Spent several hours this MDW adding make-shift sound deadening material to the insides of my E-350's doors and rear walls.

I used three rolls of an aluminum roofing adhesive tape... it was essentially 1/16" inch rubber with adhesive on one side, and aluminum layer on the other.

I cut strips and peel 'n stuck it onto the inside of the doors (after removing the plastic panels, of course).

I was surprised that the plastic door panels did not have any sound deadening foam or material. So I bought some carpet padding and hand-cut panels for all six doors. And I stuffed the scraps of padding into the gaps and voids in the panels.

I also disassembled the rear passenger side wall and did the same, except for the panels -- they had sound insulation on them (mine is an extended E-350).

I didn't do the rear driver's side wall because I suspected a certain difficulty in being able to access a majority of the sheetmetal. (The passenger side wall had some cut-outs to reach the sheetmetal, but I wasn't able to reach and cover all the area).

In all, I spent about $85 and six total hours. Do I notice a difference?

Clearly, when you open any of the doors and slam them, there's a "heavy kunk" and a more solid sound -- not exactly a Mercedes, but a whole lot better sounding than stock. !

Driving around town? Yes, there's some improvement. It's not a Lexus, but it's slightly better. Was it worth the time and effort? Probably. Reducing the noise level even a little bit will be appreciated during 12 hour drives when pulling an RV.

Problems? Only with the factory clips. I managed to bust three of them, and one fell inside the door.

It'd be nice if the radio had a noise-canceling feature to help squash road noise... then this van would really be a cross-country cruiser.

 

Thanks for the write up, I have been tempted to do the same to mine, you might have save me a lot of work. I talked with a guy who owned a 2010 E350 extended XLT who put the sound deadening material in every nook and cranny he could on his van and he was dissappointed with the end result, a lot of money he spent too. There is a lot of air space for all the noises to be amplified. On some road surfaces mine drives me crazy, thanks for the post AE

 

I could type for hours how best to do--and not--do this but first thing is your E350 the cargo-only type or Club Wagon? That makes a big difference how to approach this.

Having already done this on three different E250's, all personally owned and daily driven by me so think or believe I have some good ideas.

 

Mine is xlt 15 passenger with only one bench seat in it behind the front captains chairs its a 2005 and its not as quiet as my 2002 xlt, I guess there is extra insulation package in the 02

 

Much of the noise inside an upfitted E-Series (Club Wagon, etc) comes from the floor---treat that and you'd be surprised how much more quiet they become. Having done a few cargo-only work trucks this is easy to do using 3/4" plywood fitted to the floor.

With the upfitted interiors this isn't really possible however I'm a bit surprised the '05 doesn't seem as quiet as the '02. While I don't like the OEM padded carpeting that should have attenuated a lot of the road noise, padded headliner and sidewall trim panels doing a lot to further reduce road noise.

While its not too practical for Club Wagons etc any sort of partition curtain also cuts a lot of noise out----unless you like isolating passengers from the front seat area, aka limo style?