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I may be willing to part with my stock exhaust, depending on what you had in mind to spend. The exhaust has 51,xxx miles on it- it's the original system on my 2009 Touring.
Let me know what you were thinking!
The dealership is working on the steering recall right now so when I get it back I’ll figure out what I really need. The guy doing the inspection just said the exhaust can’t be modified. I’m going to get the dealership to tell me what the min is for MA. My understanding is that it can’t be louder. Mine is fairly loud if you get on it!
so I think a have a CAT and mufflers, I’ve never really looked at it before because well I never needed to.
Looks like something was here CAT? It has an o2 sensor on it Part of the manifold?
Yeah, that's an aftermarket setup and a bad one at that.
There is no resonator as far as I can tell; it looks like a straight pipe with a cat welded on. Your car probably doesn't sound all that great and is loud as hell.
OEM cat looks like this(from my S2, S1 is similar):
Here is a proper mid-pipe setup with a single resonator(BHR mid-pipe + HJS Tuning cat):
Is there any indicator of which brand of cat it is? Cheap cats either will get melted by the heat our engines generate, or they simply don't contain enough of precious metal to eliminate the stank.
a picture is worth a thousand words! Thank you for the info. I would like to quiet this car down a bit so if I decide to not go back stock, do you guys have any suggestions for a good “ silent” system?
a picture is worth a thousand words! Thank you for the info. I would like to quiet this car down a bit so if I decide to not go back stock, do you guys have any suggestions for a good “ silent” system?
BHR mid-pipe is considered the best exhaust system for RX-8 here. It uses an unique resonator design that doesn't use packing and will last forever. Also sounds very OEM, just a little deeper.
As for the cat, BHR offers a cat option which will be adequate for street driving and anywhere outside of CA and NY, but won't hold up during track use. HJS makes cats that hold up during track use, but they are very expensive and you have to get them from Germany.
Well, you've got two components:
1) the midpipe (which should have a cat and a resonator)
2) the catback
Both will have an impact on volume and quality of the sound. I would start off by dealing with your current midpipe setup.
You'd be surprised how much a good catalyst and resonator can quiet things down. If you aren't getting a P0420 or P0139 code then your cat is probably in good shape and you can just have an exhaust shop weld a resonator in downstream from it.
Once you have that sorted, you can decide if the catback is still too loud. Making a choice on which catback to use is tough unless you want quiet. Most aftermarket systems are designed to either be louder or freer flowing (which generally correlates with being louder). Really, the quietest option is going to be OEM.
Update... well she failed the inspection again in MA. So I'm still looking for a good used stock exhaust system to replace what I have. Just spent a couple of hours searching on Internet and cant get there. We did replace the left headlight assembly, also did the recall work from Mazda on the front suspension...which they then didn't torque the bolts down...luckily they caught it on the inspection. Went to look at a spare 6 speed transmission and ended up with it and a motor! Now I gotta find a place to store it. PM me if you have a CAT...or the entire system...in the north east.
Sorry, I just sold the cat section of my OE midpipe to a guy in Texas. Used a reciprocating saw to cut it off at the bend in the midpipe.
That may be an option for you if you want to broaden your search geography. Cutting the cat off the midpipe at the bend reduces shipping weight and size significantly and any exhaust shop (or monkey with a MIG welder) can weld it in the appropriate place in your existing midpipe.
