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Originally Posted by sunsweet
I understand. To be honest I have been on the sidelines to buy a good exhaust and doing due diligence, making sure I've understood all possible implications. Only, the more I dig the less i am comfortable with what I'm reading. If I try to summarize major points:
- AE means you are not longer 100% sure dealer will honor the car factory warranty in case a major repair is needed. They might say it's fine now, but wait until the SM guy changes, etc... (My M3 is virgin new).
- AE is not street legal only legal on the racetrack. I do not want to have to deal with the worry of cops at every street corner forcing me to revert to stock at a time's notice to waive a fine (+labor cost)
- CEL issue. Some people see this as an opportunity for tuning. I don't, I refuse to tune my stock S65. I know there might be some electronic workaround but I do not like the idea of messing with or fooling the system.
- "AE failing smog test in 5 years". Don't know if this one is real.
- Heat shields around the diff have to be removed for AE install. Some people wrap the AE pipes in thermal material instead. Wrapping the heat source is not the same as protecting other parts from absorbing heat. That's a band aid fix and will run the exhaust even hotter.
-AE cost is ridiculous. Thinking what money can buy for that kind of dough, it's hard to justify rationally. Especially with all the above issue to deal with still.
-Cold start cycle with AE is obnoxious in early morning if you have neighbors. So you are forced to reprogram that off. The cold start cycle is for warming up the cats so they filter carbon emission efficiently as soon as possible. But some have said it has side benefit of heating up engine oil which when thinking about the engine bearings tolerance discussion is only a good thing to keep. This is a controversial point but needs to be mentioned.
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Fortunately my Akra system came off of my service advisor's M3 before he sold it to buy an M6 GC. So, BMW installed it. Should I have a problem I have a receipt for an exhaust my SA sold me and they installed.
Regarding cops, I passed one today on the highway and just upshifted to keep it quiet. No issues. Besides, if they do hear me on the throttle and make a fuss I will simply explain it was an aftermarket exhaust installed by the dealership. That should keep me out of trouble.
Tune fixes the CEL but you can also get the CEL delete.
Don't know about the smog test. They use an OBD reader here. If they used a sniffer I might be in trouble. But, the factory exhaust is in my garage and it's 16 bolts to do the swap if needed.
The cost is ridiculous, especially to someone who came from Fords and who has a $750 exhaust on his mustang (albeit 20 years old). But I'm fortunate enough to be able to write that check. My wife handles all the finances so, to be honest, I never actually saw the hit on the books. It took me months to commit though, even at $4k.
Heat shields. Well, on most other cars I've owned they've cracked or had issues and were removed at some point so I'm not worried about that with this one. Haven't read of any other people having problems.
Cold start I kind of like but it does rattle my trunk and it's the reason I wouldn't go with the Dinan tune as they don't remove it. I miss it a little.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sal@Evolve
Unfortunately no videos but it's all very normal.
Tuned cars sound crisper and cleaner. Well, the way we do it anyway.
When you have a rich running engine or where the fuel is not completely burnt under partial load the exhaust note will always sound deeper and heavier.
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And smoother (in addition to crisper, I mean). Without the tune it attracted attention. With the tune, unless I'm on the throttle, it doesn't turn any heads.
After reading more in another thread I wonder if adding an AA green filter will give me more of the howl I hear around 3k that I like so much. Only one way to find out I guess.