• #1
  
  casina , Today 11:17 AM
  Thanks for the opportunity to become a member. Love this site!!!
  
  Just leased a '16 XJL 3.0. For the first time we went with the 6 cyl rather than the 8 for our
  road vehicle
  road vehicle
  . Being to be sorry for that decision as the performance of the 3.0 is adequate, the sound from the interior is a lot to be desired for a sports/luxury car. Even my wife comments that it sounds like a "sewing machine",
  
  I have unsuccessfully found any options to make this thing sound at least like the 3.0 in the F-Pace. I just returned the Mina Gallery system which they told me would be just what i was looking for. The sound of the Mina's were fine but for the excessive interior drone between 2 & 3 thousand rpms. Informed them about this and was told to put a more time on them and they will mellow out. Well, at just below 200 miles on them my wife informed me that she i should check them out again. I then drove the XJ and the drone had become much worse to the point of rattling items both inside and on the center console. Switched back to the factory system immediately.
  
  We really are looking for a solution to get us an exhaust sound when under acceleration. Currently you only get supercharger wine.
  
  Anyone with any experience to help?

 

Casina, first things first. I would read your lease agreement and see what it says about modifications to the vehicle. I would suspect that you are either going to find that they are not going to want you to modify the vehicle in any way or that once you modify it, it then becomes theirs.

I have a feeling that if you do get something more "aggressive" sounding, you are going to need to get something custom done. Because you have a leased vehicle, I would talk with a muffler shop and have them create a system that would be similar to what Mina did in that you undo a joint and slide out half of the exhaust system. IN this case, the muffler shop will weld a muffler to some piping that allows you to remove the factory mufflers and slide this new system in place. that way, when you return the vehicle, you can install the factory exhaust and hopefully no one will be any wiser to what has happened.

As for mufflers that will do what you are after, that is a very subjective thing as what I find "pleasant sounding" drives others nuts and what they like drives me nuts. When looking at mufflers, you will find that most are referred to by a series number. So, you will see things like a 70 series muffler, a 50 series muffler, etc. The lower the number, the louder the muffler will be. So, a 70 series muffler is going to be very similar to a stock muffler at idle, but when you put your foot into the gas pedal, you will get more volume than what factory is. A 40 series muffler is going to be obviously louder than stock and when you put your foot into it, well, it is going to be similar to essentially having straight pipes on the car. so, pick your poison.

With this being said, the lower the series muffler, the more likely you are to run into issues. What I mean by this is that mufflers offer some positives when it comes to making things quiet. It is called back pressure. Back pressure is what generally creates low end torque. You lower the back pressure too much and you will find that to make the car accelerate, you are going to need to really put your foot into the gas. Once you get the RPMs up, it is going to make great power. But, where do you spend most of your time in the engine RPMs? 2,000 RPMs or 5,000 RPMs? You may also see your mileage actually drop slightly if you free up the exhaust too much. Not to mention that the cats and whatnot do not like a really free flowing exhaust and it can lead to error codes (normally associated with downstream O2 sensors).

So, what muffler should you install, I can't begin to give you a recommendation as there are too many variables to deal with. I know I personally like the sound of the Mina systems on 3.0L X-Types. But ,I can also see where it would not be in your case. I have a Flowmaster 70 series muffler on my truck as I didn't want something that was obnoxious when accelerating, but wanted something to help make some more power. People know the exhaust is not stock, but they are also not plugging their ears when I blast off the line.

 

Thanks Thermo. Sounds like the 70 series is what we need.

 

Where I come from, a car running "like a sewing machine" would be a high compliment !

 

yes but a $95,000 sports/luxury car shouldn't sound like one.....