Just made the move on a 2011 XF limited sport edition. Found this XF with only a bit over 35k on the clock, one owner. I am totally in love with the handling and the comfort of this car. I was holding out for the new XE, but fate intervened and knocked my beloved X-Type out of commission before it got here. I went ahead and purchased an exclusionary warranty for peace of mind (and so I won't lose my *** if anything goes wrong..lol). The only complaint I can think of is that it is just too quite for my taste. It's cold in the mornings right now, and that makes for a really nice startup sound as the chambers fill up, but it does not last. I am not too interested in performance (horsepower) upgrades as much as sound aesthetics. Any recommendations other than the
Mina pipes that I have already looked at?

 

Congrats neighbor. I think Mina is the best bet for awesome sound..But them suckers are pricey, I'll give you that.

There is a couple of active threads on the subject here..check em out

 

Congrats on the new car! Love mine and have had no issues. Actually, Mina is about the best deal out there at under $1000. My Mina Exhaust is in the mail. I highly recommend Mina for their customer service also as I had a bunch of questions before I ordered and Chris was very responsive.

 

A free DIY to get more sound out of your intake is the resonator delete. Yours may not have a supercharger, but you'll still get some of the rumble from doing it. I can't seem to find the original post about it, but I'll attach some pics.
Basically, if you look at your intake tubes you'll see some of them that don't attach to anything. They're just empty chambers. If you cut them off, you can cut the very ends of them off as well and then use a soldering iron to "plastic weld" them back together. I got a lot more of the engine sound I wanted once I did that.





I actually cut them down even further than this later. I just don't have a pic.





You can see the other places I cut here - 4 in all.

 

Cherry has a 2011 so his will be the 5.0 not the 4.2, and the intake is a bit different.
Not sure if has the NA or SC though, as I think the intakes are different again between them.
Anyway, FWIW, here's a pic of my stock XFR (5.0 SC) intake, showing the three resonators which can be "cut & shut":

 

You can go to a good custom exhaust shop and have the center twin pipes that has multiple resonators replaced with "straight" pipes.

This gives a very good low tone and growl while not being too loud and will not drone on the highway.

I spent $300 to have mine replaced and I still can swap the stock center section back in later if I want to.

I will post a link to what I did for your reference.

 

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-153393/page3/

 

Those look like you can take the resonators out entirely. If they're threaded, maybe you would be able to just buy a standard cap of some sort?

 

I don't think they are threaded, I tried twisting one and it didn't budge. I stopped short of giving it the full beans for fear of snapping it. I suspect they are glued in. It shouldn't be hard to cut them off with a hacksaw then seal up the holes.

 

Yes. This is a 5.0L NA not SC. I will take a look at the intakes this weekends what is the purpose of those hollow chambers anyway? I am betting debris traps.

 

Oz, those numbers are very impressive. I don't know if I could keep from spinning out with that kind of power. What tires are you running?

 

They are called Hemholtz Resonators and they cancel harmonics that cause intake noise. So when you cut them off, the car makes more noise. Simple physics.

 

I'm running Bridgestone Potenza S04 "Pole Position" in the stock XFR sizes of 255/35R20 front and 285/30R20 rear. Good grip wet and dry, just a bit of a chirp and DSC activation on "spirited" take off, that's with DSC in the default fully engaged mode. A bit more spin and a bit of smoke in Trac DSC, haven't yet tried it in anger with DSC turned right off!
Good ride quality and low noise as well.
I got them because by all reviews they are 95% as good as the Michelin Pilot Super Sports (MPSS) and I got them from Tire Rack for 65% of the price of the MPSS.
The rears are just about shot now, I have a pair of new Sumitomo HTR-Z111 in the shed waiting to go on, again in the stock size. They aren't high range tyres but they get fairly good reviews and I got them dirt cheap from a local Oz supplier, so I'll see how they go.

 

Instead of cutting them off and reattaching them, can't you just plug them from the inside? If you don't like them, you can remove the plugs.

 

The only issue with that is if whatever you plugged it with came out. And...how to get room to actually stuff anything tight enough in there through the intake tube.

 

OK, I took the shorter end piece off the stock intake, and looking inside it's obvious that the resonators are glued in and not screwed in, here's a pic:



I checked the other two by shining a torch in and they look the same.
So I suppose it is possible to plug them from the inside, once you take the end pieces off to get better access. You'd just have to get or make the exact right size plugs and some way of gluing them in.
Also, you would need a roughly 1" hose clamp to re-attach the tube on the RHS (see the tube sticking up on the RHS of the earlier pic), as the stock clamp is press fitted and the only way to remove it is to cut it off thereby destroying it.

 

Oz, I am a big fan of the Michellen Pilot Sport tires. I didn't know they made a SS version. I had the Pirelli P Zero Neros and they are total crap. Three of the four tires had sidewall failures at highway speeds. I switched to the Pilot Sports and they have held up pretty well, low road noise and stable even though they are A/S. Have you had any tmps issues when changing tires?

Don't really see how the change in the intake resonator is going to effect exhaust tone if the resonators are there to reduce engine noise.

 

No TPMS issues at all. The resonators are there to reduce intake roar, not engine noise as such. Blocking them off won't in theory change the exhaust note, it just gives more intake noise (and possibly a bit more SC noise, if you have an SC). But I found after fitting the TCP intake (which has no resonators) a definite increase in exhaust noise and SC whine, both good melodious noise increases and not just "noise". The exhaust noise beefed up a bit with a more pronounced V8 burble. Then, when I fitted the H-pipe in the exhaust system in place of the stock central muffler the exhaust noise smoothed out and I lost a bit of the burble. It beefed up a bit again after the XKR-S tune and I'm now very happy with the sound, even with stock rear mufflers.

 

I experienced the same with the TCP intake, so OZ is not experiencing placebo effect.

 

Well, since mine is NA upgrading to a new intake is not an option. I guess I will go with the Mina kit. I think anything will be better than stock as far as exhaust tone is concerned...lol
I actually have a TPMS issue now, so glad I got the exclusionary warranty...