Someone threatened me over my BRZ because..

[Summerwolf]

Originally Posted by becausethexo

Someone threatened me yesterday because my BRZ is "waking up his kid". - He has EVERY right to be pissed off. Waking up kids, especially newborns / toddlers is no joke.

It seems like my options are..
- Don't change anything.
- Move
- Get it catted?
- Get a new car?


Or...!! the most logical... file a police report. - Why is this the most logical? Guy came to you with an issue, probably sleep deprived and asked you to fix your obnoxious car.

Don't be a jackhole in your neighborhood. Have your girlfriend start up your car and stand inside your house. I'm willing to bet the resonant frequencies rattle your windows, and when you give it RPM you're probably pissing off the entire neighborhood at early morning hours.


Put a cat in the car, an additional resonator, or a less obnoxious exhaust on. Unfortunately these cars are absolutely terrible when you start pulling off resonators and cats and they're hard to make sound good to begin with. Living in close proximity to neighbors and leaving early in the morning..... dude's got a pretty solid point.

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by becausethexo

Another question is, how is my car still valid under warranty after having learned all of this? I've brought it in 3 times now.

If Canadian law is anything like US law, the dealer can only deny warranty service if the issue can be shown to have been caused by the modifications. If your battery cable corroded under warranty, they would have to fix it regardless of the exhaust you have. If your engine seizes and you are running a tune, you might not be able to get it fixed under warranty.

[gravitylover]

Running without a catalytic converter is just plain rude to the environment anyway. Anyone that was around in the 1960's and 70's should remember how bad the air would get in the urban areas around the northeast in both the summer and winter. I remember days that were so bad the visibility would be well under a mile and occasionally .5 miles. You could taste it. Sitting in a traffic jam was brutal on those stuffy summer days. Clean your car up, do the right thing.

[ermax]

Catless alone shouldn't make it loud at all. If you are waking neighbors you probably just have a kleak. Fix the leak and get a tune without the cold start. If you don't have cats you don't need a cold start anyways. You don't need to buy a OFT to get a tune without cold start. I'm sure you can find a member in your area willing to flash a tune for you.

Edit: Nevermind, I see there is more to this car than just being catless. Cold start delete will still make a BIG improvement and worth a try.

[Dadhawk]

@becausethexo as others have said, just get it "fixed". Yea, the guy was rude but it sounds like it wasn't without cause apparently. If your car sounds "like a rocket ship" its just too loud for street use, but I'm guessing you already knew that as I'm not sure how you wouldn't have noticed it when you were purchasing it.

As others have said, bringing the police in would most likely just you get you both visited, and get you the tickets @Tcoat outlined. Eventually you are going to end up having to fix it anyway, someone is going to complain to the police instead of you and you will get the tickets, or some officer will be sitting near you at a stoplight and ticket you.

I will fess up I just don't get the loud exhaust thing so I'm not the best judge. It serves no real purpose on the street except to say "look at me, I'm over here". I was behind a 2018 Mustang on the way to work today with fake Cobra stickers and what I'm pretty sure was close to straight pipes. It was loud, obnoxious and sounded like crap. An engine note needs to be tuned, and tuned does not mean loud it means tuned!

[ermax]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

An engine note needs to be tuned, and tuned does not mean loud it means tuned!

And sadly nothing can be done to Subaru engines to make them sound good. Hahaha

[atomicalex]

As a person who does own loud cars (but quiet motorcycles), just get it fixed. Please.

A quiet idle (even a nice lumpy one) is a wonderful thing. You can get on it once you are out of the hood. My wagon is the one that has to be managed. Nothing over about 2500 in residential areas.

[TommyW]

I know the situation well. If you don't fix the noise things WILL get ugly this I guarantee you and it's best to not let it get to that point.

[Trueweltall]

The problem isn't being catless, it's your muffler that sucks. I am running a stock catback on my car that doesn't have any cats(due to it being too loud in my neighborhood). It's quiet just like stock.

[BirdTRD]

Originally Posted by becausethexo

https://prnt.sc/mauqvr
https://prnt.sc/maur61


Anything?

