2012 Genesis Sedan 3.8 muffler delete question

[Jalvin Cohnson]

Hello,

Does anybody have experience or opinions on deleting just the rear mufflers on the 3.8 sedan?

I have watched a lot of Youtube videos on muffler deletes, and the one thing I can't really tell is how bad the drone is when you cruise on the highway. I drive mostly highway for work every day, and as much as I love a loud exhaust, I don't know if I would get drone. I have read somewhere that the drone only gets bad on the 3.8s if you remove the resonators and/or the cats and the middle H muffler, but I can't confirm if this is true. The one video I found on YT of a guy with the same model as me who only removed the rear mufflers sounds pretty good, but he only did pulls and revved the engine while parked.

I am hoping for someone to help me get a better understanding of the volume, highway drone and overall thoughts on just removing the rear mufflers and leaving the rest of the exhaust stock.

 

[scottdk]

The drone with a muffler delete will be terrible. Either leave stock or install a cat-back exhaust, but choose wisely as some cat-back exhaust systems still drone, some more than others. My Borla exhaust has very minimal drone and I'm very happy with it, although I think it would be too loud for a daily driver for most people.

 

[Jalvin Cohnson]

The drone with a muffler delete will be terrible. Either leave stock or install a cat-back exhaust, but choose wisely as some cat-back exhaust systems still drone, some more than others. My Borla exhaust has very minimal drone and I'm very happy with it, although I think it would be too loud for a daily driver for most people.

Thanks for the reply!

I haven't heard of people saying the drone is too bad if you leave the stock cats, res and H muffler, but all I can go off of is YT videos and hopefully more people commenting on this thread. Why do you use the word terrible? Have you experienced rear muffler deletes on the 3.8? My thinking was that the car is already pretty sound proof from outside noise, so I can't imagine it being terrible. I would do a cat-back exhaust but don't have the $$$.

 

[12Rspec50]

In my experience with my 5.0 RSpec, muffler delete wasn't worth the trouble. The drone was enough to vibrate the fillings right out of your teeth.

Your best bet is to get a proper exhaust. Resonators and mufflers are a must.

 

[QuantumRift]

I drove a 1967 Camaro RS and a 1968 Camaro convertible for years back in the 70's and 80's. They DRONED because I used Thrush (anything BUT) Hush mufflers. I wouldn't do it again. I like the quiet of the Genny. Like I like the quiet of my 2006 Suzuki Burgman. Many have tried to change the OEM muffler on that and it just ends up sounding like an angry chainsaw. For what its worth. LOL.

 

[scottdk]

Thanks for the reply!

I haven't heard of people saying the drone is too bad if you leave the stock cats, res and H muffler, but all I can go off of is YT videos and hopefully more people commenting on this thread. Why do you use the word terrible? Have you experienced rear muffler deletes on the 3.8? My thinking was that the car is already pretty sound proof from outside noise, so I can't imagine it being terrible. I would do a cat-back exhaust but don't have the $$$.

Drone is drone and is a frequency that will penetrate any sound deadening. Also, I have an old exhaust thread on this forum a long time ago - I started off with removing the mufflers and installing Magnaflow mufflers and tips, and this was before any company made an exhaust for the car. Now, I didn't just remove the mufflers, I installed smaller mufflers which produce more sound, but they had bad drone. I couldn't take it anymore and I replaced the factory H pipe with a Magnaflow X-pipe muffler which made the exhaust nearly drone free, but also much quieter. Could you imagine how bad the drone would be if I were to just remove the mufflers?!

Now we move to Borla - This exhaust is amazing and is just a sweet sound, and it's surprisingly very low drone, but it's expensive.

10 years later I can look back and say I should have not been so excited to hear my first V8 car's exhaust and wait until a company produced one, however there was no guarantee one would do so. The amount of money I spend on modifying my exhaust the 3 times prior to buying the Borla kit would have most likely paid for the Borla kit, or close to it.

 

[Jalvin Cohnson]

I drove a 1967 Camaro RS and a 1968 Camaro convertible for years back in the 70's and 80's. They DRONED because I used Thrush (anything BUT) Hush mufflers. I wouldn't do it again. I like the quiet of the Genny. Like I like the quiet of my 2006 Suzuki Burgman. Many have tried to change the OEM muffler on that and it just ends up sounding like an angry chainsaw. For what its worth. LOL.

Here is the thing though, I like the loud sound, I just want to make sure the drone isn't unbearable. I am OK with a little bit of drone, just not to the point of not hearing my music or slowly making things loose in the car. Shouldn't leaving the resonator on reduce the drone level to a bearable amount? I have had 2 cars in the past with straight pipe exhausts (2004 Audi A4 and 1997 Mustang GT) and I never had complaints about drone and LOVED how loud they could get. The A4 didn't have the best sound, just really loud and make the turbo way more audible, but the mustang GT had a beautiful purr while cruising. That was a 4.6l, so I can't imagine a 3.8 WITH the stock cats and resonator on it sound louder or have worse drone than the mustang, which is why I am still leaning towards deleting the mufflers.

