The Science Behind the Silence of the Chevrolet Cruze

Chevrolet’s engineers stepped up their engineering skills to the next level with Chevrolet’s latest vehicle, the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze. Employing technologies typically used on mid/large size luxury vehicles and employing them on an affordable compact car. This will also help maintain the resale value of the Chevrolet Cruze!

In case you are not aware yet, the Chevrolet Cruze has new advancements over its predecessor, the Chevrolet Cobalt, including its sound deadening & silencing technologies.

“Reducing noise is fairly easy if you have the flexibility to add cost or increase weight,” said Cruze Performance Manager, Brandon Vivian. “For Cruze, every change had to meet two criteria: It could not increase the Cruze starting price of $16,995, and it could not add weight that would jeopardize Cruze's outstanding fuel economy.”

To meet their objectives for the U.S. market, engineers developed more than 30 acoustic treatments that mute unwanted engine, road, and wind noise. Here are 10 of the most significant features:

- 500 inches of structural adhesive reduce structural noise and increase body strength
- Seven pints of liquid sound deadener on the cabin floor mute road and friction noise, and weigh 30 percent less than conventional sound-deadening materials
- A five-millimeter, acoustic-laminated windshield quiets wind noise
- Triple seals for all four doors block wind and road noise
- 30 “Snickers bars” of expandable, sound-blocking baffles in the roofline and window frames quiet noise transmitted around the door openings
- The 26- x 50-inch hood liner features acoustic materials that mute engine noise**
- Two sound-absorbing mats on both sides of the front-of-dash panel isolate engine noise, and save three kilograms of weight by using lightweight materials
- A 15-millimeter-thick mat in the spare-tire well absorbs road noise
- Four wheel-well liners, backed with textile material, block tire noise
- A five-layer headliner muffles cabin noise

One issue with making the cabin noise of the Cruze quieter is that it will typically enhance other quieter noises that you may not typically notice.

“Every noise masks other, quieter sounds,” Vivian said. “For example, reducing a wind whistle on the highway can uncover a tire rumble on coarse roads. With Cruze, we recently added a dampener to the fuel line, because the interior is so quiet that we could hear fuel flowing through the line.”