I’ll be honest: The Volkswagen GLI, being a high performance sport version of the Jetta, needs some work to live up to its name -as if you couldn’t tell by reading this website-. In my opinion, a sporty car is driven with all senses; from sight and smell to touch, everything about the car should reinforce its sporty nature. Therefore, it was only necessary and expected to make slight changes to the exhaust system to bring out a bit of aural goodness from the venerable yet oddly silent 2.0T FSI engine.
Upgrading the exhaust system on a car is not a decision that can be made in five minutes. Researching the available options alone takes quite a bit out of you considering how many there are. I decided to go with a cat-back exhaust versus a turbo-back exhaust particularly because at this point in time, I’m happy with APR’s Stage 1 programming and upgrading the down-pipe portion of the exhaust would require an upgrade to Stage 2 programming and substantially alter the vehicle emission system by replacing the catalytic converter built into that portion of the exhaust.
In short, a cat-back is good enough for my needs at this time. When shopping for an exhaust it was important to keep in mind that the stock diameter of the piping is 2.5″ and most aftermarket exhaust systems expand to 3″ in diameter. Hence, the choice was made to seek out a cat-back system that was truly “plug & play” and allowed installation without welding or modification to the stock down-pipe. After some consideration, I decided to go with Autotech Performance and their stainless steel exhaust system made by Magnaflow Performance Exhaust.
While the quality of the welds aren’t the best or prettiest (which were covered in black high heat paint anyway but more on that later), the exhaust’s performance does not disappoint at all. In fact, I can tell an ever so slight power gain (which Autotech supports) although debatable and could be entirely made up secondary to the much livelier sound produced by the new pipes.
The advantages of this system are that it can attach to the stock downpipe seamlessly as it already includes a reducer to 2.5″ at the down-pipe meeting point. Also, it’s non-resonated which means the sound is throaty and deep without being overly loud or obnoxious. A resonated exhaust would be only marginally louder than the stock exhaust setup which is also resonated and a non-resonated, non-muffled setup would likely sound entirely too loud for my tastes. This non-resonated, muffled setup includes a high flow Magnaflow muffler right before the two polished stainless steel tips, which exit out of the left hand side of the rear valence, just like the stock components. The tips are 4″ in diameter which do lend the rear a more sporty look than the smaller stock tips.
Upon inspection of the components however, I immediately noticed something that would bother me if I didn’t do something about it: The muffler had a high polish finish to it which would show slightly from behind and from the left rear angle. Realizing that the exhaust gets rather hot after even 20 minutes of use, I decided to coat the muffler in high heat grill paint to darken it out completely and thus ensuring it would blend in better with the rest of the car. I masked everything except the muffler itself and about 10″ of pipe towards the down-pipe. I also left the two 6″ or 7″ dual pipes leading to the tips exposed (the tips were masked). I then gave the muffler and exposed piping several coats of black high heat paint. The result was a cleaner look from the sides and rear as the muffler doesn’t show at all.
Installation was rather straight forward. Be warned that removal of the stock cat-back portion of the exhaust requires the left rear control arm is dropped (if salvaging the part is something that interests you) or the exhaust must literally be amputated off. Not a big loss in my book. The nut and clamp that holds both portions together should be tightened as tight as humanly possible to prevent the muffler’s weight from shifting it which results in crooked looking pipes.
Once it’s all said an done, however, fit is very, very good. Sound-wise, all I can say is: “mission accomplished”. Powering up the car immediately gives a nice sport-tuned sound. At higher revolutions, the exhaust doesn’t drone; it’s trhoaty and deep but not overly loud. Paired with DSG transmission, higher revolution shifting gives a rather satisfying gurgle that can be pretty addictive, so user beware.
Published under: Performance
