Presenting the AWE Exhaust Suite for the FK8 Civic Type R. Available now!

[HookemNC]

hey guys I recently installed the touring exhaust on my type r and I am getting drone in 2100-2600 rpm range and don't know if this is common with this exhaust. I've put about 300 miles on the exhaust so far and it hasn't gotten any better, it is still just as loud. It's the loudest when I'm driving slowly from a stop, gradually getting up to speed it's when the exhaust is like amplified in that rpm range. Did anyone else have this issue? Does it go away after the break in period?

Sadly it never did for me. I eventually cut my losses, sold it for what I could and went with 27won instead. Been very happy since. Awe sounds amazing and I have no hard feelings. The drone that you are describing is exactly why I swapped.

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[JoshuaN]

Sadly it never did for me. I eventually cut my losses, sold it for what I could and went with 27won instead. Been very happy since. Awe sounds amazing and I have no hard feelings. The drone that you are describing is exactly why I swapped.

You got through the break in period and it stayed the same? I may need to cut my losses too then

 

[xGreyWorm]

You got through the break in period and it stayed the same? I may need to cut my losses too then

Do you have a stock downpipe? Downpipes makes a big difference to the loudness of it.

 

[JoshuaN]

Do you have a stock downpipe? Downpipes makes a big difference to the loudness of it.

Na my car is stock besides a mishimoto intake, I wonder if that adds the loudness of the exhaust

 

[HookemNC]

You got through the break in period and it stayed the same? I may need to cut my losses too then

I did and it never improved for me. Again this is all subjective so I can't speak for others. It was just too damn loud for my tastes.

 

[OrchidFc3]

Sadly it never did for me. I eventually cut my losses, sold it for what I could and went with 27won instead. Been very happy since. Awe sounds amazing and I have no hard feelings. The drone that you are describing is exactly why I swapped.

Do you have a video before you swapped to 27won?

 

[JoshuaN]

Do you have a video before you swapped to 27won?

Its hard to pick up on camera what happens but between 2100-2600 rpms, the car becomes very loud with the awe exhaust. It feels like a bassy and droney kind of sound that fills up the car and it happens in that rev range in the lower gears. Once you get to 4th gear and higher you don’t notice it anymore but if you do a lot of street driving, its gonna be noticeable all the time

 

[HookemNC]

Do you have a video before you swapped to 27won?

No sir. I tried a few times to have the wife film when we were driving around but the camera equipment I have (or don't have I should say) could never accurately reflect the sound.

 

[YO_AD2IAN]

Its hard to pick up on camera what happens but between 2100-2600 rpms, the car becomes very loud with the awe exhaust. It feels like a bassy and droney kind of sound that fills up the car and it happens in that rev range in the lower gears. Once you get to 4th gear and higher you don’t notice it anymore but if you do a lot of street driving, its gonna be noticeable all the time

Is it kind of boom-y? I’m coming from a WRX with an Invidia and around the same rpms it sounds like a deep, deep hum.

If you do decide to part ways with it, let me know! Been looking at the AWE for a while.

 

[remc86007]

I hear the drone briefly during Street driving, but that doesn't bother me. The sound under sustained load on the highway in that rev range is really annoying. If I daily dove this car on the highway I would have to get a different exhaust.

 

[Sara/AWE]

I'd think by 300 miles the packing would have settled in the resonator

No packing in the 180 Tech resonator... just science!

Are you running a stock downpipe?

 

[JoshuaN]

No packing in the 180 Tech resonator... just science!

Are you running a stock downpipe?

Yeah stock everything except for a mishimoto intake

 

[taiso0019]

So I got my Touring delivered last Friday. Gotta say for being one of those people who was maybe more into the the look of TIG welds, up close I was blown away by the quality of this exhaust and all the attention to detail. Like the little badge on the section connecting to the main resonator and the dime stacks for all the welds. Everything felt extremely solid and well put together. The included Easter egg inside the box for the tips and clamps was awesome haha!

Sound clips are what eventually won me over on this exhaust, even though I know sound is a hard thing to capture for short clips online...I was going for OEM++. There's lots of options out there but the majority either don't have the look I had in mind or sound was underwhelming. It just felt like they were adding volume to an already not great sounding engine, instead of actually producing a nice tone. Regardless of loudness. If that makes sense.

So anyway, the install and initial impressions:
Went to a friend's shop and it took him a little over an hour to get everything set up and the tips lined up just right. We liked that you can easily adjust them after the fact in case you want to go for a staggered look vs flush or just tweak the distance protruding from the bumper.

He was impressed by the quality and fitment. For comparison he had just installed a Tomei full Ti system on a WRX and was just as pleased with my install as the fit/finish on that.

Sound:
I pulled around the back of the shop to load my old exhaust up and there was a mildly modified Z and my R sitting next to each other. At first I thought the very nice idle rumble was coming from that car since I figured my car had been shut off. To my surprise, I dropped into the driver's seat and realized my car was on and that nice rumble I'd been hearing was from the FK8. So I revved it up a bit and immediately picked up on everything I heard on the sound clips. The car finally sounded aggressive and had some reverberations, as opposed to that factory one note vacuum cleaner swoosh.

