I was reading another thread here, about a chap who had his exhaust note get louder after 5k miles

I think we have the same problem, we took the car to the track and got a lot of grief because at static noise testing taking the revs to 4.5k the car got 103.1 db.

However later in the day we took it back and it got 100.5ish. It may be because the guy doing the sound was an idiot, or something else?

Why does the exhaust get louder? Do the mufflers degrade? Will they need replacing? I love the sound, but it is a pain for trackdays.

all the best
adam

 

Adam,

This is why I sold mine. It just started to make too much noise.

I think that the new muffler will be a good solution.

 

Strange, I have the Ruf exhaust and have over 5K miles and haven't noticed any noticeable gain in decibles. Although all exhaust will eventually get louder as they age even the stock units.

 

My muffler was run hard all of its life. First by Chad and then me. It definitely gets much louder.

 

I have circa 8k miles on mine and have not yet observed any increase in decibel level. However, if that occurs I woudn't mind. On my previous car I had a tubi which was melodically loud!

 

The thing is we havent really noticed it until the trackday when it was pointed out just how loud it was. I love the sound,

I'm just stil unsure as to why it has become louder,

all the best
adam

 

Adam -

From looking at Stephen's dyno tests, I'm not so sure that the reading you got was out of line. Stephen's tests indicated that the Ruf exhaust was pretty quiet inside the car, but actually pretty loud outside of the car under acceleration.

Sound metering is also a tricky business. I used to run the sound machine for autocrosses in San Diego. There's a lot of room for error... If they give you crap about your sound levels, point your exhaust tips downward or even away from the meter. If that is not possible, just lift slightly as you pass the meter.

 

9k on my Ruf Exhaust and haven't noticed a gain in noise. Maybe I'm not driving the car hard enough.

 

Racer,

Cheers for the info, we were going past the sound meters and lifting off significantly...just incase

But thank you for just re-assuring me regarding the sound testing issue, i bet there is a lot of room for human error.

all the best
adam