 

[Jalvin Cohnson]

Drone is drone and is a frequency that will penetrate any sound deadening. Also, I have an old exhaust thread on this forum a long time ago - I started off with removing the mufflers and installing Magnaflow mufflers and tips, and this was before any company made an exhaust for the car. Now, I didn't just remove the mufflers, I installed smaller mufflers which produce more sound, but they had bad drone. I couldn't take it anymore and I replaced the factory H pipe with a Magnaflow X-pipe muffler which made the exhaust nearly drone free, but also much quieter. Could you imagine how bad the drone would be if I were to just remove the mufflers?!

Now we move to Borla - This exhaust is amazing and is just a sweet sound, and it's surprisingly very low drone, but it's expensive.

10 years later I can look back and say I should have not been so excited to hear my first V8 car's exhaust and wait until a company produced one, however there was no guarantee one would do so. The amount of money I spend on modifying my exhaust the 3 times prior to buying the Borla kit would have most likely paid for the Borla kit, or close to it.

I guess my only loss would be the $200 I spend on removing the mufflers. I planned on keeping the stock mufflers so I could always put them back, or add aftermarket mufflers later. I am OK with the worst case scenario losing $200. I guess I just don't see enough negatives in removing the mufflers compared to louder exhaust, a bit of lost weight and possibly a little bump in HP from less resistance in the exhaust.

Thanks for the detailed comments, I really appreciate it and it is helping me a lot.

BTW, how do I add a signature like yours to comments?

 

[Jalvin Cohnson]

Thank you to people commenting, but it seems like I am getting mostly people AGAINST deleting the mufflers.

Are there any members out there that are FOR muffler deletes that can comment?

 

[scottdk]

I guess my only loss would be the $200 I spend on removing the mufflers. I planned on keeping the stock mufflers so I could always put them back, or add aftermarket mufflers later. I am OK with the worst case scenario losing $200. I guess I just don't see enough negatives in removing the mufflers compared to louder exhaust, a bit of lost weight and possibly a little bump in HP from less resistance in the exhaust.

Thanks for the detailed comments, I really appreciate it and it is helping me a lot.

BTW, how do I add a signature like yours to comments?

Don't forget the labor charges for installation and removal, that adds up quickly. Especially if you have your stock mufflers reinstalled, your now OEM exhaust is super hacked up and will rust on the welds even without road salt. Lastly, if you do choose to have exhaust work done on any car, you should ensure the exhaust shop doing the work does TIG welding since the exhaust is stainless steel. If they MIG weld stainless steel, the welds will look horrendous and won't hold up in the long run.

I think what you're hoping for is a simple and cheap solution, and removing mufflers just isn't this. If this were the case, all exhaust manufacturers would be out of business and we would all remove our mufflers.

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[Jalvin Cohnson]

Don't forget the labor charges for installation and removal, that adds up quickly. Especially if you have your stock mufflers reinstalled, your now OEM exhaust is super hacked up and will rust on the welds even without road salt. Lastly, if you do choose to have exhaust work done on any car, you should ensure the exhaust shop doing the work does TIG welding since the exhaust is stainless steel. If they MIG weld stainless steel, the welds will look horrendous and won't hold up in the long run.

I think what you're hoping for is a simple and cheap solution, and removing mufflers just isn't this. If this were the case, all exhaust manufacturers would be out of business and we would all remove our mufflers.

I will take all of your thoughts into consideration, but like I said earlier, my only real worry was bad drone, which I shouldn't experience with leaving the resonator on. I also am OK with the idea of losing a few bucks to try this out. Sometimes in life you just have to remember that you only live once, and that there is nothing wrong with trying something out and regretting it later. Most of my wrong decisions in life taught me the best lessons, so the chance of regret with deleting the mufflers is minuscule compared to some other past mistakes in my life.

The welding tip is AWESOME though, I didn't know that, thank you.

 

[RemyBluePearl]

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Magnaflow cat-back sounds awesome and with our quiet cabins and the music going I don’t hear it or I don’t pay attention one or the other lol. You can get this system now for like $800 bucks

 

[scottdk]

I will take all of your thoughts into consideration, but like I said earlier, my only real worry was bad drone, which I shouldn't experience with leaving the resonator on. I also am OK with the idea of losing a few bucks to try this out. Sometimes in life you just have to remember that you only live once, and that there is nothing wrong with trying something out and regretting it later. Most of my wrong decisions in life taught me the best lessons, so the chance of regret with deleting the mufflers is minuscule compared to some other past mistakes in my life.

