So I've been driving my 05 CL-65 for about 2-3 months now and it's been a great experience. Check engine light came on once for the secondary air pump system a while back. Not a huge deal, I just reset the code and hasn't come back since. But one thing that bothered me was the nonexistent exhaust note I know this car is capable of. I looked on the forum and saw a-lot of people doing complete muffler deletes, but I decided to install a pair of dynomax mini race bullet mufflers in there place to eliminate the possibility of drone at highway speeds and at idle. Had all the work done at Miami mufflers locally, and they did a pretty decent job. I wanted to keep the stock exhaust tips, so they were able to make a custom y pipe exit to maintain OEM appearance. Best part is all their exhaust work comes with a 1 year warranty; in case any issues arise I can show them my receipt and they'll fix it free of charge! Here's a couple pictures of the complete installation.



For those who are curious, The stock piping is just below 3" outer diameter, as the mufflers i installed have a 3" inner diameter and were able to slide over the outside of the stock exhaust piping. Also, the CL65 has no resonators like the cl55 and cl600, only one set of cats, and has an H-pipe from the factory. I'm debating whether or not an x-pipe will give the exhaust a more exotic sound.

Now the important part: how the car sounds after the change. The first cold start with the new cats put a smile on my face. Now don't get the wrong impression, the car is not as loud as the kompressor v8 or NA 6.3 amg cars with muffler deletes by any stretch of the imagination, as those snails hanging off the engine really act as mufflers themselves. I'll just say this, if you park in a garage and do a cold start, people around you, even on the levels above and below you, WILL hear the engine roar to life. Once the engine warms up, it sounds OEM +, same decibel level as stock, but it has a little more burble sound if you listen directly behind the car. No changes from inside the cabin with the doors closed and windows up. My favorite part is you can hear the engine sing its unique, baritone song whenever you accelerate, even inside the cabin with windows up. Once you get to speed and start cruising, it quiets back down and acts like any other car on the street. I experimented with the exhaust setup in all driving modes. Comfort and sport honestly sound the exact same, except sport is louder when accelerating from a complete stop, i assume due to starting from first instead of second gear and increasing the engine rpms faster. But as soon as you start messing with the paddles, OOHH BOY is this thing fun to listen to. The car not upshifting and downshifting whenever it pleases (to an extent, we all know how sluggish these gearboxes are) really allows the engine to make all sorts of cool noises. It sounds really good when you let off the gas, it drops an octave and makes, for lack of better words, a back pressure gas release type of sound. Windows down merging onto the highway it sounds like the gates of heaven are being opened compared to what it was stock, especially once you get past 4 grand. Cruising at 70 on the highway in 5th or 6th gear, the car is no louder that it was stock, but just has a deeper tone to it. Roll the windows up, and you can barely hear anything.

I'm honestly really happy with this exhaust setup. and honestly will probably keep this exhaust setup for quite a while. I would like to do some performance upgrades to increase the power level, but I'm not chasing a specific horsepower number, so the stock down pipes, cats, and H-pipe is fine for me. The way I see it, I'll go big or go home to change the exhaust after this. I'm talking 10K+ on a full titanium exhaust will custom x pipe and high flow cats... the whole 9 yards! But obviously, there is much better uses of money so this $300 modification is enough for me.

Last thing. I didn't really notice how unevenly my rear tires are wearing until the car was up on the lift. There's enough tread on them to keep using them to commute around town, but I'll probably change all 4 when I drive back to Saint Louis at the start of the summer.

 

Unrelated to the topic, But looking at the pictures again, I'm not even sure they are the same tire on each side of the car

 

Nice car, how many miles does it have on it? At this point if most of the fail items have been replaced, you may be in good shape for a while. However, don't ignore maintenance, plan for it, it is cheaper to do it in advance at your convenience as opposed to a surprise required tow. As far as the exhaust, I went catless and it really make a difference in power and sound, but also smell.

To me it looks like they are both the same tires. The thing is left to right the pattern looks different since outside is always outside. The big thing I notice is the tire wear. These tires have had their share of burnouts. Remember stock the car has an open differential, not a LSD. So as you can see the right side, dominant drive tire has been roasted in comparison to the left. If you had a limited slip they would be evenly worn. Last thing before others poke fun, remember the car is only a 5 speed auto, no 6th gear. Enjoy and be safe, its a heavy car that gets up to triple digit speed, much quicker than cars half its weight.

 

Wow I actually said it was a 6 speed smh. I knew it was a 5 speed, guess I was too quick typing.
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It has 112k on the clock. Fluids, sparkplugs, coilpacks were all replaced within 5000 miles. Only issues I've had is with it other than the secondary air pump is a couple dead pixels on the stereo and the trunk hydraulic pump is a little slow. I've seen a couple posts about being able to refill the system with fluid, but I need to do more research before I do anything with that.

Now for the tire. I checked and the rear passenger tire indeed is different from the other three. The head mechanic also told me before I left that the rear passenger tire was extremely low on air, and I should keep an eye on it. Strange, I didn't notice any low tire pressure warning when I was driving to the shop, but I didn't think twice about it.