HyperS4

Ok, so you will see this becoming a trend with me so if you like reading DIY's, keep your eyes pealed. So as the title states, I installed the exhaust today, not had it installed...rather I did it myself.

Im a fan of enthusiasts who like to mod things themselves and go through the highs and lows and blood sweat and tears of doing installs. I try to figure things out myself all the time rather than pay someone to do it for me. Theres very little that I let others do on my cars that I cant do.

However, if you don't have a lift or all the tools you think you may need DO NOT try this yourself. I really don't recommend doing anything with the downpipes on your own.

So with that, please read on for whats what with the AWE exhaust.

I drove to AWE and picked up the exhaust myself. My car is a lease so I want to keep my stock exhaust for when I need to turn it in. If I had AWE install the exhaust, there would have been no way I could take my stock exhaust home. That being said, and I should have taken a pic of it, all the parts sans packaging for the AWE exhaust fit neatly in my trunk w/out the seats folded down. Its really a very nicely designed system if for anything but portability.

First thing I did when I got home was lay all the pieces out so I knew what I would need to fit when and where.



One really cool thing I noticed was the plaques on each big piece of exhaust. Its personalized too with my last name inscribed on the plaque. Thats cool!



So the next thing I did was start disassembly of the stock exhaust from the tip to the front. I started with the hangers at the rear moving forward each way.

Theres a shield of sorts in the middle that Im not really sure what it does(direct airflow?) but its held on with 4 bolts.



After this theres the center resonator section with two hangers on either side.




After you undo these, the whole exhaust will pretty much drop(the front downpipes have fexipipe and will move. The next thing you want to undo is the sleeve connecting both the downpipes and the center resonator.



Now you can see what the whole thing looks like when its taken apart.



I moved the latter section back into the garage and put it next to the AWE exhaust to check out the differences.



First thing I can comment on is DANG the OEM exhaust is heavy. The AWE exhaust definitely sheds some weight off of that. I didnt get to weight the stock exhaust but I could if someone really asks me nicely.

Now I installed the AWE exhaust in reverse order.

A caveat to the story though...I didn't install EVERYTHING. As you can see in the photo, I got the resonated downpipes too. However, I had the most frustrating time trying to uninstall the OEM downpipes. Actually, it was only one nut. I had 5 of the 6 nuts off the OEM downpipes in a matter of minutes. I spent the next hour trying to find any tool in the world to take off the last nut. Its in the worst place possible and without a lift or the right tool, there's absolutely no way to take it off. So, based on this, I honestly recommend anyone trying to install these take it to a professional shop or have AWE do it. I may either return mine or go back to AWE to install them. That being said, I love the sound of the OEM downpipes and their exhaust(which is apparently louder than their exhaust with the resonated downpipes). You can see the elusive nut in the next pic.



So after all the said and done, heres what the tips look like(I got the diamond black).



I love the sound of this exhaust(in its current form). It really sounds like nothing Ive heard before. Its very growly and sounds more like a porsche with exhaust than anything else I can think of if I had to put a sound on it. Theres absolutely no drone in the car at any RPM. I took the car out on the highway for a quick jaunt and cruising in 6th gear at 70-75mph there was nothing but a slight hum out of the rear of the car, not underneath it. Just barely a whisper of a sound letting me know that, yeah, something is back there when I want to really hear it. Obviously when going up a gradient other than flat I could hear the exhaust moaning a bit more but on flat ground and cruising, theres no issues at all.

Heres a video of the exhaust on startup. Ill try to get a couple videos of the car in motion.

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EDIT: Ok just added a few more videos below!

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Anyway, I love it(have I mentioned that?). I showed a v-dubber the exhaust at work and he was blown away with the sound. He said "That is ridiculous. Ive never heard something sound that mean before". There ya go AWE!

EDIT: After a few more drives, it seems that the exhaust is hitting the frame or sway bars or something somewhere in the back. Its kind of annoying and I cant figure out what it would be. Im going to check it out tomorrow.

UPDATE: Jacked up the car this morning and found one of the hanger bolts was just a couple millimeters away from the frame. Upon closer inspection there was a wear area you could see had paint rubbed off from scraping. Twisted the hanger around a bit more and after a test drive, that was the culprit, no more banging!

UPDATE 2: Took my car to AWE today to have the resonated downpipes installed. I was really worried that it was going to tone down the sound as Ive absolutely fallen in love with the howl it makes at WOT. Suffice it to say Im very pleased to report the DP's didnt take any of it away. If anything cruising became quieter. Its scary how at some points in the drive you completely forget theres even exhaust on the car then when you step on it you get this bigass grin on your face. Lastly, and I dont know if its a placebo effect, but throttle response seems a bit quicker with the larger DP's installed.

ShadowJet

Siiick Hyper. Thanks for the DIY, probably the most useful type of post in any car forum.

Sounds great! Hope to use your DIY in the near future.

Legacykid

sounds sickk

primetime

Very nice... Can you please weigh the stock exhaust? Thanks Ron

HyperS4

Since you asked so nicely...

primetime

Thanks... Again very nice.... leaning toward the Miltek myself as I have theirs on the B5 S4.... Really would like to see what APR's sounds like in more than one 30 second vid... Enjoy the car... later Ron

csauer52

That sounds awesome! I have a down payment on mine, I'm just waiting for the GIAC chip upgrade and I'm doing the whole thing at once.

COngrats on the new exhaust, it sounds awesome on the video. I bet it's even meaner "in the flesh".

Smith837

http://www.awe-tuning.com/pages/vide...S4_exhaust.cfm

NWS4Guy

Great DIY and pics, love the sound, and I know more than one person has said that one last bolt is neigh impossible to get to easily.

Agreed, something tells me that since it's being annoucned for sale tomorrow and the first 10 units will be ready to ship very soon we'll hear more and get pricing

krunko

Thanks, 58lb it looks like. But does anyone know what the AWE exhaust weighs?