97 Q45 Stillen Bolt-on muffler....

[zinkie13]

I noticed stillen's website offers a direct bolt on muffler to the stock exhaust system for 97 Q45's. Has anyone had any experience with this?

[BadQ45t]

I know a few have tried it, they will chime in. I plan to add one next time I have a few bucks handy, seems like a few ponies from that and the cold air intake and we'll be moving faster.

Stillen stuff is always good so you probably cannot go wrong.

[zinkie13]

Thanks! I am hoping to get both as well. And maybe get my chip reprogrammed while i am in my freshman year of college! haha yes...i'm only 18 years old and i have a Q45. Am i the youngest member here?

[elwesso]

Nope....... 17 with a 94 Q!!!

[zinkie13]

Woohoo! thats great!...i'm lovin my first gen too....needs some work though! if only i had a 94 instead of a 92! life would be so much easier then

[maxnix]

Thanks! i'm only 18 years old and i have a Q45. Am i the youngest member here?

So what's the 13 for?

[zinkie13]

13.....i've just kinda stuck w/ that because i haven't changed my email address since i made it when i was 13. So i just use the same sign in name for everything i sign up for.

[BadQ45t]

Zinkie, you're going to find out that with a 97 we have a setup that is not setup well for a chip reprogram. The 97 went to a much more complicated system ODBII which means that you cannot just get a new Jim Wolf chip like you can do to older Q's or Z cars.

Probably jumping on the cold air intake and stillen exhaust is probalby your best bet for speed now. I just put 17" rims with 245/45 17 WR rater Yolohama tires, that was a good upgade.

[zinkie13]

Thanks! sounds good! I didn't get new wheels, but i did put on some Fulda Extremo 245/50-16 tires on it! I really like them!~

[BadQ45t]

I looked at those too, but the Yoko's looks so screaming I had to have them. They are nice, but my Bridgestone RE72's on my Z are quieter at extremes (alittle squeel from the Yoko's) but the sidewalls are STIFF and they make the handle much better. I wanted the SO3 Bridgestones, maybe next time.

[zinkie13]

I actually got to test out the yoko's and the fulda's and to me they seemed to hug the road much better with less noise and better grip around sharp turns! maybe you should look into them sometime!

[BadQ45t]

The Yoko ES100's? The tire rack site had the Yoko's rated higher, but those are all subjective. In any case, they Yoko's are brand new so they will be around for a few years.

[zinkie13]

Yeah! They are great tires as well. Actually the funny thing is....the Continental Extreme contacts were ranked number one. I probly should have tested out those but decided not to.

[NY94J30]

Pardon my ignorance, but how do you test drive a tire?

[zinkie13]

You put them on the car! The place I happened to deal with had a 30 day money back gaurantee sort of thing. Ya know...up to a certain amount of miles. So i bought a set of tires, tested em out and then brought em back and tried some others.

[BadQ45t]

In the 17" size the Firestones and Bridgestone S03's were ranked highest by tirerack, but those were 165 and 198 a tire, the ES100 at 110 in 17" were highest rated.

In any case they are all pretty damn good. The ES100's get better everyday that I drive them and get them more broken in, huge diff between the 215/60 16 Bridgstone RE92 that I had orginally, but they do ride more aggressively.

[zinkie13]

Yeah...i had the RE92's as well....didn't really like them! I'm lovin the new tires! I'll probably end up getting Yoko's next time hopefully with some new wheels as well.

[kevster]

this Stillen Bolt on muffler, you think this wil be loud or what? i am 40 my days of needing somewthing to go *rummmmble rummmble* all the time 24/7 is in the past. looking fo rmore performance tho, so is this more perfomance and no added noise?

[kevster]

Firestones and Bridgestone? no Michelins? arent they the best or?

[maxnix]

Best constructed, not the best in the wet.

Do spend some time searching and reading the previous posts. You will learn a lot.__________________Brian1995 Q45 & Q45t

Discover the power of the button!

[AZhitman]

this Stillen Bolt on muffler, you think this wil be loud or what? i am 40 my days of needing somewthing to go *rummmmble rummmble* all the time 24/7 is in the past. looking fo rmore performance tho, so is this more perfomance and no added noise?

Search for "Q45 and exhaust" or "Q45 and muffler".... Lots of good info.

[oldnuc]

If anyone's interested, the above mentioned exhaust is directly available from Stillen's closeout table for $250 right now. That's cheap. Just installed it this weekend. Looks a little "boy racer-ish". Sounds slick...throaty rumble, but subtle...not too loud for us over-40's. Certainly sounds more masculine than it looks. As for performance...who cares...for 250 bucks it sounds cool. No, really, no REAL seat of the pants improvement. I'm trying to convince myself that it revs even quicker above 3500 rpms...if that's even possible. No help in the still a little lazy off-idle torque though. I'll report back if I see any mpg's out of it...too early to tell. Did I mention it sounds cool? (especially for $250)