[Wallace44]

Hi All,

New 2013 R-line owner here Absolutely love this thing. I had no idea all these Touareg drivers were getting about in such comfort right under my nose!

Anyhow, I am looking at doing a few bits and pieces to my Touareg and obviously with the V8 first idea is exhaust. I'm aware it's not going to be some noise making monster truck, I've had diesels before and expect only minor improvements in sound I('m also not expecting some 70 series landcruiser).

Been searching high and low and can't really find much so wanted to see if anyone here had done anything and what the experiences were look. Really, all I want is something like this :

Bit of a nice idle sound and a half decent growl. I'm not super keen on this "active sound" speaker system things either if I can avoid it...

Any input greatly appreciated.

 

[Steve_L]

I've always been impressed with this

I've had some people comment- calling it a BS sound but I reckon it's fair dinkum.
I've never sought a price, but, please, after you. Grab a quote and let us know 🤣

Others have removed the 'suitcase' component of the exhaust. Some videos show a marked improvement, but I'm not sure what sort of drone it would create in the car.

For me, I'm hesitant to change the exhaust as I don't want to create a drone resonance between the caravan and the car

 

[Wallace44]

Alright I see how it is 🤣

I reached out to a few places today and basically no-one has an off the shelf option, at least here in Perth so far. Only custom made type things.

I'm going to reach out to a few exhaust shops that I've had do work for me in the past and see what they reckon as well.

FIrst quote I got was ~$2k for a full twin stainless system. This is from a company that does a lot of Landcruisers, they also told me they've never done a Touareg, so not certain how accurate that's going to be, or how good their system would be.

I'll post back whatever else I find out.

 

[tomharris_au]

Hi Wallace, keen to hear how you get on. I'm also interested in an exhaust upgrade on my V8. I'm in Melbourne.


2014 R Line, White, Pana roof

 

[Wallace44]

I've had the following responses so far:

$1900 - Twin Stainless (listed in my previous post).
$2600 - "Straight through system". I'm not entirely sure what that entails.

In fairness to the companies that provided both these quotes I'm not going to name them. I just asked for rough pricing on a "system", I didn't specify any requirements... outside of I wanted a little bit of noise but nothing that's going to wake the neighbours up or whatever.

The last quote I got today was from a shop I'd used previously and was recommended to me by a Euro vehicle specialist.

He chucked the Touareg on the hoist and had a look. He's recommended to just cut off the suitcase, weld up some flanges on the end of the existing exhaust, into two mufflers with a short bend out to two 4" round tips. Something like this sytem:

(That exhaust is off the shelf option from SuperSprint)


Of course I could choose another shape for the tips if I wanted but I reckon this will look good in the cutouts of the rear bumper. The 4" round tips are basically same width as oval exhausts in there now... just round.

His comments on the existing exhaust were;

• It's already stainless (I think he said it's 409 stainless)
• It's a 2.5" system already. Unless I wanted to pull the existing CATs out and replace them too, no point in re-running a whole new exhaust for what is already decent.
• He didn't see any benefit in going larger than 2.5"

He expects this will give the girl a nice little beat and a little bit more noise but nothing insane.
His quote was $900.

As he's going to chop out the suitcase at the rear, he'll leave that in-tact (suitcase to exhaust tips) and I can then choose to reinstall that later on if I want to sell the car or whatever. I'll probably end up ditching it as I've only just got the car and it's planned to be around for a good 4-5 years at the least.... but it's a good thought anyway.

So I think based on what's come back to me, and the input from the bloke at the exhaust shop I'm going to start with the $900 option. He was really the only one who I reached out to who said let me take a look at what's there so I can give you an option. Everyone else just threw numbers at me (again not necessarily their fault, I was just chasing prices)

If I decide later it's not loud enough, I can always get him to remove the mufflers he's putting in for straight pipes. I can take it further and do the rest of the exhaust too if I really want, but I don't think I'll end up doing any of that as I don't want to be making a racket everywhere I go... just a nice beat / growl is all I need.


I'll be sure to come back and update this thread once it's done. Just got to get it past the minister of finance now...

 

[Snerlo]

I've always wanted to make mine sound a little more meaty but I've heard that to really make any difference you really need to pull the whole lot out and start again, as in right from the turbo back sort of status, which will get super expensive. Plus you have to deal with cats and anything to do with the EGR system. I am far far far from knowledgeable about the exhausts on modern cars but it all sounded like it was getting too expensive for my tastes so I gave up. I do know someone that removed the rear suitcase but he said it really didnt make any great difference. Good luck with your change though. I'll be keen to hear the before and after difference. Another option I looked at was something like what is on the current Audi SQ7's. My dad has one and they sound awesome, although it is a fake sound, I didn't really care, because it sounds bloody awesome, as in almost AMG Mercedes V8 petrol nice.

 

[Oz Dude]

FWIW, when the guy at the shop chops out the rear part of the exhaust fire it up before any other work is done. Drop it off the hoist, take it for a lap around the block and listen to it under load and at constant speed. If it's not too loud then pot a pair of pipes and tips on it and be done with it - no mufflers. If it's too loud or drones then you can add on the mufflers and be done with it.

I've taken that approach with a few V8s over the years - don't finish it to the rear bar and "then" wonder what it would've sounded like the other way round.

Like Snerlo said, I've also known someone who cut out the suitcase and didn't think it was a huge difference. Remember, it's a diesel V8, with turbos and cats both knocking the dB down way before it gets to the rear muffler.

Another thought - if you're going to eject the suitcase, before you do, get the exhaust guy to punch out the other pair of cutouts in the sides of the muffler and see if that makes a difference. I believe one set is used for the V8 and the other for the V6 - perhaps something to do with sound resonance so might be worth playing with - two outlets per side - two pipes per side. Singh put a pic up a few years ago - here ---->https://www.clubtouareg.com/attachments/img_0252_1496044785453-jpg.179890/

Oz