S3 exhaust help and thoughts

[TruckBoss36]

I have a AWE track exhaust on the s3. The car sounds actually pretty good outside . Inside the drone is ridiculous. Im considering just doing a universal muffler setup . Any thoughts of what I should do. The switch path isn’t enough I’ve heard and I just prefer not to have the valves. Im lookin at a chambered muffler setup but not sure who to go with or what I should do. I don’t want to junk the exhaust due to the costs. Trying to salvage what ever I can

 

[92683]

i recently did some exhaust mods as well.

what do you have from the turbo down to the exhaust?
is it still stock?
if not what do you have?
this info is important to know what you have done.

 

[TruckBoss36]

Stock down pipe. I had a local shop put a cheap resonator in it right before the catback links up to the mid pipe. Did hardly anything after it broke in. Then I put a j pipe ( helmholtz resonator ) in before resonator on the mid pipe. Vivid racing in Canada told me that placement would be sufficient. Well it cut down the throat from start to idle but still sounds a mess in every gear across the entire 2k rpm range. Gets even more annoying right before 80 the tone switches completely at 2800-2900 and it’s forces you to either go faster , slower or beg for a down hill to take the foot off. The drone is worse than any car I’ve owned .

 

[92683]

firstly, you did pick a very performance-oriented exhausts system. im afraid to even call it an exhaust as there is no muffler to it. its just pipes from what i can tell. lolz

with these cars the noise level goes up once you change out anything. the cabin gets the brunt of it. why? for some reason, the metal seems to be less insulated under the floorboards. i haven't opened it up yet but from what i can tell the sheet metal is thin as paper. another dynamic of is it the bottom of the car is like a cavity space. if you look a the rear of the car, the muffler section seems to be up there and closed up a little. so the sound bounces back. so no matter what muffler you do, the sound bounces back into a thin metal cavity. many people have complained with just doing the initial muffler delete. which is the muffler right before the main exhaust. another mod i did was the downpipe. the cabin is very loud and seems like it had a drone, i got used it within a month. i have the stock exhaust as i heard that it can get really bad with any aftermarket muffler.

so to fix your issue. if you want that system, put back everything before it to stock. it will help but wont remove that issue you have. the most restrictive which means its going to be the most quitest system is the stock one. so, you need these stock parts back, downpipe (which you have), secondary cat, and pre-muffler.
the next part is to add more insulation to the entire car. laterally. sound deaden the entire floor. you must remove all the seats, trunk, and carpet. add in a lot of sound treatments. this is addition to putting back that section of exhaust, minus your favorite new system.

with all that, you should get a more bearable sound system but i wont say it will totally remove everything. its the nature of the game.

that's also why yours is called the "track" version. you'll get sound along with any performance gains.

 

[TruckBoss36]

I wasn’t sure if could get away with welding a couple small compact muffler where my original huge stock can would sit. Thanks though.

 

[92683]

the issue here is that end-users mistakenly are told that the aftermarket mid muffler add'ons will simply solve the loudness issues.

manufacturers like audi, Mercedes, BMW, etc all have put into effect a devision that does only extensive testing and R&D on performance parts. for audi i believe its audi sport department, merc is their AMG department, BMW has one for their M department. millions of dollars are spent into R&D to get that note out of the muffler section.
they will test how certain parts or parts that needs to be made make a certain sound with a certain resonance. what your told by aftermarket shops is that if you put in the generic parts they have, it will sound good or do what you think it will do, in this case reduce unwanted cabin sound. its a hit or miss. if your lucky, it might quiet it down but it might also make the car sound like crap. or it might not even quiet it down and you wasted money.

as your experiencing, the volume in your new setup is too loud but you like the sound.

all i can see trial and error. see what you like.