GTOJOE78

I have almost 900 miles on my 05 GTO A4 and I just got back from a trip to the local Mineke Shop (they have done work for me before) and had them cut the mufflers off the stock system and weld in two straight pipes with the stock tips. Sounds real damn good. Not raspy or anoying around town at all. Once you get on it, this thing sounds like its got 400hp and then some. For sound purposes I don't think you can do better than just this simple mod and I know that it didn't lose any *** in the performance department either. This stock exhaust is stout and one of the best stock systems he(Mineke guy) had ever seen. He said that the real only weak link in the GTO was the 2 piece drive shaft(WTF?). I went back and looked and sure enough it is in two sections. I hope this driveshaft holds up over time but the new straight pipes sound awsome. CHEAP AND WORTH IT. Thanks and comments or questions appreciated.

grump

I did the exact same thing to my '05 as well. There is no need to spend $700 on a catback for this car... Double wall tips and resonators with no mufflers. It is a factory installed SLP Loudmouth. I LOVE the sound..

xp3nd4bl3

Sounds good if you like highway drone!

grump

There is NO drone in this set up at speed.

GTOJOE78

With the straight pipes there is absolutely no drone like other cars I have done this to. At 70 it is not loud at all and at 80 you start to hear the rumble (this is OD in A4) really smooth. However when you step into the throttle this beast screams like a bat out of hell. Nice deep throaty, better than Flowmaster American Thunder system I had on my 2000 Ws6. It droned like hell at 70. Of course ths car does have a hell of alot more sound deadning in it also. THnaks for the comments.

RookWV

Here's an 04 with mufflers removed.

It's much louder at WOT, not too much louder than stock at idle and as revs increase so does the loudness. It pops some on decel from pokey speeds and has the growl coming from high RPM's then a few pops.

Interior sound is elevated but not overwhelming and at cruising speed with the windows up it is almost silent

Final cost: $55 and I kept my stock muffies.

I went for idle, 2500, 3500 to WOT back down.

Stock

http://webpages.charter.net/jvandall/StockExhaust.wmv (5.23Mb)

Cats and Resonators with mufflers removed

http://webpages.charter.net/jvandall...ersRemoved.wmv (4.85Mb)

Got my sister to help me out some.....nevermind her giggles, she wants a GTO now!

Driveby:

http://webpages.charter.net/jvandall...iesDriveBy.wmv (1.32Mb)

Pull away (but I forgot to turn TC off! )

http://webpages.charter.net/jvandall/DriveBy2.wmv (778kb)

HumanZoom

My dad and I had the same idea for his 05 GTO. Any possible way to get some sound clips up for us to hear? I'd be happy to host them for you if everyone wants to hear them or you can just email them to me. Thanks.

oxidizr

iTrader: (4)

The drone frequecy is actually controlled by the front resonator which should still do its job with out the mufflers. The rear mufflers / silencers are mostly for exhaust note and tone control. Without them you should notice much more NOISE from exhaust reversion (poping and crackle) under decelleration. Under load (6th gear, uphill driving @ 2200-2300 rpm) I guarantee the interior noise with your windows closed is not pleasant. Windows down radio on .. maybe tollerable by some, but far from something you could drive your wife or mom in for hours at a time. Not all care about that issue but it is what some people look for in an exhaust ... drivability and legality ... again not all people care about that.

Richard

CSiJason

I cant figure why anyone would want to change the sound of the 05? I mean i love the sound of my LS2 through the stock exhaust... It'll get louder when I add long tubes and that would be the only difference I wont mind.

GTA91

iTrader: (14)

I've thought about doing this to ours... highway drone is gonna be different though between a M6 and A4 car... A4's run a lot higher rpm down the interstate, I'm thinking it would be too loud at 80mph in our A4... 2500 rpms!

onyx_rock

iTrader: (8)

That sounds just like my Loudmouth. That pi$$es me off I spent $600 for that catback.

AlphaEden

By doing that wouldn't you void the waranty? (assuming that people here cares about that)

burbman

You would only affect the warranty on the part that was changed. It would be real difficult for a dealer to claim that any other damage could have been caused by removing or changing a muffler.

CSiJason

But they sure can try... Claiming associated systems being the emissions controls, O2 sensors and so on up the line, each causing a 'problem' with their own systems in turn causing engine damage. The best way to go is make anything reversable in the event you have to take it in for major service.

HumanZoom

I've changed exhaust on every car/truck I've had and never had a lick of trouble with getting warrenty work done.

Dad and I picked up an extra set of mufflers/tips (take offs from another 05 GTO that had the Sport Appearance Pkg. added) and are going to hack them up tomorrow. If we don't like the sound (or if the dealer is being a dick about warrenty work), we can always switch out the stock set of mufflers/tips. Just bolt them on and off. I'll throw up pics/videos if anyone is interested.

GTOJOE78

Just do what I did at the Mineke Shop, have them unbolt the flange right before each of the two mufflers and then start the car and rev accordingly. This is the best sounding exhaust system I have ever heard period. I could have bought a system for what 600$+ but why? As far as warranty issues go my dealer will not f--ck with me because I just bought this car and a 05 Denali from them. (Plus I kept the stock mufflers so all they have to do is bolt to the stock flange and weld the stock tips back to the muffler) I just thought that this simple mod might save me a few bucks and give others a little heads up on the kind of sound it produced. Thanks for responses and comments anyway.

HumanZoom

We are going to do what you did...only we picked up an extra set of mufflers/tips so we can just bolt and unbolt whichever set we'd like. Esp. when it comes time to sell the car, we want it to be as stock as possible.

Anyway...we decided to see how loud our little project was going to be, so we just unbolted the mufflers and drove around. Here is a little clip I made.

Startup, Idle, Rev
http://www.humanzoom.net/gto/gto01.mpg
(Right click, Save as...)

Drive by clips will come in the next few days when we get the straight pipe installed.

AlphaEden

Will this work on the 04?

HumanZoom

Well...I assume you could just hack the muffler off in the 04s, but I'm not 100% sure how hard it would be to return to stock. Probably not as easy as the 2005's bolt on and bolt off jazz.

qwk93ta

iTrader: (13)

clip did not work for me!