Reducing engine noise in a Tata Harrier

I test drove a Tata Harrier and am inclined to purchase one. But having owned a petrol car, a diesel feels noisy. So, I looked up information on 3M acoustic solutions and wanted to know if it’s advisable to use this to further insulate a new car? Will it reduce the engine noise inside and does it impact the warranty?

Abhijit Pathak, Pune

Coming from a petrol car, you would find diesels a bit noisy, but it also depends upon an engine’s tuning and overall insulation levels inside the vehicle.

In case of the Harrier, while Tata has taken care to curb the engine noise by putting an insulation sheet under the bonnet, as well as using damping material on the firewall, the 2.0-litre diesel is inherently noisy at higher RPMs.

Unfortunately, the pack of 3M acoustic solutions wouldn’t help in this case, as it is primarily meant to absorb the vibrations produced by the car’s stereo speakers at high volume and prevent them from resonating with the overall vibrations in a moving vehicle, to offer the occupants a relatively superior audio experience inside the cabin. The damping sheets get installed in all the four doors and since the application process only requires opening of the door pads without any wires getting spliced, it will not have any impact on the vehicle’s warranty.

The Harrier is a capable product and since you are inclined towards purchasing one, we would recommend opting for the automatic variant, as the overall NVH is better controlled in that version compared to the manual counterpart.