Xenoblade

Hi CL,

First off, I am a V8 fan. Always have been. I love the grunt, rumble & especially the power and torque. Lexus LS400 on the other hand is quite a different beast than most V8's. Years of R&D including millions of dollars went into engineering one of the most smoothest & most quiet exhaust systems ever heard for a V8 yet, it is more powerful and faster than many more powerful sounding vehicles on the road. It's almost surreal. I love it! On the other hand, I do love the power and rumble of a V8 in general as mentioned. So here's my question:

Originally, I was planning to do some exhaust mods to make it rumble and sound louder, more like how I thought a V8 should sound like, the V8 sound I & many others are used to. Now after driving & owning it for a few days, I am now on the fence honestly.

Do I go and undo countless hours and millions of dollars worth of engineering research & development to make it the quietest and smoothest V8 in existence and make it sound like every other loud V8 I know and love, or do I keep this beautifully engineered vehicle sounding as smooth and muted yet powerful as it is with it's excellent Japanese Quad Cam V8? Keep it unique and quiet or more generic & loud sounding?

What do you all think about this subject? Just interested in your opinions. And let me know if your LS400 is stock in sound or whether you have done the muffler delete mod or whatever else to make your exhaust system louder or whether you plan to mod it to make it louder. I am still on the fence about it.

Look forward to your replies.

msweber97

i just did the muffler delete on mine, and it is not loud at all had pipe welded in with tips put on still quiet but gives you a little more tone coming out of the exhaust. Seen a lot of people on here throw a fit about cutting the stock exhaust off on here but its your car make it how you want it. I tried drilling a few holes a little ways before the mufflers to see if it made a huge difference in the loudness of the car and surprisingly it didnt really so thats why i cut the mufflers off.

Mocchan

A few weeks ago I just took the rear mufflers off (very easy to do, hangers and one clamp) and drove around for awhile. Didn't take very long and gave the car a very subtle, yet aggressive tone. The only thing that annoyed the absolute bejeezus out of me was the drone and noise that was coming into the cabin.

Sounds great but I personally wouldn't do it for every day driving...now I don't know how bad it would be if I were to have pipes welded, that's a project for another day (maybe cut off the first two mufflers off and have pipe welded there instead of the rear mufflers?).

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

it all comes down to preference. some love loud and can take the drone everyday, some despise a little volume at the back. it's a luxury car so it's meant to be muted originally but who says it has to stay that way? the engine can breath a bit better with a more free flowing exhaust piping layout and cross over, equating to more HP! then usually any exhaust mod results in a louder-than-stock sound.

your hearing threshold will differ from the next guy, but most gear heads love the rumble as you pointed out. it's up to you to make the car rumble or comfortable. only you can find a balance of both!

Stroock639

i'm quite happy with pipes welded in place of my mufflers, still pretty quiet but there's a bit more of a rumble. the rumble becomes somewhat droney at like 2000-2300 rpm but goes away completely on the highway, 70 mph and up no noise whatsoever. it doesn't sound AMAZING but i'm happy just because the whole ordeal was pretty cheap. those mufflers are also pretty heavy, removing them definitely gets rid of like 40 lbs and will overall improve MPG and possibly even a few HP gains


maybe this helps

Xenoblade

Sounds pretty nice when you drove it back. Can you elaborate on the "drone" sound in the cabin that you speak of? How bad or annoying does it get?

Xenoblade

Yeah? That drone sound sure sounds terrible. Not exactly sure what that type of sound is though. Can you give an example or elaborate on how that drone sounds?

Thanks.

Stroock639

it's really not bad at all, my passengers don't even really seem to notice unless i point it out. you'll notice it coasting down from like 65 once everything is warmed up, just like a general resonance, but as i said really not that bad. i've noticed that the hotter the exhaust seems to be the louder it is.

that's really it though, just a 15 mph range from like 50 to 65 where you can hear it but only when coasting with your foot off the gas. the slightest press on the pedal will raise the rpms just enough to bring it out of idle conditions and the noise kinda goes away. push the pedal a bit more and you'll start to get some nice V8 burbleyness

dicer

Loud noise just helps attract cops, so if you like tickets and lots of noise, just go straight pipe from the exhaust manifold to the rear, real men don't need mufflers of any sort.

frostls400

I poked my head under there when I first bought mine and saw 4 canisters. Are those 2 resonators and 2 mufflers (1 of each per pipe)? Or 2 mufflers per pipe. I think the 1UZ sounds very good and want to let it sing a little more as well.

KA8

iTrader: (1)

Been there done that. If your LS is your daily I would keep the stock exhaust or maybe do an intake mod so you'll have some nice deep sound at WOT. After an exhaust mod your excitement may last a month or two, then it'll get old real fast, unless you have a perfect performance exhaust where it gives quietness/loud noise when you want. You can cure drone with side branch resonators w/o sacrificing performance. I got it done for my Z and it's a perfect combination of perfomance/sound. But that's just me and I've had many modified cars.

dicer

http://row52.com/Vehicle/Index/JT8UF11E9P0168793

Here is a nice modified LS, I bet it has some nice loud exhaust.