Does the stock exhaust break in at a certain point and get deeper?

[1M4]

Has anyone noticed if their exhaust after break in or later got any deeper?I have a 16' and it sounds fine for me but I have heard of the 14'/15' models sounding slightly different.Was their a software change at some point?

[minn19]

No.

[CaryTheLabelGuy]

Yes, actually. It does get slightly deeper.

The main reason is because carbon builds up inside the pipes and inside the rear silencer. This changes the tone, slightly.

[Brennan ///M4]

Originally Posted by minn19

No

Originally Posted by CaryTheLabelGuy

Yes

Well there you have it!

[minn19]

Originally Posted by Brennan ///M4

Well there you have it!

I had two: an M3 and an M4 and noticed no perceptible change in the tone at all after thousands of miles in either of them.

[AIRPOWER]

Cary may be right about all that carbon buildup but I never noticed a tone change until I took that POS muffler off and swapped it with an ACS one.

THEN THE TONE GOT DEEPER!!!!!

[mkoesel]

Around the age of 13 or 14, the sound becomes deeper. Car may grow hair as well

There is no MY2014 model. Search to find discussion about changes to the exhaust sound from MY2015 to MY2016.

[RocketBoots]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

Around the age of 13 or 14, the sound becomes deeper. Car may grow hair as well

It's earlier if you gave the car a girl name. And the car sometimes gets real cranky or temperamental, even when driving the same roads, same conditions, around the same time of the month. It's a bloody mess.

[RocketBoots]

Originally Posted by 1M4

Has anyone noticed if their exhaust after break in or later got any deeper?I have a 16' and it sounds fine for me but I have heard of the 14'/15' models sounding slightly different.Was their a software change at some point?

But seriously, I have a '15, and I did notice the exhaust got a bit louder and deeper around 7-8k miles. But I don't drive it that hard (compared to track guys), and do a lot of freeways.

[hotrod2448]

I feel like it's changed tone for the better pretty significantly over the first year of ownership. But it could just be hearing damage caused by the raspiness of the factory system. I will say while not fully warmed up at about 4K it still gets pretty damn tinny even after 10K miles.

[Flacht3]

I noticed a deeper growl and a bit more of a burble effect after 5k miles but it could just be that I got used to it over time and learned to enjoy it.

On that note, I'm installing an MPE today! The stock exhaust has grown on me so hopefully the MPE blows me away otherwise I'll probably just revert back and save a chunk of $.

[Magna_Flow]

Its normal for exhausts to get a little louder and deeper as the muffler packing material wears, but then again, every car will be different. We wouldn't expect any night-and-day differences.

[hellokitty]

I put on about 2500 miles on my new aftermarket exhaust and recently noticed it has gotten LOUDER. I would say it’s night and day. Suddenly one day the exhaust just woke up from being mellow to loud. I’ve been driving the car much harder these days and I’m pretty sure I blew out a bit of the resonator packing material because now it sounds like gunshots with the ZCP burbles, especially letting off in 1st gear whereas before the burbles were more toned down. I also noticed the stock ZCP exhaust got louder at the 5000 mile mark. Been doing a ton of 2nd and 3rd gear pulls recently to hopefully blow out some more packing lol... I like loud

[AlterZgo]

My stock exhaust definitely got louder around 3000 miles or so. It finally started to sound OK w/ valves closed and not like a Toyota Camry.

[m4journey]

Mine has gotten louder as the miles piled up.