If you’ve had the pleasure of driving or riding in the Chevy Cruze, one of the qualities of the attractive compact you may have noticed is the utter silence of the interior. That quietness, however, isn’t solely due to the noise-minimizing elements used in the car; instead, the silence found in the Cruze’s cabin is also the result of the time the Delta-based global compact vehicle spent in GM’s Squeak and Rattle Lab at the Milford Providing Ground in Michigan.
Meet GM development engineer Frank Delekta. An avid sport fisherman, Delekta appreciates the peace, quiet, and tranquility of Michigan lakes and streams. And its this appreciation of silence that has driven Delekta and his engineers to achieve that luxury-like level of silence in the Cruze.
For starters, the Cruze utilizes a number of noise-reducing and noise-canceling technologies on the body structure, including 30 distinct acoustical treatments. For instance, one of such treatments is a Liquid Applied Sound Deadener that’s strategically applied throughout the car’s body structure and then melted into place when the body passes through the paint oven. The doors feature triple seals and fiberglass “blankets” that work as water, airflow, and noise barriers, and they still close with a solid and precise “thump” and no resonance.
Reducing or eliminating noise from entering the interior is one thing; but what if noises originate from within the cabin in the form of squeaks or rattles? No amount of sound-deadening materials will ever overcome that, which is why GM engineers across North America, Europe, and Asia tested the Cruze on a variety of real-world roads at various speeds, and reported on the noises they heard. The noises were then replicated in the lab to find the source of the noise and eliminate it. GM’s state-of-the art environmental four-post simulator that mimics the world’s most-challenging road surfaces was one of the tools used to find new rattles or reproduce existing ones in the lab. It’s this kind of ardent testing that allowed engineers to make changes to the Cruze’s interior to eliminate squeaks and rattles early on in the vehicle’s development process.
“I have a pretty acute sense of hearing,” said Delekta. “Outside of work, if I ask someone ‘Did you hear that?’ the answer is almost always ‘No.’ I hear noises that others don’t.”
The extreme testing even included varying temperatures in the climatic anechoic chamber to evaluate cabin sounds present at extreme temperatures — from minus 20 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the course of the same day. Since components may behave differently (read: squeak or rattle) at various temperatures (say 100 degrees but not when it’s below freezing), the intense tests resulted in improvements in 74 components.
One of the improvements made to the Cruze was related to the car’s audio system: a noticeable rattle from the rear deck lid was discovered and traced to bigger speakers that pumped out more volume and bass. To fix the rattle, engineers used an attachment clip to stabilize the panel that accommodates the speakers in the rear deck lid. Not only did the addition of the clip result in the elimination of the rattle, but it also led to better audio fidelity through the Cruze’s (awesome-sounding) Pioneer sound system.
The GM Authority Take
It’s engineering stories like this that make us huge fans of GM products. The level of testing and attention to detail and perfection are truly inspiring, and the results are obvious: the Cruze is by far the highest-quality compact car on the market today. Heck, other automakers don’t even have squeak and rattle labs (we’re looking at you, VW and Volvo), let alone conduct tests to find them.
Comments
Nice, but i doubt that european Chevry Cruze Made in Korea have the same noise-reducing and noise-canceling technologies than Cruze Made in USA.
Why do you say that @polonez? All this happened during development; doesn’t matter where it’s built.
Hi Silent i sayt that because i have a chevy cruze MADE IN KOREA and i drive a chevy Cruze in USA, the quality is not the same
it is quite something that i would confuse the interior of a mercedes benz C class with the chevy cruze……and in all honest truth the chevy has the better one !
Don’t think this is unique to GM…..
It may not be unique to GM, but its certainly something GM does better than most, if not all.
For starters, half of the industry TODAY doesn’t have engineers dedicated to squeaks and rattles. VW, Volvo, Ford (half way there), Hyundai/Kia and Nissan are the ones that do not for sure. They build it and “hope for the best”. Ever been in a 2012 Jetta? The amount of squeaks and rattles is abysmal.
They point isn’t to be unique, it’s to “do it right”. GM is doing it right.
Might wanna say that for a Honda Accord
Ford used to have a team but they were not called S&R. I would really bet they are still there. See the link below for a presentation they put out.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDAQFjAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fleet.ford.com%2Ftruckbbas%2Fnon-html%2Fqpg%2F2004%2Fsqueakandrattle%2Fsr-101-literacy-5-17-06-bb.ppt&ei=QYmpUKTQEpTYyAGk-oD4Ag&usg=AFQjCNEtikfcNDOF1_tF0aeYMS8FhMDM9g&cad=rja
Thanks for sharing, @62vetteefp — that’s good insight.
I, for one, am very dubious of Ford’s S&R efforts — since every single new Ford I’ve driven recently (2012 Mustang, 2013 Focus ST) has had a significant amount of squeaks or rattles at various temperatures… which sucks because they make make an overall great product.
you are spot on with your assessment Alex. i LOVE my Ecoboost Ford Flex Limited, but i’ll be damned if that thing has not become a rattle trap nightmare!
the dash rattles, the instrument gauges rattle, the trim on the b-piilars rattles, the seat belts rattle against the interior trim, the folding second AND third row seats rattle in every position they’re folded into. then there’s the squeaks! SMH. for a top of the line vehicle that tops out at 53000 you’d think this would not even be a concern, let alone a issue – especially with only 35,000 miles in two years!
my heavily modded 05 GTO WITH racing coil-overs and poly bushings and bushing-less endlinks doesn’t have a fraction of the rattles, and it rides like the only give in the entire suspension is the tires!
say what you want about newer GM cars and trucks, they may have 99 problems, but rattles ain’t on of them!
