Do the aftermarket exhaust systems eliminate the dreaded 1,500 - 1,800 RPM drone (or "vibration") that the stock V6's have?

It was noticeable on the '05 I rented, but it sure seems more noticeable on my new '06. I'm thinking it might lessen as it's broken in, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to not wait and go pop on a aftermarket muffler.

 

I only get the "drone" when its cold out and the car is first started. Once everything warms up it is fine. I know there is a TSB out on the issue and the dealership can add insulation, but I'm plannign on going aftermarket anyway so I guess i'll wait and see.

 

I use my 'Stang for work and drive surface streets. In between lights I'm always cruising at 45-50 mph which is keeping me at the "drone" rpm most of the time. There's no change after the car's warmed up, either.

 

I guess if wost comes to worse, if you go aftermarket, try finding out where ford puts the padding to insulate the drone and have some installed on the aftermarket one to be safe.

 

I installed the JBA shorty headers and axle-back, and the dreaded drone is history!

 

Randy's Exhaust in Marysville, WA just did mine on Saturday, and it is fantastic. It uses two 14" Magnaflows, and a simple H-pipe crossover in a true dual set-up. When Randy removed my old system, it did include a couple of rubber weights to act as dampers. I have no drone with the new system, and we did not add the rubber weights back in. Actually a very good price too. $503 with tax and two very nice stainless tips.

 

The single axleback Magnaflow sounds much nicer than the stock setup. Eventually, I might go with the dual setup, but this is great for the interim. It looks a heckuva lot better than stock, too!

 

I noticed the rubber counterweights as well when getting my Magnaflows put in. The drone does seem a bit lessened, but it is still there. Not much though.

 

True dual means there is no cross over. All aftermarket mufflers Ive heard of will elimnate the drone. I have dual flows and its gone long gone.

 

Not "all". I'm having an issue with high levels of drone with my MAC setup between 2200 and 2500RPM. Called MAC yesterday, and had a great conversation with some twerp in their tech "support" dept. He didn't even know how the kit THEY manufactured was laid out or what parts it included, and his "solution" was "maybe you could take it to a custom exhaust shop and see if they can do anything with it" :bang:

Needless to say, I'm less than impressed with the way they handle after sales support.....

 

Well, let me clarify a little. Almost all mufflers, dual or single, whatever, will have a drone associated with them. Mac, Flows, JBA, etc... They all have a unique an independant drone of their own. It will move in sound and rang but its more or less there. In my experience its rare you find a setup that will not have a drone. What it does, however, is elimante the horrible one on the stock exhuast. My flows have a drone with them, but its got more of a "taste" to it thats preferable to my ears than the stock one does.

Make sense?

And Im sorry to hear about your problems.. hope you can get somethings worked out.

 

Sense indeed. My Macs are droning at least 2-3 times as loud as the factory mufflers though. Really annoying after a while.

 

I got a couple of GT take-offs from E-pay so I'm going to try them 1st.

I'm a Flowmaster fan and wish they would produce a single exhaust axle-back for the V6.

 

True duals means that each cylinder bank has its own exhaust. An H or X pipe still makes the system a true dual exhaust.

A non- true dual system would be one where all cylinders dunp into a common exhaust, then split into seperate dual pipes.

 

What is the "droan" :scratch: you guys are talking about... I just got my 05 v-6 vert last saturday

 

for me its a vibration at 1500 rpm's that I feel through the center consol. This only started a few weeks ago when the weather started to get cooler.

 

The stock V6 exhaust system resonates at about 1500-1600 RPM which causes all the interior panels to vibrate (buzz). I drive surface streets to work and I always seem to be driving at that RPM so it can be pretty annoying.

 

I dig the drone on my jba setup.... nice and aggresive and not too loud, but very present and never annoying.

 

I chuckled to myself yesterday when I crawled under the back of my car and saw for the 1st time the big rubber dampener bolted to the back of the stock muffler. It's an engineering "band-aid" to try and control the resonating.

 

I would be curious if the drone at 1,500 to 1,600 RPM would be reduced if Premium fuel were burned. When I picked-up my new V6 3 weeks ago, it was loaded with regular. With that regular gas, operating below 2,000 RPM produced what I would call a pre-knock grumble. This could be pumping-up the drone vibration. Now that I have purified my tank and have straight premium, I can run down to 1,500 RPM without the pre-knock grumble. In more real-world terms, I can run under very light throttle in 5th gear at 50 MPH, whereas with the regular, I had to travel at least 60 MPH in 5th gear.
Could someone try this experiment on their vehicle to see if they observe the difference too? Also, on our long weekend trip, we were getting solidly over 28 MPG, so that is a good benefit of the premium too.