[Socomike]

Hey guys. Since buying my GT in November and joining several boards, I have read countless threads about drone. This drones. That drones. This makes the drone go away.

I bought my car used with Magnaflow (Magnadrone) axle backs. The mid muffler and resonators are removed and replaced with straight pipe. I drive the car daily on the interstate and in town.

How come im not bothered by drone. Going down the interstate in "prime drone RPM" I hear the AFM kick in and the exhaust sound change. I hear it kick back into 8 cylinder mode and the exhaust change again. Am I the only one that is not bothered by the sound?

Sure, the AFM mode isnt how I would want it to sound all the time but its not awful. The 8 cylinder mode at those RPMS has a nice tone. I dont get rattles. Conversation is easy in the car.

What am I missing? Am I just resilient to the sound? Do I not understand what drone is?

Curious what others think. There is obviously the group that is bothered by it. I would speculate that this group is larger than the group that is not bothered by it.

 

[768MPH]

Get headers and report back.


Sent from AutoGuide.com App

 

[Socomike]

Get headers and report back.


Sent from AutoGuide.com App

Haha. Good point. I am coming from a 04 GTO with H/C/I and full exhaust (Kooks long tubes to Flowmaster Catback). Before that, it was a 02 WS6 Trans Am with a small cam and full exhaust (Mac Mids, ORY, Texas Speed Catback).

These cars were definitely louder, deeper, and more "raw" sounding. I did get a little drone in both of those cars. It didnt bother me much at all. It was essentially a constant tone of the exhaust sound at a given RPM. Is that the "drone" we are talking about here?

I can see how, with certain setups, that would get rather annoying if you sat in a certain RPM range for a long period of time. However, the setup would have to be much more radical than what I have had on my cars to bother me. Maybe I am an anomaly in this particular instance.

 

[768MPH]

I cane from a Mach 1 with off road pro chamber and mac Catback.
Previous mustangs didn't have cats and all had super 40/44 mufflers.

I know drone too.


Sent from AutoGuide.com App

 

[SLO 60]

Having your mid muffler removed decreases the drone with magnaflows. Once I had my mid muffler cut out it was a drastic decrease. AFM drove me nuts with a mid muffler paired with those axle backs!

Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App

 

[PERM01]

Maybe I don't understand what drone is either but my car at highway speeds, 70-75, is loud as hell. At 75 I'm running roughly 1800rpm - if I go to 78-79 the car quites down considerably. Running 75 in 5th makes the car perfect but then she's revving 2400rpm.

 

[nda9090]

Our SBM GT has no mid muffs or resonators with PM-FL axlebacks(straight pipes with nice tips). It drones like crazy between 1800 and 2000 rpm. My wife only drives 4.5 miles to work and doesn't seem to mind. It was horrible coming back from Kentucky. Had to drive 68 or 81 to make it bearable.

 

[Agose25]

I have driven in an H-Pipe Long Tube 03 Cobra from Lubbock to Dallas back in college. It literally would shake fillings out of your teeth and would temporarily deafen you. That's DRONE, no doubt.

Drone by my definition is that gutteral hollow resonance that gets you in your inner ear in a certain way. There is a big difference in a loud exhaust and drone. With my current set up I experience no drone, but do experience a Loud exhaust at anything more than half throttle. AFM with an aftermarket exhaust can be really bad in these cars when its engaged. Tuning it out is almost a requirement in most cases.

 

[lilhed]

Hey guys. Since buying my GT in November and joining several boards, I have read countless threads about drone. This drones. That drones. This makes the drone go away.

I bought my car used with Magnaflow (Magnadrone) axle backs. The mid muffler and resonators are removed and replaced with straight pipe. I drive the car daily on the interstate and in town.

How come im not bothered by drone. Going down the interstate in "prime drone RPM" I hear the AFM kick in and the exhaust sound change. I hear it kick back into 8 cylinder mode and the exhaust change again. Am I the only one that is not bothered by the sound?

Sure, the AFM mode isnt how I would want it to sound all the time but its not awful. The 8 cylinder mode at those RPMS has a nice tone. I dont get rattles. Conversation is easy in the car.

What am I missing? Am I just resilient to the sound? Do I not understand what drone is?

Curious what others think. There is obviously the group that is bothered by it. I would speculate that this group is larger than the group that is not bothered by it.

