[The J]

Hi, all!

So I have a bunch of sound dampening materail left over from before and want to try to quiet down the road noise as it can get pretty bad, especially on the freeway. I've put deadening over the rear wheel wells and sides of the rear cargo area, which helped somewhat (actually it seemed to quiet the engine noise down more than road noise, probably noise from the exhaust). However, there's still a good amount of tire noise which sounds like it's coming from the front. I'm thinking about pulling the carpet back and putting the dampening material over the firewall's fiberglass insulation. Does this sound like the way to go?

Also, just out of curiosity, here's something I've been wondering ever since I got my Escape: What the heck is this thing for?

Is it just a foot rest or something? It isn't exactly comfortable putting my foot on it, so it isn't a very good foot rest. It's also preventing me from pulling up the carpet so I can deaden/dampen/whatever the firewall. Popping off the top reveals two screws, but I'm worried that loosening them will cause the screws to fall into the chassis to be lost forever and ever and ever...

Maybe it's just there so that people like me will ponder what it's there for. :bill:

 

[stone]

Hello The J!.

Yes, that appears to be a footrest.

I have that in my escape.

______________________________#_______________#

Have found it to be comfortable.

But then ,everyone has a different anatomy.

Anyway, it's all about personal preference.

____________________*

I use the footrest all the time.

Have found it to be relaxing, more so on long distance driving.

But then it is each to his own.

 

[The J]

Oh, ok! I was kind of hoping it'd have some other important purpose or contain hidden treasure or something, but oh well. I actually just rest my foot on the floor and that works fine for me. Maybe my foot is just too wide for that thing.

Now I just have to remove it to continue on in my make-the-tires-slightly-less-quiter-maybe-perhaps mission, which means that I'm probably going to end up breaking it (that's usually how my "missions" go :taz

 

[Squishy]

That's a foot rest. Almost every car has one.

 

[jonas1022]

Actually it's name or term is "dead pedal". It has no function, no movement. hence, it's dead.

Carefully remove it. You may cause the left front fender to fall off if you perform this operation improperly.....

 

[The J]

Really? My Escape's the only car I've seen that has a plastic footrest. Cllllaaaaaasssssssyyyyyy. Honestly, I figured that Ford just needed a way to hide some wires. I was pretty surprised that there wasn't any wires under there. I mean, that's what I'd do with it. :bang: Well, for all of you who were too ashamed to ask what the heck this thing was, I took one for the team and derailed my own thread for you. You're welcome. :lol:

I was kind of hoping that I would open the thing up and, like Pandora's Box, I'd unleash a barrage of hellish creatures upon our now-doomed universe and I'd become ruler in my Escape-now-turned-fortress. But no! All that I found inside was dirt--and it wasn't even particularly hellish dirt, either. Actually, the dirt seemed pretty bright and cheerful. Oh well, at least the dirt came free with the car...

:tease:

Okay, so the original point of this thread is whether or not it'd be worthwhile putting sound dampening on the firewall to reduce tire noise. I'm probably just going to try it since I need to do something with the 50sq. ft. of deadener stuff I have. If my fender falls off I'll just Dremel off the other fenders so it matches. That oughta trim, I don't know, 5 pounds off the Escape.

 

[CrashNburn]

ive owned lots of cars and suvs, and trucks, and all the ones ive had that were automatics pretty much had the dead pedal.

 

[jonas1022]

Really? My Escape's the only car I've seen that has a plastic footrest. Cllllaaaaaasssssssyyyyyy. Honestly, I figured that Ford just needed a way to hide some wires. I was pretty surprised that there wasn't any wires under there. I mean, that's what I'd do with it. :bang: Well, for all of you who were too ashamed to ask what the heck this thing was, I took one for the team and derailed my own thread for you. You're welcome. :lol:

I was kind of hoping that I would open the thing up and, like Pandora's Box, I'd unleash a barrage of hellish creatures upon our now-doomed universe and I'd become ruler in my Escape-now-turned-fortress. But no! All that I found inside was dirt--and it wasn't even particularly hellish dirt, either. Actually, the dirt seemed pretty bright and cheerful. Oh well, at least the dirt came free with the car...

:tease:

Okay, so the original point of this thread is whether or not it'd be worthwhile putting sound dampening on the firewall to reduce tire noise. I'm probably just going to try it since I need to do something with the 50sq. ft. of deadener stuff I have. If my fender falls off I'll just Dremel off the other fenders so it matches. That oughta trim, I don't know, 5 pounds off the Escape.

