My 2015 Toyota Prius V Complete Sound Deadening + Audio System Build

This thread documents my 2015 Prius V refinement project focused on cabin noise reduction and an audio system upgrade. The goal is to improve daily driving comfort and in-car sound quality through a complete NVH and audio system build.

 

I eventually decided to upgrade the audio system in my Prius. I already had a few components, and after researching different setups online I picked up the rest of what I needed.

Before touching the car itself, I wanted to make sure everything was working correctly, so I set the entire system up on a test bench at home first.

 

I needed some lugs, battery terminals, circut splitter, wires, fuses

 

Important note: wire terminations. I'll came back to this later

 

Started from the doors. Surfaces needed to be clean.

 

Two layers inside the doors

 

Aftermarket speakers + deadening the doors under panel surface

 

During a second test, I accidentally shorted the circuit, and the head unit stopped powering on. It's a good reminder to be very careful when working with 12V electronics.

After taking it apart, I found a burned PCB trace. Fortunately, I was able to repair it by soldering the trace back together, and the head unit started working again. I got lucky—if any other component had been damaged, I might have had to replace the entire head unit.

 

I continued working on the trunk area. Everything had to be removed to get access to the battery.

The hybrid battery is heavy, but it was better to remove it to make routing the signal and power wires easier. I applied two different layers of sound deadening and insulation, plus a third layer of noise-absorbing material in specific areas.

 

Then it was time to “skin the bear.” After removing the seats, center console, side trim panels, and clips, I pulled out the carpet.
And it was a great opportunity to give it a proper deep cleaning.

 

Headliner. After taking it off, I put in two layers of sound deadening material. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of all the steps.