As some of you may have noticed, I recently installed this axel back on my 2024 R…I just wanted to give my thoughts on the difference it has made with my car for anyone that might have an interest, might be considering purchasing it, etc…

Here is a link to my install thread for anyone interested —>

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f...k-only-296101/

I’ll start by mentioning my goals when I set out to purchase this exhaust. As most of us know, these newer F-types have a GPF filter integrated into the stock CATs. As a result, these cars are notably down on exhaust noise compared to the older cars that are not fitted with a GPF.

Even with the GPF fitted it still sounds surprisingly good when one uses a valve controller to keep the valves fully open. Even before the exhaust I was quite satisfied to be honest, but I always found myself itching to have just a bit more in terms of exhaust noise. I didn’t want over the top gunshots insane or anything, just a bit more.

After driving this car for 2 days now with the new exhaust fitted I can say for sure that this move delivered exactly what I was looking for. Notable differences that I perceive —>

1) Right off the bat, the same beautiful tone is maintained…Generally…I was a bit concerned that it might change the stock tone too much, as I really like that. It did not, so I’m a bit relieved. It’s so hard to know for sure from videos on the Internet. Impossible I find. Buying exhausts involves a bit of a leap of faith in my view, unless you know someone with the exact setup to hear in person. This worked out for sure, so I’m quite pleased.

2) It is most definitely louder than stock with the valves open. Undeniably. Not crazy louder, but it noticeably has more volume. To the point where I am glad I have an ASR valve controller that allows me to have the valves completely closed throughout the entire cold start. The difference is enough where I would now feel a bit concerned that I’d be upsetting the neighbours in comparison. I’ve come to the conclusion that, if it’s in the afternoon I will not be that concerned to do full open cold starts, but if it’s before noon I’m just gonna do cold starts with the valves completely closed the entire cold start (until it idles down).

3) It’s not just louder, it’s deeper. Much deeper. Like, I’m in love deeper. Intoxicatingly so. Amazing. The sound is just so full and filled in compared to stock. Beefy. Not sure how to describe it other than to use those word. Like, amazing.

4) Overruns. Much more pronounced. In a good way. Very nice.

5) Idling. With the stock setup I found I struggled to hear the car. Yeah, not now. I can hear the exhaust so nicely now from inside the car. SO much better in this regard. It is one of my favourite changes.

6) Rasp. Jury is still out on this, as I need more seat time, but I have the sense that it is lowered. When you’re into it I find it is still there, but when down shifting aggressive in sport manual mode I think it’s a bit more reduced. I think, but again, I think I need a little more time to say for sure. This is my initial impression.

7) Drone. NONE. Perfect.

8) Better look. This is subjective, but in my view the tips look WAY better than stock. Like, in person, it’s not even close. Most of my buds agree. Very aggressive looking.

——

Anyway, all this to say I’m incredibly pleased. If you are like me and want to raise the roof a bit with your newer GPF-fitted F-type, without tuning and changing environmental equipment (GPF, CATs), this may be for you. I was also concerned with warranty issues. This is not invasive at all, and could be easily removed if needed, so warranty problems are not a problem.

Cheers

 

I'm glad to hear it!

I think you should add to all the noise on youtube by recording some of the sound at idle, and a couple pass-bys so we can hear

 

Thanks for the review. I have a MY19 6cyl, which despite being pre-GPF, is nonetheless too quiet most of the time, notably at idle. Although I have the active exhaust with the cabin switch, I’ve been dissatisfied and thinking of an aftermarket exhaust.

Yes, my car barks on cold starts, but quiets down pretty quickly. I drive almost exlusively in Dynamic plus shifter Sport (hereafter, DS), but still would like more ruckus. I get good pops n’ bangs on overrun in DS (and the attendant poor fuel economy), but really find the idle and low speed sound to be feeble.

If there were a way to showcase thhigh-tension sound of the V6 at speed at lower RPM, that’d be great, because as it now, even in DS, the car is essentially silent between 900rpm and 3k rpm, which is exactly where I do a lot of driving in town.

 

Not much of Youtuber, but perhaps at some point I could try and post a small video snippet on here or something.

Again, I personally don't think videos of exhausts are all that accurate or representative, but I guess it could give an idea.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it the case that your car does not truly keep the valves open all the time with the stock ECU setup? I don't know all the nuances of some of the other F-types, but I thought I read that....Especially with some of the newer-ish ones just before the final face-lifted look I have (i.e.: What you have)...

My suggestion would be to first get clear on what the deal is there. If it was the case that your car is not truly able to keep the flaps open in the lower revs all the time, well, that would be a cheap fix for you. Given that you don't have a GPF to contend with, getting the flaps to stay open full time when you want them to would likely be the only battle you need to win. It would make all the difference. Solving that issue made a massive difference even on my GPF equipped F-Type.

For instance, I googled whether your car would truly have the exhaust open all the time and it spat out something similar to what I've read...i.e.: That it does not truly keep them open, and the ECU is overriding and actually keeping them closed in the lower RPMs... -->

"On some newer models (roughly MY18+), the button may not keep the valves open 100% of the time at idle to comply with noise regulations, often opening fully only above certain RPMs."

This sounds like what you don't like, and that would be easy to solve with a controller like I have from ASR. Because you don't have a GPF issue I think your issues are solved through some combination of a valve controller like the ASR unit I have, or in a worse case a tune, but the valve controller could possibly be all that's needed? Would be a lot cheaper than a quality aftermarket exhaust.

Put it this way, if I didn't have a GPF I doubt I would have needed an axel back to satisfy what I was looking for. Just my ASR probably would have done it for me. My best guess anyway...

