By: Jonathan Kwan
September 26, 2013
From the archives: This article has originally appeared on our forums.
So as you guys know, I own a 2013 Accord Touring sedan with the 7 speaker premium audio system. Like, "premium" audio system -- it has 7 speakers, but they sound like crap (Good luck if you have a 4 speaker system without tweeters... oh man).
Earlier this year, when I got my car, I have upgraded all the speakers. The front has a Polk db6501 component setup, while the back has Polk db651s taken out from my old Civic. For $250 worth of equipment, I have vastly improved the audio quality on my Accord.
Unfortunately, I still suffer from 2 problems. Firstly, the rear deck rattles at the hint of any bass. Secondly, the rear subwoofer is seriously weaksauce. I can barely hear it -- other than the rattles -- when it is maxed out. I am looking for a balanced system, and since I wasn't looking to shake my entire neighborhood or anything, I was pretty sure I can get a little bit more out of the stock sub. After all, I don't want to give up any trunk space.
First, the rattle problem. The car's rear deck frame rattles against the plastic cover, which causes the rattle. To fix it, I decided to line the entire rear deck with carpet. Therefore, I bought a roll of thin foam carpet from Canadian Tire for $20, and got to work.
Equipment needed:
- Nylon pry bars (For removing rear shelf -- optional)
- Scissors for cutting the carpet
- Glue gun for holding down the carpet (Optional but recommended)
- A socket/wrench set for removing the bolsters
- The carpet itself
I started off my removing the rear shelf plastic. It's an incredibly simple procedure, which I have posted here. Next, I took the panel inside.
As you can see, Honda already has some insulation on the rear deck plastic, but it's not enough. Also, while I was doing a raw test on the speakers at the back, I noticed the rings on my Polk db651s were rattling against the metal when the subwoofer is blasting. Well, that's a 2 part problem.
I went ahead with lining the entire rear plastic piece with carpet, and cut out where it is appropriate. Keep the circular cutouts from the speakers, I will be using it later. I dabbed a bit of hot glue to hold the carpet in place. It's not really needed, but it makes reattachment to the car a little easier later on.
Using the circular cutouts from the rear deck lining earlier on, I made a ring out of it, and used it to dampen my Polk db651s rings. I added bits of carpet under the screw tabs to make it completely dampened. Finally, I reattached the panel to the car, and everything looks normal again.
The results? All vibration problems fixed, and it greatly improved the bass performance of the subwoofer. It dampens all the area around it, which makes the bass a lot of pronounced and much more solid. For $20, it's a cheap fix for rattles and a great improvement to stock subwoofer bass output.