When I first purchased my G8 March of 2012 the previous owner told me that the Magnaflow catback that he has installed on the car makes a "certain" sound when I go into cruise control around 70-80 mph. That certain sound "from what people on the different boards call drone" might irritate you but then again it might not. I told him "Cool, whatever I'll deal with it even though I never heard of "drone". I'm just happy to finally get this car!!!"

At first I tried doing everything that I could (cruise control) to make this "drone" sound pop up. I kinda didn't realize that it was already happening. I thought that it was normal since this was my very first V8.....until I made my first phone call. Everyone that I called as I drove back with my newly purchased G8 GT immediately said," What is that sound?" All I could say was I didn't know. Until later after I joined this board and started reading into all of the different exhaust threads and finally read about the dreaded drone and what usually happens when the drone starts to occur. Then I realized that whole time my G8 was droning.

So I just sold my magnaflow catback a few months ago on here and I purchase the Corsa Catback. After driving from california to florida with my Corsa I can say that it isn't "ABSOLUTELY DRONE FREE" but you do have to actually "Look and Listen" for the very small drone sound. You seriously have to be trying to look for that sound.

But like everyone says, exhaust sounds are completely up to each particular individual. I thought that the Magnaflow was REALLY REALLY low and I know of a few people who said my Magnaflow was loud??? Whatever.lol

 

[GXPaycheck]

Some folks aren't bothered by it. Others have to pull over and get out of the car. Personal preference.

 

[MeanGreenZ71]

The 1800 rpm drone was pretty bad with my old super 44 mufflers. Now with the magnaflow x-pipe muffler put in my midpipe and Pypes violator axlebacks its very tame with very very little drone. Just like with a corsa system, I have to really listen for it and even then it is barely noticeable.

 

[768MPH]

The 1800 rpm drone was pretty bad with my old super 44 mufflers. Now with the magnaflow x-pipe muffler put in my midpipe and Pypes violator axlebacks its very tame with very very little drone. Just like with a corsa system, I have to really listen for it and even then it is barely noticeable.

Oh how I loved those 44s! Then got headers, WAY too much. Couldn't handle the drone on the highway. Mind numbing.


Sent from AutoGuide.com App

 

[zepcom]

Lots of knowledge to be learned here about drone.

It all started with a vintage thread entitled "Almost Drone Free" .... look it up and be amazed.

 

[BigRed585Lbs]

Reminds me of my first wife..........on and on and on...........
No, I didn't j-pipe her.

 

[768MPH]

Reminds me of my first wife..........on and on and on...........
No, I didn't j-pipe her.

hsnap1:

 

[bluegoat06]

Some of us are definitely not bothered by what some people define as drone. Don't worry about it, let the others do that, and i have LT's with no cats with very little muffler cases, lol, what comes out of my exhaust is nothing but music to my ears, and yes, it drones some in the rpm areas where most people in our community go crazy about it, i don't mind that at all after driving extremely loud setups in my 99 Z28, 03 Mach1 and 06 GTO, so i consider some drone part of my car personality lol, current drone in my G8 is not even half of what my other cars used to sound, and i didn't bother back then

 

[DanSVT03]

It all depends on what you can tolerate. I promise you that there are members on here with exhaust set ups with far more drone then yours. For me, as soon as I put on a set of Solo axle-backs, I could no longer stand hearing the car in 4 cylinder mode on the highway. Around town was ok, but at the same time I was really annoyed by hearing it kick on/off all the time. I always put the car in manual 6th gear on the highway to keep AFM off. After eventually going to my current set up, I had AFM disabled completely in the tune. I know some people who have kept AFM even after headers and don't mind it. They can tolerate it, but there's no way I ever could lol.

 

[Silvereagle]

A thing I discovered was after I put on my Magnaflow catback, was that in my daily drive in the valley I have no hills to speak of, so the audible "drone" area around 16-1800 rpm isn't very pronounced. But was soon as I drove over a couple of mountain passes and going uphill...the sound is way more pronounced. Wife was complaining about "too much motor sound"......which to me is V8 symphony.

 

[GXPaycheck]

You also have to define "drone". To most it is the sound that occurs in the 1800 rpm range. AFM changeover is something entirely different, though equally annoying.

 

[G2gGolfing69]

I have the Solo axle backs and they don't drone, but when AFM kicks on at 80, the entire car VIBRATES and the exhaust note gets A LOT louder, it is very annoying. I quick step on the pedal and it goes away. Under 70 I am fine, but anything faster than that is pretty bad.