My previous thread was a photo-documentary of unboxing my FI exhaust. First impressions were very positive, the product looked rock solid; it had a real quality feel and was well packaged.
This afternoon I brought the car down to my Audi dealership where I've been doing all my mechanical work since I got the PPI on the car back in October. I was quoted $95.00 an hour for labor and figured it a fair price. I was given a look at the process of fitting my exhaust and one of the first things the mechanic pointed out was the very little clearance the X-Pipe section has near the undercarriage, and that any torsion of the frame during hard cornering might cause some vibration and rattling of the exhaust along the carriage pan. He said he'd do as much adjusting as it takes to keep this from happening. The total install time was 3 hours, bringing my bill significantly higher than I had hoped, but the mechanic took the car out for a number of runs to see how the exhaust expanded and what not once heated up, and adjusted it accordingly to ensure proper alignment even during high temperature conditions. Overall I was satisfied with the installation. FYI, for all you people who want to take home their stock exhaust, bring a truck, because it uninstalls in one giant piece and can't be parted up and put in the back of your car.
Here is my snap impression of the product after spending over two hours with it:
Looks: The 4" tips look awesome. I was a bit nervous about a larger tip, and thought for a brief second about getting the 3.5" option, but the 4" look much better in person than in pictures and fill out the valence holes perfectly.
First rev while listening outside: Nice! Sounds exactly as you hear it in the various YouTube videos floating around. Not excessively aggressive, but certainly not stock either.
Inside, turn of the ignition: Sounds exactly how you might expect, good initial burble of the engine upon turning the key.
Driving around town: The best way for me to describe my feelings about driving around town with the exhaust, at this moment, is merely "...shit". Not a good "shit", but more like, "maybe this isn't the best idea". My alibi for all you interested is I drive a Tip, and spend much of my time in traffic so like the convenience of an automatic. The reason for my concern is as follows:
The Tip rapidly seeks out 6th gear and likes to hold at approximately 1.8K RPM. Between 1.5K-1.8K RPM, any throttle input in 6th gear gives a loud drone throughout the exhaust and cabin of the car. It is not a pleasant sound, and crawling around Atlanta traffic for 30 minutes had me itching for the highway simply to get away from that particular RPM range.
On a positive note, I was able to remedy this problem by using manual paddle shifting, allowing me to maintain the engine in the 2K+ RPM region, effectively eliminating exhaust drone.
I'm still unsure about exactly how I feel about this exhaust driving around town. If anything, it might be good to be forced to use the paddle shifters.
Highway driving: Good. Unobtrusive, very mellow sounding while hovering at 2.2K RPM. I had a nice drive back from Atlanta, got to open up the car a bit and enjoy the sound.
OVERALL IMPRESSION: This is certainly a great looking product. It is probably best suited for those with a 6SMT and know from previous experience how the car sounds with it installed. I'm going to keep this exhaust on my car for at least six months to break it in and get used to the new sound. Lets see if the carbon deposits change the sound of this a few months down the line.
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FS: Audi TT 225Q Roadster
Originally Posted by joeycuccaro
- DTM | Sprint Blue Pearl | Black leather/Alcantara | Navi | CF trim | OEM 18" RS4s
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