I'm in the middle of removing carpet for a RAAMmat (Dynamat competitor) job to make the car quieter. After removing the seats, I removed the "Lucid" panel (the one behind each seat with the vent to the trunk).

Why are there vents between the trunk and the main cabin? It seems so intentional... but yet, it seems like one of the potentially biggest sources of introducing noise into the cabin.

Can I just cover the vents up with some RAAMmat? Or will Really Bad Things happen?

 

They are there to help air flow through the car when you have the AC or heater on, IMO it won't make a big difference, its easy to try

 

I agree. I'm sure it is part of the air recirculation system so if it were me I'd leave these vents open.
Besides possible odors developing, if water did somehow enter the cabin, possibe mildew could develop.

 

The vents are to facilitate air flow through the cabin, especially when the climate control is NOT set to recirculate. When not set to recirculate, fresh air is drawn in from outside through the cabin filter, pushed into the cabin via the multiple vents in the dash/footwells, out through the vents behind the seats (into the trunk) and then out of the trunk through some vents underneath the bumper-cover.

I'm not sure what the effect would be if vents behind the seats are covered. The cabin will not be air tight, but I'm not really sure you'd want to cover up those vents.

 

I bet you'd have super issues with the windows fogging up when you drive for a while with the top up and the a/c off... especially with 2 people in the car.

 

Bear in mind that many people DO cover these vents either when putting in dynamat type material or when installing speakers behind the seats in the "Lucid panel" configuration.

 

Check out this thread:

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.ph...pic=409355&hl=

 

They are there for a reason.