I consider myself as someone with moderate to advance automotive knowledge, so the following is highly embarrassing for me to admit.

When I bought my 2016 S550 in March of 2020, I immediately fell madly and deeply in love. I was graduating from a W220 to the W222, and the car I found checked off all the right boxes. I was looking forward to feeling the power of the 4.7 liter twin turbo V8 and it truly delivered. My only disappointment was that I could not hear it. I could feel it, but I never heard it. As a spirited driver, I found the car to be highly responsive for a large luxury sedan. However, I never got the visceral response of a deep bass note that one would expect when being propelled by a 4.7 liter twin turbo V8 producing 450HP. The final blow was when I approached the car after using remote start. Standing behind the car, the only way I knew it was running is if the lights were on.

To quench my thirst, I set about finding an exhaust upgrade. I was deciding between Renntech and MEC, but the cost for either seemed far too excessive for what comes in the kit. I then started exploring custom options to achieve the desired goal. I knew that a muffler or resonator delete was out of the question. Having always been a fan of Flowmaster, I took some measurements and chose a muffler that matched my preferred sound qualities. I had a local muffler shop install the mufflers and the cold start was exactly what I had always wanted. The sound was perfect! My car was finally complete! Then I drove it.

When leaving the exhaust shop, I noticed a slight decrease in performance. We had capped off the vacuum lines, so I attributed it to the battery having been disconnected during the exhaust install and the engine computer having to go through a re-learn process for a few miles. The car did respond better after a five-mile drive and restart, but something was still off. The sound was amazing and everything I had always wanted, but the performance was a bit off. To make matters worse, under certain conditions, a drone was now present in the cabin.

I promised myself to give it a month. With me working from home, I have been driving less, so one month turned to three. The slight dip in performance became acceptable because surprisingly the mileage had improved. However, the drone was an unwelcomed guest. The drone was very mild and sometimes went away entirely if the suspension was in comfort as opposed to sport. But the drone began to change my perception of the vehicle. My beautiful luxury sport sedan had become a great sounding sports car that I found annoying to drive for more than 10 minutes. When I do drive into work, my commute is 45 minutes to an hour. The very reason I own an S-Class is for comfort on my long commute, and I found myself enjoying the experience less.

Suddenly it became obvious why the pre-packaged exhaust systems that I had originally considered cost so much. It takes a considerable amount of R&D to achieve the desired sound, retain sufficient back pressure, and increase performance.

Once I made peace with what had to happen, I contacted my local shop again and made the appointment to have my factory exhaust system reinstalled. The owner was kind and understood. Fortunately, I had retained the oem mufflers, so the only cost was labor. Upon competition, there was an immediate and noticeable difference. The deep bass note was gone, but so was the drone. Moreover, the performance was back.

I suspect that had I gone with the Renntech mufflers and a mild tune, that I would have achieved the desired sound profile without any drone and with an increase in performance. However, I’m now gun shy, so I’m sticking with the factory setup.

So that’s my tale. In the end, I’m glad that I explored the option and glad that I returned to the factory setup. My curiosity has been satisfied. Between parts and labor, I’m out $500, but it was a great lesson that I learned. One that I thought I should share with other enthusiasts who currently own or will own the W222 in the future. When I started my research it was challenging to find someone who had gone down this path, so hopefully this can serve others.

 

ALL after-market exhaust systems are going to give drone at certain RPM's, even Renntech. A tuner can get more power out of a freer flowing exhaust coupled with a less restrictive cold air intake. But without tuning for those mods, you will likely get a net loss of power as you learned. Most tuner "stage 2" tunes are specifically for those mods and give more power and torque than their "stage 1" tunes on otherwise unmodified cars.

 

The Renntech system on my old 2015 S550 had no drone and was one the best mod I did. It sounded dead stock on the highway at speed. I dont know what they did but unless your foot was in it there was no added sound inside or outside. In Sport mode it was loud and rowdy but again not a highway speeds while cruising.. When you would blow past someone you would see their face as an S class shouldn't of sounded so good.

The one downside was it was loud at start up when cold.

 

Just had renntech mufflers installed on my 15' S63 and there is zero drone. In fact, in comfort you can barely tell the exhaust is modified. In sport is where the deep growl comes to life. Well worth it in my opinion.

OP you could add harmonic resonators to cancel out the drone if you don't want to spend on the pricier systems.

 

Hi I have a Remus axle back mufflers on my 2015 S550 and i get no drone, cold start is loud but quietens down after a few minutes, it has a nice growl when you give it gas and the price for the Remus is actually reasonable.

 

Based on the experiences and responses from those who chose an exhaust system actually designed for our cars, it's clear that's the best route. These are finely tuned and well designed machines. I was doomed to failure the moment I traded essential back pressure for noise and underestimated how much work the mufflers do. I was certain that leaving the factory resonators in place would prevent any drone once I added the mufflers I chose - I was wrong.

 

Thank you for sharing your experience. Your humility (a quality in short supply nowadays) is to be applauded.

 

I was a preteen riding in the car with my brother-in-law. we were at a red light on the outskirts of town. next to us was a 70s Oldsmobile 98 m. the light changed and my brother-in-law took off like he was in a hurry and I can still remember that 98 pulled away from us in total silence only the sound of the four barrel opening...It just vanished and I was hooked. I always wanted that power and silence. The S classes have afforded me as close as possible to that. I feel like I am stuck in time as I have never really liked the loudness of the AMG’s that I have owned.. the new generation owners love the noise... and my S63 has the exhaust valves and sounds like a wild animal when they open.... my s550 is a silent beast... one day I will own an S600? type MB to get the ultimate power and speed in near silence...noise .. nope... just not for me..though I admit the AMG power is a drug I must use about 10 seconds a month or I suffer withdrawals..

 

Yes, I was gonna say the exact thing as you MBNUT the other day but didn't get around to it I was so preoccupied with the dealer service going down the tubes thread. I had actually thought about trying a pair of Flomasters on my S560 and I'm glad I didn't. The Flowmasters sound great on cars like mustangs and camaros but I guess on these cars not so much so. I as at a Benz dealer today and a AMG looked new went by me when I sitting outside and wow, that car sounded so awesome. I had a 2018 E63 Wagon and I was never that crazy about the sound of that car even with the exhaust button in the open position, but this car had a really deep tone and just sounded really muscular. It had to have been a aftermarket exhaust on that car, maybe headers and cat delete too or something but wow, I was just blown away with that sound, it couldn't have been stock. I meant to ask someone in service if they knew anything about that car but I forgot, looked like it was a shop technician driving the car.

 

Thank you! Those are very kind words. I debated whether or not I should post anything, but I thought it best to share my experience with others who could be considering custom exhaust modification.