tire thing so I went with the all season Toyo's on the recommendation of a friend. I've since decided to just bite the bullet and just get a winter-only set of wheels with snow tires. With the supercharged 3.8 V6's, and the V8 in your 07 SS, you're just not going to get decent traction in snow with all season tires.

Winter issues aside...

If I would've done it properly the first time (using snow tires in winter), I should've gone with a much better performance tire for use in the warm months.

The Toyo Versado's are okay for an all-season tire. Not spectacular, but better than the factory Goodyear's. I still find that the supercharged 3.8 tends to overpower their traction pretty easily. And I think your V8 would definitely do the same. You'll have to find a tire with a good balance of traction and quietness. There's been discussions in the Tires & Rims & Suspension section of the forum. Check out that section for any threads already existing. Or create a new one if you like.

For quiteness, the Toyo Versado's are okay. But I can't recommend them for traction. Not in the 300+ HP 2007 SS Montes. You'll be spinning your wheels a lot when the light turns green at stop lights.

 

i would check out the BFG Hydroedges. They're quiet and good for all season

 

The other issue I have is my car came with polished 18 inch wheels. The rubber is 2355018's. This limits the choices. When tallying up scores on tires the continentals rated best, Mich's 2nd and the Perelli's third from the web site several suggested in other threads. The Toyo does seem interesting and they do have the tire size needed. I don't plan on driving the car on snow days though will be driving it in the winter. Up here in Maine the road crews do a great job of getting the roads cleared. No doubt I will get caught one of these days and the current tires just stink for both noise and traction.

 

Tonight I resolved the vibration/rattle in the passenger door. It was a support clip for the door lock rod not latched/locked. Based on the way it is made I suspect it has been like that from the factory. Not really interesting though since I bought the car certified I had taken to the dealer for repair. They stated they didn't notice any vibration. I admit it could be intermittent though more often than not it would rattle with the speaker and traveling down the road. To bad they don't listen to the consumer more. Besides that I went ahead and sound proofed the door while I was in there. Based on the result I can't wait to get the rest of the car done. I am thinking I may do the trunk area tomorrow and the rest of the car will have to wait until after xmas. I will try and post some pics of progress for anyone interested. As for the tires, I am convinced they need changed though still researching. Lots of good advice from those that responded. Just got to narrow it down.

 

I'm glad you got the rattle fixed and it was not something expensive. I have read stories about how workers would leave a coin or something hidden deep inside the car knowing that it would rattle. I would drive people crazy trying o find where its coming from.

I might have to look into that Frost King you talked about. I know my Jimmy is loud and it does get annoying sometimes ( Cherry Bomb with a turn down right after the glasspack ).