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Soooo I read a whooooole bunch of threads on doing an x-pipe and had my hopes all up and was super excited. After cutting out the big baffled x-pipe "resonator" in the midpipe and putting a magnaflow x-pipe, it made no difference to the sound other than a slightly louder cold start. I kept reading and found that those who deleted the bottle resonators after the cats and were happy with the sound. So I did that, now it sounds horrible and is really raspy and I sound like a fart can Civic driving down the road. I bought 2 vibrant 1790 resonators to weld back in hoping it'll quiet it down but still keep some of the deeper tones and a little bit of extra volume over stock. My original goal was to make it sound a bit deeper and slightly louder, not this loud raspy high-pitched sound. Any advice?
Visit a custom exhaust shop for their advice on your options. The M276 is not a hot rod engine and not many on this site modify exhausts on these (M276). It's a grocery-getter base model engine.
Ironically most if not all of the posts I've read were from here. I've had the car for just over 6 years and only started to mod it now since I've gotten rid of most of my others. It's still my daily driver since it's been so reliable, just wanted a bit more sound without it sounding obnoxious. Videos are hard to judge since everyone's devices records sound differently and I read that basically everyone has different experiences with modding the exact same part of the exhaust. Regardless, thought I'd try it out. Getting the vibrant resonators welded in some time next week and will break it in over a few weeks to see if it makes a difference. If not I think I'll just leave it as is. Don't want to drop 1/3 of the price of the car on an exhaust. Most of the custom exhaust shops in my city aren't really knowledgeable since everyone who goes there basically just goes full straightpipe or nothing. I've asked 5 shops and all have said they know nothing about how adding/removing parts of the exhaust other than cats/mufflers will affect sound.
Last edited by PotatoMage; Aug 2, 2022 at 10:53 PM.
Soooo I read a whooooole bunch of threads on doing an x-pipe and had my hopes all up and was super excited. After cutting out the big baffled x-pipe "resonator" in the midpipe and putting a magnaflow x-pipe, it made no difference to the sound other than a slightly louder cold start. I kept reading and found that those who deleted the bottle resonators after the cats and were happy with the sound. So I did that, now it sounds horrible and is really raspy and I sound like a fart can Civic driving down the road. I bought 2 vibrant 1790 resonators to weld back in hoping it'll quiet it down but still keep some of the deeper tones and a little bit of extra volume over stock. My original goal was to make it sound a bit deeper and slightly louder, not this loud raspy high-pitched sound. Any advice?
Having the xpipe will make a difference. When I am tailing my piped w204 even after 30 minutes of running it sounds deeper and it sings when you double pump the gas pedal for it to kick down and the needle goes way past 4k rpm. Most of the owners here who piped the w204 are contended with that modification as we still want the car to ride quiet and just go vroom when we want to have some fun. If you want more than that then you need a custom exhaust and prepare to pay for an arm and a leg.
They actually weren't bad. I wasn't 100% happy with the vibrant resonators but they improved the sound a lot. Coupled with the magnaflow x-pipe it sounded deep and clear, not too loud. I could never get a proper video of exhaust before I sold the car though
2015 SL400 (M276 Turbo), 2014 C350 Sport (M276 NA), 2004 SL500 (M113), 2004 Audi TT225 (BEA)
Pipe diameter has a LOT to do with the sound. I haven't measured, but I think the pipes on my SL400 are at least 2½", maybe larger. Also, the stock exhaust has two crossovers with one toward the front and one toward the back. I've never checked on my W204 C350 but will look the next time I get a chance.
On cold start, the SL sounds like a racing boat idling in the water.
Front crossover Rear crossover
I have gone the route of a 3" turbo back on my Audi TT. With an aftermarket muffler, it sounded raspy and would drone on the highway. I tried everything to eliminate the drone. Finally, I put the factory muffler back on to quiet things down a bit. Not as quiet with the factory pipes, but much better than before. The guy at the parts store, who seemed to know what he was talking about, said my problem with the droning was due to the 3" pipes all the way back.
Last edited by JettaRed; Feb 18, 2025 at 11:23 AM.
Pipe diameter has a LOT to do with the sound. I haven't measured, but I think the pipes on my SL400 are at least 2½", maybe larger. Also, the stock exhaust has two crossovers with one toward the front and one toward the back. I've never checked on my W204 C350 but will look the next time I get a chance.
On cold start, the SL sounds like a racing boat idling in the water.
Front crossover Rear crossover
I have gone the route of a 3" turbo back on my Audi TT. With an aftermarket muffler, it sounded raspy and would drone on the highway. I tried everything to eliminate the drone. Finally, I put the factory muffler back on to quiet things down a bit. Not as quiet with the factory pipes, but much better than before. The guy at the parts store, who seemed to know what he was talking about, said my problem with the droning was due to the 3" pipes all the way back.
Mine started droning as soon as I removed the resonators which makes sense. When I welded the Vibrant resonators in, it got better. W204 C350 only has 1 baffled x-pipe in the whole exhaust. No other crossover or H-pipe like you showed on the SL.
Mercedes SLR McLaren 722 S Is Extremely Rare Example Modified by McLaren
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