Hi guys,
I've noticed that there has been a bit of interest regarding the exhausts/mufflers that TCP/tbear is selling so i thought I'd put this up to help people make their decisions.
I bought the exhaust about 8-9 months ago and have had it fitted since then. I bought it on the 'special' price TCP was offering as it was in the first run of the exhaust. I bought the full turbo back exhaust but sold the dump pipe as I already had a PHAT dump pipe.
Firstly, the good bits:
The quality is very good and the welds are excellent. All joints welded inside and out. It looks exactly as it does in the pictures in his threads. The tips look beautiful, it sounds great (it's not drony) and it bolted up quickly (catback - 30mins) and without fuss. Incase you wandering why the mufflers aren't shiny, its because I sprayed the whole exhaust except for the tips black. I got hassled enough by the pigs in my old car and I wanted to avoid that with this car.
Secondly, the not so good bits:
The passenger side muffler sat on the slightest of angles and even after about an hour of adjusting my mechanic and I couldn't get it sitting perfect. I'm not sure if this was just the case with my exhaust or if others had the same problem?
The tips are not suitable for wagons. I believe TCP has made the muffler tips longer than sedan STi tips but shorter than wagon STi tips so therefor its 'suitable' for both sedan and wagons. I would say its perfect for sedans but not so good for wagons.
To fix both of these problems I had in the muffler inlet pipe cut and rewelded at a slightly different angle so the muffler sat correctly and had all 4 tips chopped where they meet the muffler body and extended about 50mm. As it is now (see pics) it's still slightly shorter than wagon STi tips.
As the pics below show, the exhaust sits perfect and couldn't be happier. Sorry bout the average quality iphone photos
Cheers
Ryan