Recently bought a resonated quad tip XLR8 exhaust after researching for weeks what kind of exhaust I wanted! I was super pumped after installing it and turned the key to hear the sound. And this was the problem... it's not loud.. like at all. What my failure was in researching was understanding that the top of the line exhausts for the TL-S were not that loud. At least not loud like I want it. Idling sounds no different than stock. It gives it a nice little rumble but any amount of music in the cabin and I can't hear when I should be shifting. So... We pulled the left muffler off, and to my surprise, was very pleased. Here's a picture and video.


<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/H-wWYDvyx7I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Now, my room mate also has a TL-S 6MT and after seeing what my exhaust was like missing the XLR8 muffler, he decided to cut a 4"x2" hole in his stock exhaust just before the mufflers. Call me crazy but it actually sounds decent, not as good as mine right now though. So here I am, trying to figure out if I should straight pipe the rest of the XLR8 exhaust, or sell the exhaust and just go with a straight pipe in place of the mufflers. The XLR8 exhaust is just too quiet, even though it sounds mean as hell. Any advice on what I should do?

 

Apparently I can't edit posts yet. Here's a link to the video as I can't figure out how to embed it.

 

Sounds great at idle. Stock J-pipe and cats?

the ones that are loud are usually raspy and sound like garbage. What made you go with just a dual, looks very awkward not having an exhaust on the drivers side. Plan on doing a delete cover on the side with no exhaust?

 

Deleted the 3rd cat but otherwise stock. I didn't buy just a dual haha I bought both mufflers and the whole catback but it wasnt loud enough so we took off the left muffler to see how it sounds. It sounds amazing so I'm leaving it for right now but obviously I want to get quad tips to fill in the other spot.

I was just asking if people think I should just go with a full straight pipe with resonator or just straight pipe the two stock mufflers. I can't really see spending $1100 on an exhaust and then cutting it up..

 

this is definitely weird because i've been running the xlr8 exhaust for almost 7 years now and i absolutely love it. i originally got the resonated version and it was super loud straight from the start...the xlr8 resonator is barely bigger than the pipe and it was much louder than i thought it would be!

when i added hfpcs, it actually got TOO loud so i cut out the xlr8 resonator and put in a large magnaflow resonator. car still sounded great and had some bite, but i wanted more sound out of it, so i cut out that resonator and added a smaller resonator (but still larger than the xlr8 resonator). even with the bigger resonator, i can still easily hear my exhaust even when blasting my aftermarket sound system (which includes full trunk sound deadening to cut down even more exhaust noise) and it sounds way different from stock at idle

if you want to get it louder, cut out the xlr8 resonator and have them add straight pipe there. it will cost you $40-80 and while it sucks to cut up a new exhaust, it's really not that big of a deal and might save you from lots of other costs and work if that gets you the sound you want!

here's a recent video of my current setup...hfpcs with xlr8 resonated quad exhaust, but with maganflow resonator instead of the xlr8 one

 

So you just want it to be loud? To each their own, but if that is the case, sell it and straight pipe it.

 

Also, you should have went non resonated

If interested I have the non resonated pipe. Click my link in my sig

 

win-win

 

SkyDiv3r14, sorry to hear you're not totally satisfied. Going un-resonated would have made it a bit louder, and putting in some high flow cats/test pipes would definitely help with that too.

The Jpipe is another great way to help you get some sound out of it, but I'm not sure how much money you're looking to spend; so taking it to an exhaust shop and having them cut out the resonator would be your best and cheapest bet!

Truly hope everything works out for you, please feel free to PM me if there is something I can help you with!

 

Hmmm really? It was TOO loud coming out of the box?? The only thing that I noticed that others may not have liked is the fact that I could feel the exhaust in the car, rather than hear it. Which I do like as well but I would rather hear it.

The video sounds really good but I just can't tell if that's loud enough. You're right about the resonator not being big at all so I cant imagine straight piping just that will get me the same loudness as taking off a muffler..
I mean if i were to choose between 10 hp and a quieter exhaust and 0 hp and a loud exhaust, I'd choose the loud exhaust. Just makes driving a 6mt so much fun.
Hmmm I don't know if it'll still be loud enough. That's funny though that you have just that pipe! I'll keep your FS thread in mind after Pm'ing XLR8.

PM sent your way sir.

 

Oh my god sockr this sounds so sexy!!

 

Not a problem bro! You are good to go, put that other muffler back on the freaking car though. You already have a killer exhaust many of us would love to have. If you want it louder just get the hi flow cats or jpipe just like XLR8 promoted. You have a great piece you should use it.

 

I have the pipe because when I first bought the XLR8 exhaust, I bought the non resonated version. Getting older, I wanted it to be tone down a bit so I contacted XLR8 in which they offer the pipe alone and scoop up the resonated pipe. Yeah I should of just welded a resonator instead but dumb me didn't want to hack up the nice exhaust