New exhaust and subwoofer!

[austexm45]

I've had my 04 M45 for about 9 months now and like many of you, I have been a bit disappointed with the Bose subwoofer and the lack of V8 rumble from the exhaust system. I figure, if I'm paying $4.00 a gallon for my V8 vehicle, I better damn hear that V8 rumble! I went to a local exhaust shop and $500 later I have a new Magnaflow system installed. I removed the 3 mufflers and had a Magnaflow resonator and muffler in lieu of the 3 mufflers. I had a set of dual 3" exhaust tips installed to give the exhaust system a stock look. The sound is exactly what I was looking for. When you are cruising, you can't hear too much of a difference from stock, but when you get on it, you can really hear that rumble! I also changed out my air filter with a K&N (careful not to use too much oil!). It might be my imagination, but my M feels faster, pulls harder and has better throttle response. I've had the system in my car for about a month now and have seen about a 2 MPG increase so I'm now getting about 20MPG in town.











As far as the subwoofer, I had an 8" 2-ohm Kicker CVT subwoofer installed, powered by an MTX Thunder mono amp that I had. The installer used a subwoofer line converter and tapped into the line that goes into the stock Bose sub for the feed. My amp has gain and crossover adjustments so it's been fine tuned to only pump out that low bass frequency that the Bose is just not capable of. I went with an 8" as opposed to larger because I wanted the box to take up the least amount of room in the trunk as possible and in this case, the box fits perfectly under the NAV dvd housing and only has a 6" footprint. The great part of this setup is that the Bose subwoofer still works, but the Kicker sub fills in the missing void in bass. I did notice that when listening to heavy bass, the drain on the car's electrical system would make my Nav screen flash sometimes, so I added a 1 Farad Rockford Fosgate cap to reduce the load on the alternator and battery. Sounds is awesome without being overpowering and I still have all of my trunk space.



My M now has about 25,000 miles and I still think that it looks great. I just waxed it and the paint still shines like new! Let me know what you think.

[szh]

Looks very nice.

I am still not in favor of the K&N ... knowing what we have experienced here before, but the look is good.

Very clean!

Z

[xxNite]

Looks good!Nice use of space for the small footprint subwoofer enclosure.

One question though... how are the harmonics and accuracy of your bass note hits? I can only imagine the strange push-pull relationship between the two woofers. They must fight for position every time things get moving, especially since they are probably not too far out of phase.

(sorry.... the audio-engineer in me comes leaping-out every now and then).

The reason I ask is because I am about to do the same set-up except my "temporary" sub box houses two twelve inch Sony Xplode woofers (left over from my previous grocery-getter) in an R/T ported enclosure. I wasn't going to remove the factory 10" sub since this crazy large enclosure is only temporary and wondered what the resulting sound would be like. Do you think all of the bass energy will be smacking-up against the back of the Bose 10" cone. From what I was told, there isn't any other opening into the actual cabin except through the Bose woofer.

Just a few random thoughts. I'll let you know what I find when I actually take the time to hook this stuff up.

Enjoy your set-up. The car looks great and I know it sounds nice (both exhaust & stereo)

[CakeDaddy]

The exhaust looks nice and clean... damn near oem, especially with the tips you selected. I’d love to hear a sound clip at idle and gradually up to 4k or so. Props to ya!

Oh…. Love the sky shot off the hood!!!!

[austexm45]

In answer to your question about the subs, the Bose does an ok job until you really push it. I"ve got the crossover set on the amp to power on the Kicker sub at the lower frequencies that the Bose sub will simply not produce, so in general, they are both not pushing up against each other and when they are, the Kicker sub easily overpowers the Bose. The sound is consistent with a nice hard hitting base throughout. I don't really listen to rap, but I do like to feel that bass on certain songs. Thanks for the props and I'll try and get a sound clip of the exhuast up.

[lfj2025]

Very nice! I wonder if some of your mileage increase is due to removing the exhaust valve? Hard to beat black for a shine.

[DELUNASC]

Your car looks great, what wheels and tires are on your car?

CD

[austexm45]

The wheels are 20" Boss wheels w/ Yokohama AVS tires 245/35ZR20.

[szh]

Yokohama AVS tires 245/35ZR20.

What is the load index rating listed on the side of the tire?

Z

[austexm45]

Load index is 97 W

[szh]

Load index is 97 W

Okay, good!

Also, with that low an aspect ratio tire, please check your tire pressure with an accurate gauge regularly (at least once every two weeks ... sooner, if you can!).

I'd keep it fairly high - at around 35 to 36 psi (minimum) - in case if falls a bit too quickly any given interval.

Z

[austexm45]

Thanks for the tips. I usually keep the tires inflated to about 38lbs.

[maqueswell]

AustexM45:

Absolutely Beautiful Car!!

[Stressfiness22]

hey wassup man where did u get those L.E.D taillights from i need them

[austexm45]

I have the stock tail lights. I'm not sure where you are seeing the LED lights?

[maxnix]

I also changed out my air filter with a K&N (careful not to use too much oil!).

It might be my imagination, but my M feels faster, pulls harder and has better throttle response.

Any oil on your intake air filter is too much! Contamination of the hotwire MAF is prime reason for their failure. OEM filters from Joe are so cheap and effective no reason not to use them and change annually.

Barry Manilow tuning (Feeeeeellings) not nearly as good as before and after stop watch times in as near identical conditions as possible.

Nice looking car.

[F1SportsFan]

Very nice! Post up a video so we can hear that exhaust!

Also, which magnaflow muffler did you use?