So I got on the road and immediately picked up on the different notes especially during WOT or moderate rev matching. Then noticed even a faint crackle or two when rev matching more aggressively or shifting at redline. Exactly what I was looking for. Not overtly loud but the sound finally matched the aggressive exterior of the car. It is hard to describe with words but it finally has character. With the windows down it was quite nice, reminded me of the Alfa 4C spider my wife and I drove a year ago. That car obviously has more pops and has an overall better soundtrack but she agreed that the Touring system took us more in that direction and completely blew away our stock system (for reference she's all about the popcorn mode on the Veloster N so if she's happy with getting the K20C1 any closer to that, it is a huge seal of approval). Windows up the sound is definitely still there and it even mostly drowns out a slight rattle the car developed after an off-track excursion...music was not drowned out in the least bit either or clashed with the new pipes in the back.

Drone:
Maybe others are a bit more sensitive and I have to do a bit more highway driving to really give a full review of perceived drone. Or maybe others are not used to loud exhausts in general...But so far so good, there's a definite hum around 2200-2800 while cruising but nothing out of the ordinary. My other car is a Tundra TRD Pro that has a nice factory exhaust which you can definitely tell drones from time to time while at highway speeds, and I'd say the Tundra's is probably more of an elephant in the room in that respect than AWE's system. Nothing that prevents me from 5-6 hour road trips. So with that said I don't think the AWE Touring will be any more intrusive during daily or long distance driving. But will report back once I got more miles covered.

Overall I am very pleased. I'm sure once I add a catted DP I'll have a few more crackles (based on the clips I've heard). So I'm really looking forward to completing the break-in period as the final sound develops. Right now I'm finding excuses just to take the car out (still counts as social distancing if you don't make any stops right?). It really has made it like new. Will definitely help during track season too, OEM had me looking at the dash constantly to make sure I didnt miss a shift that was coming up.

Nice job AWE!

PS. I'll add pictures later. They're all on IG for now but figured I wouldn't shamelessly plug that here.

 

[Josh/AWE]

Drone:
Maybe others are a bit more sensitive and I have to do a bit more highway driving to really give a full review of perceived drone. Or maybe others are not used to loud exhausts in general...But so far so good, there's a definite hum around 2200-2800 while cruising but nothing out of the ordinary.

Hi, all.

Hoping everyone is doing well with everything going on.

Regarding these reports of "drone," we pay close attention to what's said, and we decided to take our car out with our tools, and attempted to try to find what was being referred to -- even going within the rev ranges mentioned previously.

With that said, it's whole-heartedly confirmed (and has been on various occasions) there is NO drone -- speaking scientifically within he realm of frequencies and their activity, not from a subjective setting.

To piggyback on Taiso's comment -- the slight hum is 100% normal for an exhaust configuration of this caliber. That is purely the exhaust note -- exhaust note and drone are not the same.

If you're experiencing something abnormal, it is recommended to ensure there is no contact being made with the tubing.

Obviously if ya have a downpipe -- it will amplify everything about the exhaust note -- but as we have confirmed, 180 Technology keeps the drone-prone frequencies at bay even with a DP in the mix. (note that doesn't mean it isn't going to be vocal -- downpipes bring out the rowdy).

Remember my note in the past about thermal expansion. Those who are experiencing something after the car reaches operating temperature should evaluate their installation with the car at operating temperature, not when the vehicle is cold. Stainless steel "grows" in length when heated up. By checking the install when at operating temperature will reveal any contact points being made, and giving insight on where adjustment needs to be made. Make sure ALL slip joints are bottomed out.

As always, Dave and I are a PM away if you need us.

 

[OrchidFc3]

Hi, all.

Hoping everyone is doing well with everything going on.

Regarding these reports of "drone," we pay close attention to what's said, and we decided to take our car out with our tools, and attempted to try to find what was being referred to -- even going within the rev ranges mentioned previously.

With that said, it's whole-heartedly confirmed (and has been on various occasions) there is NO drone -- speaking scientifically within he realm of frequencies and their activity, not from a subjective setting.

To piggyback on Taiso's comment -- the slight hum is 100% normal for an exhaust configuration of this caliber. That is purely the exhaust note -- exhaust note and drone are not the same.

If you're experiencing something abnormal, it is recommended to ensure there is no contact being made with the tubing.

Obviously if ya have a downpipe -- it will amplify everything about the exhaust note -- but as we have confirmed, 180 Technology keeps the drone-prone frequencies at bay even with a DP in the mix. (note that doesn't mean it isn't going to be vocal -- downpipes bring out the rowdy).

Remember my note in the past about thermal expansion. Those who are experiencing something after the car reaches operating temperature should evaluate their installation with the car at operating temperature, not when the vehicle is cold. Stainless steel "grows" in length when heated up. By checking the install when at operating temperature will reveal any contact points being made, and giving insight on where adjustment needs to be made. Make sure ALL slip joints are bottomed out.

As always, Dave and I are a PM away if you need us.

Thanks for the clarification, been back and forth on this exhaust because of people saying its very loud and to much drone.

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