:roll:



No nightmares even, nevermind the hellish dirt!

:thumb:

 

[jtugfestiva]

try using a product called quiet coat. Ford used them on jaguars to keep weight down and it works better then dynamats and other stuff. What you need is brush or roller or a spray gun and spray your wheel wells and hood. Make sure you clean the surfaces good or else it will come off after a while. I used it on my festy and my fusion with good results. If your car is pre 2008 escape i guarantee you WILL hear a difference. My festy was 4db quieter and my fusion about 1-2. I used a decibel meter to test this thing and it works.

 

[PollKat]

On newer Escapes. "04" I do believe, open the door and you'll see a strip of foam.(where the pillar starts) I installed these on my "02" and it really helped.

 

[equinoxx]

One possible purpose for the footrest/dead pedal: it seems to me that for a manual transmission, it helps keep your foot in a position where you just have to pivot on the heel to clutch, rather than engaging the entire leg to come up from the floorboard. In any event, I had one in my '99 Taurus, as well, so it's definitely been around for a while.

 

[The J]

try using a product called quiet coat. Ford used them on jaguars to keep weight down and it works better then dynamats and other stuff. What you need is brush or roller or a spray gun and spray your wheel wells and hood. Make sure you clean the surfaces good or else it will come off after a while. I used it on my festy and my fusion with good results. If your car is pre 2008 escape i guarantee you WILL hear a difference. My festy was 4db quieter and my fusion about 1-2. I used a decibel meter to test this thing and it works.

Do you mean that I would apply this stuff to the underside of the wheel wells on the outside of the car? I might try it out, but I want to try using up what I already have first.

On newer Escapes. "04" I do believe, open the door and you'll see a strip of foam.(where the pillar starts) I installed these on my "02" and it really helped.

Can you provide a picture of what you are referring to? I can't seem to get an image in my head at the moment.

Thanks for the help!

 

[PollKat]

On newer Escapes. "04" I do believe, open the door and you'll see a strip of foam.(where the pillar starts) I installed these on my "02" and it really helped.

Can you provide a picture of what you are referring to? I can't seem to get an image in my head at the moment.

Thanks for the help!

Can someone help here? Cameras are on the blink and I don't know how to download from a cell-phone. It's the foam pad on the inside of the door, front fender part... "01's" to "03" didn't have them........

 

[Billyk]

Pull the carpet up and put dynaliner or similar material under the carpeting to help "quiet" the vehicle. I did this and noticed an improvement. Dynaliner is inexpensive and can easily added to under the hood, doors and cargo area. A change of tires can also quiet the vehicle. You connect to the 12V positive cable and ground elsewhere.

 

[The J]

Well, I pulled up the carpet and put some liquid eDead and a layer of Teklite (1/4" neoprene sheet) down. I was low on Teklite, so I just put some on the plastic spare tire cover in the cargo area. I originally just tried putting some over the driver and front passenger firewall (over the rubber firewall shield) and footwells, but that didn't seem to make any difference at all. So I decided to pull it all out. Fortunately, the Escape's interior was pretty easy to take apart. Here's hoping it works. I put the carpet back in, but still need to reinstall the seats, center console and cubby holes, and lower plastic trim pieces.

PollKat: Do you mean the silver area on the right side of this picture?

 

[PollKat]

PollKat: Do you mean the silver area on the right side of this picture?

Yes, You already have them installed. Like I said, I installed those on my "02" and they really helped with reducing noise....... :thumb:

 

[The J]

That's actually just a picture I found online. Mine's an 02 as well and I think it just has the weatherstripping there. I'll definately try that out. Thanks for the info!

 

[PollKat]

That's actually just a picture I found online. Mine's an 02 as well......

:doh:

 

[The J]

So, I got everything back together and went for a test drive. With the stereo off, I can't really decide if the interior is any quieter or not. However, once I turn the stereo on, it definitely seems much quieter in that I hear less noise over the music than I did before. I don't know how that works, but I won't complain too much. I'll let you know what I think when I drive around some more.

 

[epi4561]

Ok, so could someone show or tell me how to remove that dead pedal so I can fix my carpet? I got the carpet out , but couldn't ever really get it back in perfectly... any help is appreciated. I already snapped part of the edge off of it. argghhh

thanks-epi