Is the stock factory exhaust on an '04 suppose to sound raspy at redline?

I thought that the factory exhaust would be quiet or at least not sound raspy at or near redline? By the way the Z moves pretty damn quick in first and second at redline hehe but the damn factory sized 17" rubber wasn't hooking up all that well in the parking lot, so it was a little hard to get an accurate seat of the pants feel. By the way it was an empty lot in a non residential part of town at 2:30 am.

Anyway...

I heard some sound clips of various aftermarket systems for the Z a while ago and there were a few that sounded like a Bumble Bee in a coffee can (which I hate) and I was shocked to hear the stock one sounded the same as those at redline. Like a raspy crackling noise.

Usually factory systems are like sewing machines, or so I thought.

I am about 99% sure that it is the factory system (not the Nismo) cuz there are zero markings on the tips, canister or anywhere that I could see and the actual canister looks like something you would expect to see from a factory, had some kind of rock guard thing on the bottom of the canister it looked like anyway and stuff like that, plus it looked like it had about 13,000 miles of wear on it which is the actual miles on the car, so it should be the stock unit.

Do the stock sytems sound like that? Is that the norm for them?

I was eventually planing on getting an aftermarket sytem some day but I am thinking I would actually need one to make it sound like stock should sound.

I want no NEEEDDDDD a non raspy system, which I figured the stock would be. eghhh wrong.

I would actually have liked to have kept the stock sytem for about 1 year before swapping but after I heard that horrible sound, I might have to get one sooner, I mean it just sounded soooo crappy:-(

Does your factory sytem sound raspy.

Ok I'm done b!tchin' now.

 

you don't provide enough info. did you buy your car new or used? factory exhaust is not raspy at all, but it is aggressive sounding. other a/m parts can make your stock exhaust raspy, like a/m cats or pipes. do you have any a/m parts?

 

I didn't buy the car, just drove it around.

As far as I can tell, the whole car is all bone stock, though I didn't look under the hood. The noise actually starts to kick in at about 5,000 RPM or so. It sounds like a crackling, poping, raspy, tinny, backfiring type sound, all happening inside a coffee can. I think Apexi (SP) was one of the sound clips I heard that sounded this bad.

I could go to a dealer and try reving theirs but I seriously doubt they will let me rev their new <50 mile Z's to or near redline.

I will go dig up a link to the system that this one is sounding like.

 

http://www.everything350z.com/exhaust.html


Yes it sounded kind of like the Apexi on this page, minus the slightly exotic sound that the Apexi kind of has, if you can call that exotic:-P. Had all of the cracking poping and farting noises but with a stock sounding overall tone.

On another note, the motor itself sounded nice on the car I was driving but that exhaust note oye!

I'm just gonna wait till the '06's are out before I buy or order mine anyway, so I will rev the pi$$ out of their 06. By the time the sales guy has time to say "oh $hit stop don't do that", it will be too late and I will have gotten my answer:-D

 

Also while I was crawling around on the ground I checked out the tires for feathering. The front tires were perfectly fine. They were worn but totally even and uniform. However, the rears were feathered on the insides. They looked like they could have been the factory tires all the way around, as they looked like what one might expect to see on a 13,000 mile car.

It wasn't horrible feathering but if it was my Z and they were feathered anymore than they were, I would definatly be looking to take it into an alignment shop. Again it wasn't horrible but something I would have adjusted out if possible.

 

So if the the stock resonator or stock cats have been removed, it's gonna change the sound and could sound as you describe.

The rear tires should not be feathering, that's not normally a complaint.

Chris

 

i would check the mid-pipe resonator.. try to get under the car and see if that's been modified... if it's a used car, then the previous owner may have tried to that. If it looks "small" or if it's not there at all, then that could account for the high rpm raspiness

i own an injen SES now, but when i had my stock exhaust, i didn't have the raspiness that you describe... i suppose i could be less sensitive to it, but it definitely never sounded like the APEXI sound clip

 

stock 350z's DONT sound raspy
the car you had was not stock or your opinion of raspy is way off
the G35 and 350z are known for having one of the BEST sounding stock exhausts