Certainly not stock.
The quickest, cheapest and probably the most effective way to make an impact on the volume would be to slap an OEM catback back on it and see where that gets you.

[NV89]

CSG touring. I have HKS headers uncated, nameless downpipe no cat or res, and with the CSG touring it's quiet with plenty of breathing room for my HKS blower.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[Dr. BRZ]

Kill the cold start by immediately going into reverse for like 3 to 5 seconds and boom, you're welcome.

[mazeroni]

Personal take:

If you're starting your car between 10 pm and 8 am on a weekday, or midnight ~ 8 am on a weekend, you should be stock. A resonated catback may be okay, but I'd park it in a way that the sound is hitting a wall or in my case, a grassy hill.

I have a SF V1 resonated and I don't go out for breakfast until after 8 am on weekends because I don't want to disturb anyone. It isn't that loud, but it is an apartment complex and I don't want to be a bother.

So yea, your car is probably too loud in general and it sounds like it might be illegal, so fix it.

For now, can you take your GF's car? Can you uber? I wouldn't start the car anymore at night as it is right now.

[extrashaky]

Originally Posted by becausethexo

I don't know this much about cars.

You may have to just pay someone to fix it for you. With the mods you have, you likely have a tune installed, so you might benefit from going to a tuner shop to have the exhaust fixed and the car retuned, depending on what you end up having to do.

Originally Posted by becausethexo

As I'm writing this and hearing this very loud train pass me, I should also mention that yea, there's a train that goes by here every morning around 2-5am a few times as well. It's not the quiestest area during the day for car traffic, or night with the train. I feel like he's blaming other sounds
that perhaps isn't even me and thinking "it must be that guy down the street with his loud car" all the time.

Some sounds can be more annoying than others at the same volume because they are made up of different frequencies. Human hearing has evolved for certain frequencies to affect us in different ways. For example, the human brain has evolved so that the sounds of infants or women screaming instantly put our brains on alert even when mixed in with other sounds at the same level, since they may signal trouble for the tribe that requires the men in the village to prepare for trouble. We're also tuned to hear fire, cracks that may indicate something falling, even small sounds associated with prey, etc. We immediately become attentive and ready for action when we hear these alert noises.

Depending on how you have the car set up, it's probably starting with a disturbing blat that sets people's nerves on edge and tells their lizard brains that they're under attack or something horrible is happening. When a sound triggers your fight or flight response out of a deep sleep, the flood of adrenaline doesn't make for a pleasant awakening.

If the guy's kid is being awakened to the sound of danger, it's going to add its own danger alert wail to it, and you're also adding the danger sound of the windows rattling in even closer proximity. So this poor neighbor of yours is getting a massive shock out of sleep each night in fight or flight mode. In that situation I'd be surprised if the guy were not furious with you.

Originally Posted by becausethexo

Does this change the loud-ness when actually driving and hitting the road?

When the car first starts up, the computer gives it more fuel and air during warm up, resulting in a louder engine sound than during normal operation. Tuning out the cold start reduces that noise but doesn't affect it during operation once it's warmed up. Even so, it's still going to blat when you first crank it. I would be surprised if this completely fixes the problem with your neighbors.

Originally Posted by becausethexo

Another question is, how is my car still valid under warranty after having learned all of this? I've brought it in 3 times now.

One, part of the decision whether to warranty a repair is up to dealer discretion. The dealer wants you to come back and trade this car for another when you're done with this one, so they'll service it to keep you happy with them.

Two, if they know they sold you an illegal car, they wouldn't want to draw attention to that fact by refusing to service it.

Three, depending on the law in Canada, they probably can't deny warranty work if the modification didn't cause the problem.

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

I was behind a 2018 Mustang on the way to work today with fake Cobra stickers and what I'm pretty sure was close to straight pipes. It was loud, obnoxious and sounded like crap.

Yeah, but Ford engines sound like crap anyway. It's the sound of all the goats being raped simultaneously. Since goat screams are similar to human screams, goat rape Mustang engines tend to set the nerves on edge.