Active Sound Control
 

I downloaded the owner’s manual for the 2022 BRZ to familiarize myself with some of the differences from my 2017 BRZ. I had that silly sound snorkel gizmo capped off and at one time completely removed. I called it the Toyobaru Kazoo. When I first saw under the hood that the Kazoo was gone I said, “Oh joy, no more wheezing and snoring.” Wrong. Now we have the 21st Century version. Following is an excerpt from the manual. Does anyone know if turning off the engine sound is by physically yanking a plug or is the some secret handshake involved where you push a sequence of buttons to enter a hidden menu? My 2014 Forester radio had a hidden menu for making profile changes, so that got me thinking there is a less intrusive way to disable the sound (AKA noise)?

7-8. Active Sound Control
The active sound control provides dynamic engine sounds. When driving with Sport mode selected, the engine sounds will be particularly loud.
NOTE
The operational/non-operational setting of the Active Sound Control can be changed by a SUBARU dealer. Contact your SUBARU dealer for details.

The end user has no menu to turn it off with. I did find the plug for the sound control unit on the left hand side of the dash. You have to have the passenger door open to remove the end cap to gain access to the plug. Then you can just disconnect it if you wish.

You can see it on the part diagram. "Sound Creator ECU"

https://parts.subaru.com/images/part...1_86001329.png

And the associated speaker is shown here.

https://parts.subaru.com/images/part...1_86201165.png

I bought a Carista OBD2 dongle that changed lots of dealer-level stuff on my 2020. I silenced the seatbelt chime, killed headlights immediately when the engine was shut off, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if the sound generator would be on the Carista menu once the 2022, is supported.

Maybe my OBD II module and app can address that feature when it comes time. It would be cool if a simple hard wired switch would work. Looking a the diagram, it appears that the Aux Unit plugs into the Sound Creator. If a plug or plugs are disconnected, is that going to create a problem? Is there a dedicated speaker or does the augmented sound appear on all the speakers? It might be best to tell the dealer to deliver my new car with it turned off. If the sound creator synthesizes the sound based on input from the engine control module and not an amplified microphone, why not go the next step and have a menu of sounds on the head unit to choose from? The BRZ could sound like any kind of exotic car or a starship with warp drive. I would go for something absurd like the Big Boy steam engine or the sound playing cards make when they are attached to the forks of your bicycle and rub on the spokes. Useless accessory that does not make the car go faster.

Oh! Pod racers. TIE fighter.

If you open the passenger side door, there's a trim piece that covers the side of the glovebox/dash. under the bottom of the panel is a little slot you can put a screwdriver wrapped in tape and pry outwards to pop the panel off.

Behind the panel is the engine speaker amplifier, and you can take a flathead screwdriver and push in on the connector and pull down to disconnect it. That will disable the engine speaker, and then if you decide to re-enable it you can just plug the connector back in.

I attached a couple pictures to help visualize what I'm referring to.

I asked the dealer to just turn this off for me before I picked up the BRZ. He said it was just a checkbox in their software to enable/disable it.

So, the least intrusive way is to just have the dealer turn it off. Looking at the diagram, Part #86301AB, what is that? I read somewhere that it could be a separate speaker from the audio system for the Sound Creator ECU. Is that true? Did the marketing people and Toyobaru do some sort of survey that said, "Hell yeah, we want testosterone pumping noise." If they went to all the trouble of putting that gizmo in, the least they could have done is put a switch in the glove box or under the dash where you can opt-in or opt-out. Or, how about this: do a bypass on the output of the Sound Creator and connect to a massive amplifier mounted in the trunk and find a place on the OUTSIDE of the car for one or more speakers. Can you say "RICER"?

I just looked up the parts and it looks like the Sound Creator ECU (MSRP $336.70) is connected to a single speaker (MSRP $111.70). Really? Would it have been unreasonable to apply that cost to an upgrade to the sound system? Tires? Fancy lug nuts? Get out of jail card?

My plan is to resist the temptation to ask for it disabled when picking the car up and waiting until at least the first oil change...

Renault is way ahead of you, they did this years ago with one of their hot hatches - I remember a Top Gear reviewer going through the various options. Nothing as extreme as what you suggest but you could make the car sound like anything from a V8 muscle car to a high-revving formula racer.

Could you sniff the CAN bus messages used to enable/disable, so that others with the right skills and basic electronic tools could DIY that?

Can confirm the speaker info. I removed mine.