Fellow Tiguan owners, I need your advice.
I have APR stage 3 on the car and love it, except for the new exhaust note. The car now sounds like a cross between a try hard boy racer and an obnoxious lawnmower. Its particularly vile when cold which is not helped by a sympathetic buzz between 1K-3K rpm which my mechanic has traced to be in the muffler itself. Drone is negligible when the engine isn’t under load, but gets annoying especially when going up hills on the freeway. My wife, whilst liking the handling and drivability of the car, can't stand the noise. Even I feel somewhat ashamed when driving it up the driveway first thing in the morning - it isn't good.
So, the muffler with its internal buzz has to be replaced. What a shame
. So what do I want? I want an exhaust note that is ice and quiet when pottering around, but don’t want anything that is going to restrict/hamper performance and power, and am very happy for the exhaust to sing when driving spiritedly. So here the options I’ve been leaning towards.
- Get my hands on an R Mk 7.5 muffler and install. Retain the valve flaps when the tips are extended to suit the Tiguan and control the exhaust flaps ideally be enabling them via ODBEleven Pro (which I have) and sourcing the Golf R exhaust valve harness and plugging into the loom somewhere, or worst case using an AWE switchpath.
- Same as above, but use the new Invidia R400 exhaust (Invidia Signature Series R400 Volkswagen Golf R mk7.5 Valved catback Exhaust) – I love the black tips and the review for the exhaust, at least from the Subaru owners, it very positive.
- Go with the XForce Varex muffler (https://vwcentral.com.au/xforce-vw-g...st-system.html), put the black tips on (https://vwcentral.com.au/vw-golf-r-m...-4-outlet.html) and control it with the Varex smartbox controller (https://vwcentral.com.au/xforce-vare...ller-1382.html).
So, along with opinions of what people think about the above options, I have other questions too that I’m hoping someone might know an answer to or have a knowledgeable opinion on. They are:
- Where the heck to do get a half decent R 7.5 muffler from? I’ve been looking at availability for the last few months and have only seen on come up. Is COVID restricting supply? I’ve chased wreckers, exhaust shops, eBay, VW forums, gumtree – there seems to be none around?
- Does the resonator before the Golf R muffler actually fit on the Tiguan? I’ve read some posts where those doing the conversion deleted it because it wouldn’t fit. As my mechanic pointed out to me, my Tiguan had its resonator in the centre pipe which is now deleted by the PAR dump pipe. The Golf R has a resonator just before the muffler but the Tiguan does not. I really want some type of resonator before the muffler. If the Golf R doesn't fit, that makes me lean towards the XForce (which has a thin style one) or means I need to modify the APR dump pip, Golf R muffler or Invidia muffler.
- Has anyone actually got the Tiguan ECU to control the exhaust valves? I know that Tigger got his hands on the Golf R exhaust valve loom but don’t know if it got installed? What I love about the auto control is that it a) minimizes noise when below 3500rpm when in 4th and above on part throttle, opens the valves automatically on part throttle, and gives better throttle response on part throttle because the closed valves create back pressure which helps the turbo spool more quickly. Whilst turbo response is great in Stage 3 under WOT, it is noticeably worse with the IS38 under part throttle.
- If I go for the Invidia muffler, where do I get the exhaust valve control solenoids from apart from a dealer? Haven’t seen these go up for sale on the forums. Does anyone who installed the Golf R muffler and deleted the valve have any? Also, has anyone tried one of these new Invidia R400 exhausts? Whilst expensive, they are cheaper than many alternatives and those black tips look HOT.
- If I go the XForce, does anyone know how the exhaust valve works? On the Golf R and other aftermarket exhausts, there is a left and right valve on the outside tailpipe (the inside tailpipe has no valve). On the XForce exhaust, the control valve mechanism is on top of the muffler. So with other exhausts, closing the control valves closes 2 of the 4 pathways out. Im assuming that these muffler designs have greater muffling of these open tailpipes to keep the noise down, and the two tailpipes with the valves are a little less restricted. With the XForce varex, surely closing the valve doesn’t close off all airflow?
- Lastly, the XForce controller uses Bluetooth from the OBD-II port to the controller to open the valves. Would this be 100% reliable? Would hate to floor it and find that the valve didn’t open because of a Bluetooth connection issue. Wouldn’t CanBus (or LinBus) would be more reliable? (which of course isn't an option with the Varex)
Lots of questions – sorry. Wanting to make the best choice and not really sure what that is. Hence this post as I know there are quite a few out there with far more knowledge than me regarding this!
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