Hi all- I just installed a dual Q300V4 yesterday on my AP1 with the stock cat and stock gears. I read as much as I could about it before buying - and while many posts said there was a drone in the 3-4k range - it wasn't too bad. Similar to OEM in normal driving and nice and loud when you open it up. This sounded perfect.

Well, unfortunately I'm either hyper sensitive to the drone - or mine is unusually bad, but I'd say pretty much any time I'm cruising typical suburban roads (which is 95% of the time for me) - its creating massive drone. I drove it with the top up, down, windows down, windows up - and no real difference.

I did take it on the highway and its almost (strangely) dead silent at 70mph if your not into the gas. And, it sounds unbelievable when taking it up into vtec range.

I do want to give it some time before swapping back to stock (really don't want to have to manhandle that OEM system again if I don't have to)-

1. I've got my stock airbox top/cover off- I'm going to try putting that back on and see if there is perhaps some sort of frequency overlap between the intake and exhaust making things worse. Will this help? (I can't mess with it until tomorrow to test for myself)

2. I've read conflicting reports on what happens after its been on for a while - some have said it will get louder and others suggest it will get quieter. My past experience is that cat-backs generally get slightly quieter and more mellow once broken in as the baffles get a coating exhaust residue on them. How long does this take with this system?

btw- I did check to make sure there was no rubbing of the system against any parts of the car.

 

as someone who owns this exhaust and has had it on their car for about a year now, the sound does quite down, but my biggest gripe about it is the raspiness...it sounds good out of VTEC, but once i hit 6 grand, it is very very obnoxious...so bad in fact, that im getting a different exhaust as soon as i have the funds saved up for it

 

It does quiet down after about 500 miles, but it wasn't enough for me. I had the Invidia resonator replaced with a 3" Vibrant Ultra Quiet Resonator. Sounds perfect now, exactly how I had imagined it actually

 

I don't know what other options you have since it's one of the quieter aftermarket exhausts out there...unless you want to put the stock one back on?

Interesting. To me it is too quiet...lol.

And oh in terms of drone...I hardly noticed any, but that's maybe because of my background with obnoxiously loud cars

 

If you installed it with the OEM cat i'd be starting to question it. I put mine on yesterday and it started to quite down after like 40 miles (noticeably). It's already very tolerable top up and top down. Maybe you have a leak or didn't get the crimp on connections tight enough

 

I agree with you 100% OP. I bought one, hated it, too loud, sold it, put OEM back on. Never looked back.

 

I had my exhaust "Q300" for a month before I got my HFC ...big diff ...no more drone and now sounds just about perfect !!....love my exhaust oem is a joke for our cars ...way way to quite imo

 

I would love to have a HFC on mine...too bad I live in California...!!

 

If all you wanted was a better sounding exhaust without the drone that most after market exhaust have, you should have tried the UK exhaust mod first. It could have saved you some money.

I have used this race muffler on a couple of cars that were to loud and it worked good at turning the volume down on those cars. Put it in line where it will fit and see if that works for you.
Moroso Spiral Flow Racing Mufflers
http://www.moroso.com/catalog/catego...?catcode=35054
Cost about $60
http://www.summitracing.com/search/b...s?autoview=SKU

ROD

 

Hi all. Just a quick update... I jumped on Amazon and bought a Vibrant Ultra Quiet Resonator. I just got in the mail last night - but for now its still in the box - I may be able to return it.

I took the car out for a quick drive again last night (it's not my DD). This is the 4th time I've driven it after a full cool down since installing the Q300 - although probably only about 30 miles in total across all trips. It's been substantially quieter each time I've taken it out. The clearest way for me to tell that its quieter is that I can hear my clutch buzz again - I'd say the drone is now less than 25% of what it was right after I installed it. During the first test drive, I could not hear the clutch buzz at all- the drone totally drowned it out (along with everything else). Aside from the fact that at WOT it sounded awesome, I was kind of embarrassed when driving through neighborhoods- I don't pass very well for a young dude .

I had my wife take a spin while I was outside listening and was very glad to hear that I would never consider it loud under normal driving conditions (which clearly indicated that it seemed much louder due to the drone inside the car.

Now that its starting to get warm, I'll be driving it more. I will probably give it another couple weeks before doing anything with the Resonator.

For now I've just got to decide what I think about the tips. I'm considering swapping them with AP2 oval tips. Sometimes I think they look good/cool and other times I think they look too big. I like the more stock look to things - so before doing the install I cut the Invicta plate off and sanded then painted everything a nice flat black - very happy with how it turned out - totally stealth.


I'll update again in a week or so.