The welding tip is AWESOME though, I didn't know that, thank you.

What do you mean by resonator? My car had a factory H-pipe for the mid pipe, so if you are referring to this as a resonator, I can put a guarantee that you will have mega drone when you remove the mufflers.

 

[edizzle89]

What do you mean by resonator? My car had a factory H-pipe for the mid pipe, so if you are referring to this as a resonator, I can put a guarantee that you will have mega drone when you remove the mufflers.

what year is your genesis that it has a factory h-pipe? as far as i know none of them had that. The resonator he's refering to is muffler-looking thing at about the center of the car, just before the rear diff.

I have a muffler delete and left the resonator on my 4.6 and it's really not that bad. The wife still drives the car from time to time so that's how I know it's doesn't drone bad otherwise she'd complain about it haha

 

[Jalvin Cohnson]

What do you mean by resonator? My car had a factory H-pipe for the mid pipe, so if you are referring to this as a resonator, I can put a guarantee that you will have mega drone when you remove the mufflers.

The stock 2012 Genesis Sedan 3.8 stock has an H resonator in the middle of the exhaust. I looked under the car and verified on the Hyundai OEM Parts website. If you are ever not sure what the part is or what it looks like, go to hyundaiparts | Hyundai Parts | Hyundai Replacement Parts. If you input your car, you can see almost every OEM part and diagrams of each part of the car. Drone has been only reported to be really bad on straight pipe exhausts where the rear mufflers, the resonator and the 2 rear cats were removed. I could totally see the drone being horrible if you removed the H resonator on my car and removed mufflers instead of putting aftermarket mufflers.

 

[Jalvin Cohnson]

what year is your genesis that it has a factory h-pipe? as far as i know none of them had that. The resonator he's refering to is muffler-looking thing at about the center of the car, just before the rear diff.

I have a muffler delete and left the resonator on my 4.6 and it's really not that bad. The wife still drives the car from time to time so that's how I know it's doesn't drone bad otherwise she'd complain about it haha

Yea I think I am going to delete the mufflers for now, then when I can afford it, buy some after market mufflers and delete the secondary cats and H resonator (maybe leave the resonator or get an aftermarket high flow one.)

I really appreciate your honesty, I feel like a lot of people over react to muffler delete drone because a lot of cars out there tend to delete mufflers, cats and resonators at the same time and don't know that the resonator reduces the drone by quite a bit.

 

[JayHunchho]

Yea I think I am going to delete the mufflers for now, then when I can afford it, buy some after market mufflers and delete the secondary cats and H resonator (maybe leave the resonator or get an aftermarket high flow one.)

I really appreciate your honesty, I feel like a lot of people over react to muffler delete drone because a lot of cars out there tend to delete mufflers, cats and resonators at the same time and don't know that the resonator reduces the drone by quite a bit.

Please let me know how it goes, if it sounds good and let me know about the drone please. we have the same car and im thinking about deleting the rear mufflers

 

[WPGGenesis]

yes let us know i have a 2013 3.8 and its wayyy to damn quiet. and don't want to spend $1000 cdn just for a catback system.

 

[Cali Gen]

i mean i paid 755(shipping included) for a magnaflow catback 16497( for the 4.6) its literally the same exact specs(piping and fitment brackets) as th magnaflow 15059(for 5.0) except instead of having to replace the rear cats with test pipes like you do with the 15059 the 16497 is just straight piped through that part also different tips.. If you have paypal credit you can finance it with 6mo 0 APR..

I bought different tips to go with mine.. but if you want to keep the stock bumper exhaust on 2012+ models you could just cut the tips off the 16947 and theyd work just fine
Magnaflow Catback Exhaust (4.6L), importshark.com

16947 $755 -------------------------------------------------------15059 $980
VS

 

[Jalvin Cohnson]

Please let me know how it goes, if it sounds good and let me know about the drone please. we have the same car and im thinking about deleting the rear mufflers

I deleted the mufflers and so far so good. Drone is only a bit annoying when you are going up hill, but that happens with a loud exhaust. I have a plan to line the bottom of the trunk with a sound deadener, which should reduce the cabin volume and vibrations by just a bit. The sound is awesome, the car loses some weight, there has been proof of adding a little bit of power, and it only costs under $200. Plus, I could always add mufflers and test pipes if I wanted to. I decided that I am not going to buy a whole exhaust. That is because if I had the money for a CBE, I would end up buying a more mod-friendly car, like the Coupe, a GTI, a WRX, or something that has more potential than my sedan.

For now, I am super happy with it. I feel like a sleeper on the highway because with normal throttle the car is pretty quiet, but when you step on it you turn necks. I would do it and keep the stock mufflers (I did) so when you go to sell the car, the new owner could always remount the stock mufflers.