Something to think about. Do you know definitively that your car is for sure keeping the valves open throughout the entire rev range when you want it to?

 

Have you tried pulling the active exhaust fuse? (I think F15 for you, F43 for me.) I have active exhaust, but not switchable active exhaust. I added a relay and remote to defeat F43, and when I activate it, it’s MUCH louder at low RPMs, like night and day. You should try that first. I should find someone to help me record a few videos, meant to do that a few years ago.

 

You will notice a change (for the better) after about 500 miles once the exhaust has had a few heat/cool cycles on all the metal. It definitely takes that to 'wear in', if that's the right terminology. I had similar impressions to you out of the box, but it gets even better after a few hundred miles.

 

Yeah I don't disagree, but having more examples of different setups can still be helpful for some.

 

So, does it get significantly louder?

 

Not louder, but the tone seems warmer. If there is any rasp now, that goes away.

 

I have that exhaust on my v6S (had to change the rear skirt to accommodate the quad pipes which was what I was really wanting). It is a lovely tone on the 6, but with that engine it does give some drone cruising at about 110kph unless you pop it into sport and run it in a gear higher. Much deeper, as you say.

 

The deeper tone is the biggest and most noticeable change beyond also now being able to hear idling better.

I guess in your case that is a consequence of using the exhaust in a way it was not designed to be used. I did not perceive any drone at all, which is one of the claims to fame of this exhaust.

That’s different though, I’m sure not many have done what you’ve done. A one of one ;-0 Nice

I really like the sound of those v6s as they are, so not sure I’d personally want to deepen that sound. For the v8s the deeper tone makes natural sense to me.

 

To be honest, this concept of exhausts breaking in didn’t even occur to me. As soon as ya mentioned it here I put it into the google verse. It seems to suggest that the exhaust getting louder is also part of the breaking in, but it’s hard to know with this AI garbage that comes back half the time ;-0

I could probably stand for even more volume, but I’m not sure the neighbors could…lol

Regardless, even with where it’s at right now it was a really good bump in volume. Quite satisfying, but I am rolling around a little more conscious of cops and getting tickets for a too loud exhaust. It is louder, but not sure it’s loud to the point where sound tickets are any more likely than before if just cruising around….Probably just in my head ;-0

When you’re on it though, yeah, that could be a problem if the cops are in ear shot ;-o

 

This was noted with the OEM exhausts too in the early days, and I experienced it breaking in my car. Never made sense to me, maybe catalytic converter related? (Do these aftermarket exhausts include new cats?)

 

Later cars, or earlier cars with updated ECU software, do not keep the valves open all the time when in normal mode, with the active exhaust switch engaged. They will close at idle and open somewhere just above 1k rpm. Enabling dynamic mode reverts to the valves tracking the switch settings at all times. With dynamic mode enabled, if the valves are set open, they stay open even at idle. I have not tested how sport mode interacts, if at all, with the exhaust valve settings. This is my observations with my 2017 R, after doing a VAP ECU tune. Note that I specifically went the "reduced pops and bangs" route.

 

His is the VAP back box only so no new cats. Heat cycling of the metal seems to be the reason.

 

I mean, perhaps this down to your tune? I know Thunderdump solves the valves always closed below 3500 rpm problem on his newer 2023 as part of his tune. I solve it through the use of my ASR valve controller on my 2024 without the need of tuning.

On the newest cars like mine and Thunderdump’s, stock it doesn’t matter what you do, what combination of buttons you press or don’t press…Those valves are not opening until you go above 3500 rpm…Which is completely dumb and must be rectified with a tune, or a valve controller like the ASR unit I have, if ya wanna have any fun across the entire rev range.

I just have the feeling that there has been enough variations over time in how this stuff is implemented in the different cars of different years that chaadster should at least be open to the idea that this is what is happening in his case. I see no other reasonable explanation that could be causing him to not be happy with the sound in certain parts of the rev range…The valves must be closed. What other explanation could there be?

Hate to see the guy go spend a bunch of money on an expensive exhaust, only to find out he will have the exact same problem due to the root of his problems actually being the ECU and it’s programming.

 

The exhaust 'wearing in' won't make it louder. In general the tone can change as the interior of the pipes develops a layer of carbon on it, and starts to reflect less and flow more as intended. It should be a very minor change but usually it just smooths out a tiny bit.

 

If the newest cars still keep the valves close up to 3500rpm, with active exhaust enabled and dynamic mode enabled, well... that's just dumb, and really sucks. At that point, why even bother with the valves. I mean, that's the behavior of my car, both stock and tuned, in full normal mode. It's good for getting out of the neighborhood and surface streets when I don't care to draw a lot of attention or annoy someone. Whether the behavior is changeable via data tables, or it's deeper in the ECU code, I don't know. I could see reasons to do it both ways (I do embedded and microcontroller software development, among other things). It can definitely change with a tuning flash. Whether that's intentional or a side effect (even if a desirable side effect), is the question.

But your point is correct -- make sure the thing you change will actually going to have an effect on the thing you want different.

 

Yeah man, I know it’s hard to believe that they did this to the final face-lifted cars, but they did. I couldn’t believe it when I learned that was the case. I addressed that pretty quickly and what a game changer.

That’s the level of “insanity” Jaguar got too eventually towards the end in terms of meeting stricter sound control etc that I guess certain countries were complaining about or whatever…

That said, it would not surprise me at all if there was another version of that garbage between 2017 and 2021 that you didn’t have to contend with, but that maybe chaadster’s 2019 does have…Like some sort of graduated step to the really dumb version on my car that makes it sound like crap for half the rev range…lol…Maybe his sounds crap for 1/3 of the rev range or something ;-o God only knows, it would not surprise me at all.