It is a great deal, I'm is holding up great. I would not buy any other TBE. I think you are just paying for a name with the name brand TBE. But this exhaust is every loud, I set off car alarms all of the time... :-)

 

pr3z great pics and nice video! Glad to see it worked out for you Mine is still holding up well however:


recently started rattling on something. It only rattles when the car is idling and I can get it to stop ratting if I rev the engine a little bit. Not sure whats causing this rattle, and its hard to duplicate it on the lift. It seems to be coming from directly underneath the center console.

I dont see any rubbing anywhere and its a very firm install, really hard to believe that the engine gets lopy enough to oscillate this thing till it hits somewhere. But that I suppose is the only solution left. It's not a big deal, rarely does it and I just rev the motor a little. I will figure out whats going on when I have more free time.

 

You know what mine did the same thing today on the interstate. I haven't had time to look at it as I am right now 400 miles from home but right around 65 mph it would rattle. Only did it when I got into the throttle a bit. At crusing speed of 80-85 it was fine. I'm ganna have to put mine back up in the air and see if I can shake the **** out of it to recreate the issues as well. But just like you sound slike right under the center console.

 

There are two small bolts by the midpipe. These hold up a small drive shaft
shield. The lower one was hitting my midpipe, so I chopped it off w/ dremel. Rattle gone, I'm sure that is your problem too. I think this shield is unique to IX.

 

Yeah I think you're talking about the same thing that I noticed. I tried to just hammer it back, bending the shield so that it wouldn't touch. I dont think it worked.

btw pr3z, mine does not rattle at all above 800 rpm. Only at idle it sometimes rattles. It's interesting though, we probably have the same rattle but mine only becomes apparent when the engine is lopy at lower rpm's.

 

I appreciate the time you've taken to test & post your feedback on these parts. I don't doubt that they are effective, durable, and an all around excellent value.

HOWEVER...

To say that there is no reason to choose another exhaust does cross a line, in my opinion. While you may feel that your eBay TBE sounds & performs better than any other exhaust out there, well, you're going to find quite a few people disagree.

As far as performance is concerned, I've yet to see a true dyno test comparing an eBay TBE with a name-brand, but I'm willing to bet that SOME, if not MOST name-brand exhausts will outperform an eBay TBE.

Sound is completely subjective, so what one man likes to hear, another will hate to hear. I have a friend who has this eBay TBE, and I think it sounds fine... My Helix v2 TBE is on its way, and when it shows up, I'll post a nice review thread and share my experience.

 

The helix catback and the xspower catback seem to have identical canisters, and I wouldnt be suprised if they had a similiar sound.

The extra performance gained by the greddy ti, amuse, etc., maybe a few hp but at the cost of additional noise and considerable more money (almost 1k), is not worth it.

The money spent on a greddy ti can be used to puschase a complete TBE exhaust and ecu reflash, but if you have the bling and want to do it, then do it, but it not going to be for the .01341 hp gained.

 

First of all, I never said that there is no reason to choose another exhaust so I don't really think I've crossed any line. I may have said "I dont see why you would choose any other exhaust" but certainly there are reasons which I just dont agree with (for instance: JDM factor).

To say that this exhaust makes less power than any other exhaust would be just as ignorant as me saying that it makes more power than other exhausts. The fact is until someone does a baseline dyno, and then an XS Power TBE dyno - we'll never know.

But I look at it this way, and I challenge you to also: Could this exhaust honestly make that much less HP than the name brand exhausts? There is so very little R&D required with an exhaust, as well as very little working parts its just difficult to imagine that anyone with any kind of inteligence could really argue that name brand exhausts will out power this exhaust by any noticable ammount.

3 inches of piping isn't exactly rocket science. Quality of build is something that takes skill, but as far as making a straight piece of tubing goes - this exhaust is just as straight as the others. Your opinion is your opinion and I cant argue things people dont want to hear in the first place.

imo this was well worth the money.

 

IDK, I remember a Panic thread AMS posted about the ebay knockoff's that actually ripped off the AMS FMIC. The posted that they did NOT work and were 100% inferior in every way an dto NOT buy them because they were bing ripped off.


Do you think that was BULL or do you think the ebay FMIC is crap?

 

As far as the whole "3 inches is 3 inches" argument is concerned... if that was the case, then there would be no point in dynoing different exausts/downpipes/etc.

The fact is, if you pick up any tuner mag or read any online article in which turboback or even just downpipes are compared for PERFORMANCE... the difference can be 15+whp and, perhaps more importantly, 15+lb-ft torque. That's enough to say one is "better performing" than the other.

As a matter of fact, I've got a copy of TPR magazine next to me... STI downpipe article... the lowest whp gain of all the downpipes reviews was +12whp, the highest was +22whp. The lowest torque gain was +6.1, the highest was +15.9

Combine those numbers with numbers that a proper tune could yield, and you've got serious differences between "just 3 inches of tubing".

 

so lets see if some of the big names do a side by side...specs and numbers test on it........why not its only $240+? i wanna see that!

 

I have this exhaust at our shop right now, I bought one from Ebay. Planning on testing it. I'd be a fool to endorse it so don't expect me too. One thing I can tell you is it is HEAVY compared to ours, but then again ours is the lightest. It does look good, it shiney, big deal in 100 miles it will be covered in the same road grime as any other, it doesn't fit with the ACD.

Also, if you think it takes no work to make a 3" exhaust work you are highly mistaken. We've been through atleast 4-5 muffler changes to find one that keeps working better and provides sufficient muffling.

 

BTW, I also have two of the Ebay intercoolers there for testing. So far all I can say is they don't leak when you pressure test them.

 

Sweet we will have some conclusive knowledge soon. Dave do you recall the weight of the box all of that ebay exhaust came in? I just shipped my entire modified BR exhaust to someone and including the box and all packing materials it weighed 55lbs. This was DP, TP, midpipe, and Magnaflow street muffler.

If you sold ebay intercoolers you would not be any different than RNR. Please doin't go Ebay on these things. You have one of the best products as far as FMIC's are concerned in the market.