Alex, the idea to create quiet, smooth-riding, and solid cars is priceless…both for quality impressions to owonership pride and an enjoyable drive….I know it will serve GM very well….makes me a believer! Now I have to decide on Buick or Cadillac……….
Great job!!
It’s these things why I love GM. They arn’t immediately noticeable when you first buy their product compared to the competition, but you won’t regret you bought a GM.
As the owner of a 2012 Cruze Eco, I certainly must say, “Thank you, Mr. Delekta!” My vehicle is absolutely much quieter than the otherwise very nice 2013 Subaru Impreza Premium that my daughter recently purchased. Also more solid than my brother in law’s 2007 Lexus ES350.
I’m glad to be a GM fan.. I wished they got more publicity and did a little better job of advertising.. They offer great products and hearing this shows you that they really do care about the consumer.. I can’t wait to see how the new trucks will look like next month..
If this is true, GM should ‘ PICK A CAR THAT IS TWICE THE PRICE” and run an ad showing the diff. It is great info for us that read this blog and believe in GM, but means nothing to someone that doesn’t. I kind of remember an ad like that but have no idea on who ran it.
That plus a diesel soon to be released in 2013 as a 2014 model is why I await patiently for the year to turnover.
Noose canceling? So, is Chevy stepping into Buick’s territory now?
@Tim not at all. Buicks are still significantly more quiet thanks to more passive N/C tech and the use of active N/C technology as well. Either way, quiet is only one of the way that the “new Buick” should differentiate itself in the luxury space; the other should be a softer-than-usual ride/handling — ala the last-gen Lexus ES.
you might wanna add it’s quieter than the new gen Lexus ES
Vic….quiter than Lexus? Fabulous news….that is newsworthy ! I know Buick is sure hushed…ATS is too from my driving experience; excellent.
Silent…yes Buick quiet….love it!
Makes sense Silent Electrician. When I read the part about notice canceling, I jumped the gun because I associated that with Buick. All in all, I’m just glad to see GM does things like this. I had two BMW sourced MINI Coopers in the past and those cars were by far the worst when it came to squeaks and rattles!!
Yeah, and VWs too.
Had the S&R job at the MPG for 5 years. What is not explained here is how much work is now done before a vehicle is even prototyped.
Every part must meet one of the following criteria so that S&R issues are designed out. Finding and resolving issues after the vehicle is already tooled is expensive.
Klearance
Isolate
Structure
Secure
As far as “foreign” cars go, a friend of mine used to be a Nissan mechanic. When someone came in and complained about rattles in the doors and pillars, he, and the other mechanics would spray in foam insulation into the doors and center posts. They just hoped that they would not be the ones that might have to do any repair work later on.
So much for “quality imports”.
Cruz is not my kind of car, but I hope it spurs other manufacturers to get with it. Although squeaks an rattles don’t figure in to practical considerations, psychologically they are hugely significant. Squeaks and rattles drive me CRAZY!!! It makes a car feel like it’s barely holding together and might come apart at the seams at any second – ie really cheap crap.
Makes me grind my teeth. You cannot believe how impossible it is sometimes to locate the source, even when you can tell you are within inches of something rattling. Or maybe the only way you can get to it is to remove the steering wheel, tear off the dash, get special tools, rip out all the wiring.. etc. gads!
Problem is I prize handling above everything, which means no FWD for me. It also leads to BMW, which pains me, because I hate everything about them, except the handling, but that’s the most important thing. I hate the way they look, hate the interiors, hate the dated stale look, hate the way they keep looking backwards at the past, (I don’t give a blip about what they did 100 years ago) hate the same instrument gauges that they keep recycling for decades, hate their kidney bean grills, hate the snobby following…
G35/G37 is kind of ok, and most of the car is nice. But every time I see the front end of one, it is so hideous, I can feel the vomit coming up. You can tell that every time they redo it, they will never abandon the basic look. So, it is doomed. It will be unbearably ugly forever.
Miata has some good qualities, but it looks like a cartoon of a car, like the ones in those Disney or Pixar cartoons, with the characteristic Mazda smiley face. The interior is blah. I don’t want someone’s version of a 1950 MG. I want something that looks like a 21st century car.
Camaro/Mustang have cool bodies, but why do they stubbornly cling to that stupid, cave-man era rear axle? And those sickening sixties interiors are as bad as the 50’s MG. Just looking at them – you can almost smell the cheap vinyl aroma filling up the interior, even if it’s not made that way anymore.
The ATS is more forward looking inside and out with great RWD handling, but I’ve seen posts which complain of rattles and squeaks in ATS/CTS platforms. I would hope it would benefit from GM’s S&R department. Anyone want to share any first-person experience with these cars? I’m more interested in ATS because I don’t like fatter, heavier cars, but I think they share a lot of DNA.
Hi,I purchased a 2015 Chevy Cruze LT in November 2014 to replace a 2012 Ford Focus to get rid of transmission problems and have been disappointed in the amount of rattles under the Cruze car,there is two different types of rattles,one seems like it is in the front suspension as it happens when you are traveling at lower speed on pavement cracks and ripples,the other is like something hitting something ,the second one is on both sides depending on which side hits the crack or bump in the road you will hear it on that side.I would like to find a solution to this problem,otherwise a real nice car.
Idk, I have a 2015 Cruze and have put 86,000 miles on it… in those 86,000 miles I’ve never hear an out of place squeak or rattle… I’ve been impressed, I had a Mercedes before, and it feels just as smooth and had all the same features of the Cruze, and the Cruze is a fraction of the price, Actually I think the Cruze has more. (I do have an LTZ)