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Do Exhaust Tips Make Your Car Louder?

Do Exhaust Tips Make Your Car Louder?

Most car enthusiasts sometimes complain about not being satisfied with the sounds their vehicles make.

These enthusiasts are known to have developed deep connections with their automobiles.

They want everything about their cars to be perfect, which leads to modifications. This leads many vehicle owners to wonder whether or not exhaust tips will make their car louder.

Exhaust tips make your car or truck sound louder and deeper with minimal investment and a very small amount of time. They also improve overall engine performance and fuel efficiency for the vehicle, so if you want a louder vehicle, they are a win-win.

This article shall cover more on this topic, specifically focusing on exhaust tips and how an automobile can be made to sound louder.

Do exhaust tips change the sound of a car?

Exhaust tips, a known aftermarket upgrade, do change the sound of a car but only to a certain extent.

The exhaust system of your car works to remove reaction gases from the engine of the vehicle and out into the air.

Now, this is an exhaust system, the part of this system that is visible in the exterior of your automobile is called the ‘exhaust tip’. 

Now, technically, this exhaust tip is merely an upgrade for looks and how appealing it can make the car. 

The performance of the exhaust system is not dictated by it.

Even with this, it is a highly popular modification as it allows the user to attach tips that can cosmetically improve the appearance of the vehicle to what the owner desires.

Now the shape of this tip along with the pulsating pressure of the exhaust gas can alter the sound emitted by the automobile.

It can be considered similar to how the shape of musical instruments dictates different harmonies and notes emitted from that instrument.

Now, in comparison, when we look at the pulses from the exhaust of these large automobiles and their engine capacities, the pressure pulses are greater than what we observe in music. 

As a result of these changing frequencies and air volume, the size of the exhaust tip can cause a major effect on the sound.

The diameter and shape of this tip can make your car exhaust sound harsher and raspier, or throatier and fuller. 

This is a direct consequence of whether one buys larger or smaller tips or even double-walled muffler tips.

The options vary, and the outcomes differ accordingly.

Do bigger tips make the exhaust louder?

Now as we mentioned, the exhaust of an automobile doesn’t entirely depend on the tip but also relies heavily on the components in the overall system.

Now, when one is specifically talking about tips, size matters!

It is observed that increasing the length of the exhaust tip from between 5-7 inches (using bigger tips) can alter the exhaust note by a certain degree.

This is due to the prevalence of low-frequency waves, as in this unit the higher frequency ones will cancel each other out and allow the lower ones to escape thus creating a deeper sound. 

Tips that are bigger with larger lengths cause this deepening of the sound, whereas if the same pipe ends up with a higher diameter in terms of modification, especially if the diameter is larger than the original piping, then the automobile will sound louder.

It can be said that a pipe with a smaller diameter can somewhat restrict the engine due to a slow exhaust stream, ultimately decreasing the exhaust sound. 

However, as we discussed, a larger diameter makes the engine and the automobile louder especially if the original piping diameter was serving as a restrictor.

What makes your exhaust louder?

Automobiles are manufactured to have sounds that are within the allowed noise laws of the country the vehicle is supposed to be in, this makes the initial assembly regulations of the vehicle dampen the number of decibels that the car exhaust can make.

However, if an owner is still a big fan of a louder or rougher sound from his vehicle, then there are obvious modifications that can be made. 

One such modification would again dive into exhaust tips but focus on something called a ‘straight piping’.

In straight piping, all the inner components of the exhaust system are stripped away until there is just one straight pipe remaining.

This includes the removal of the catalytic converter, resonator, and sound muffler inside the system.

Another alternative would be to just replace the muffler with sound magnifying ones that are available in the market and add a different exhaust tip. 

Basically, jerry-rig your exhaust system. 

With larger or more exposed exhaust piping and tips, the volume of gases that are coming from the engine will leave more easily and efficiently.

There will be a deeper tone due to the increased pipe diameter, and more resonance leading to an aggressive sound.

Other modifications can be classified as ‘headers’, using ‘cat backs’, ‘holed exhaust’, or even using speakers to enhance the sound. 

These are generally more expensive modifications and are new setups that are implemented but do come with greater sound quality.

What makes your car sound louder?

As we just talked about, to make your car sound louder, everything depends on the exhaust system.

How you work it, how you change and modify it.

If you want a louder car or automobile, you just have to strip the exhaust kit down and use the components that you deem worthy for your vehicle.

Or just get a better engine with a higher capacity of exhaust production.

In summary, all of this can be done with the following methods:

·        Drilling holes in the car exhaust for a more resonant sound.

·        Adding Exhaust tips with different shapes and sizes for a variety of sounds.

·        Having bigger exhaust pipes.

·        Upgrading the engine of the car.

·        Installing different mufflers for variations of sound.

·        Not using rubber hangers but welded mounts.

Making Your Exhaust Louder By Modifying The Tips

In conclusion, this is how you can change the noise of your car to whatever you want it to sound like. 

Do be wary of state or country laws preventing this, as if a modification is too much it can get the owner in trouble.

A point to note in modern vehicles, such as electric cars or more aerodynamic automobiles is that they either do not have an exhaust kit or are made in such a way that such modifications cannot be made, so do take all of this into consideration before making a purchase.

But yes, be creative, there are various ways to make your vehicle sound better and we hope this article helped in covering that.

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Zach Reed

Hi, I'm the founder of VehicleAnswers.com! Having owned a wide variety of vehicles in my life, I was astounded at how hard it can be to find answers to common automotive questions. Rather than sit idly, I decided to create this website to help others!