The sound actuator can be turned off via VCDS/OBDEleven, most people hate the sound it makes. The cupra 280's exhaust is very restricted from factory and I found my car to be quieter compared to my friend's R. Removing one; or both, silencers will help with the sound of the car considerably, or do it properly and replace the whole system.
+1 This
I've got an ST Cupra 280 DSG and recently removed the centre silencer. No drone whatsoever, not too much louder, proper DSG farts (without sounding daft) and it now crackles and pops on the overrun in S mode.
Has a proper rasp to it that actually isn't a million miles away from an A45.
Honestly couldn't recommend this enough for anyone wanting a more interesting sound without going down the non-res cat back route. Cheap as chips too.
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How much did this cost you and where did you get it done? If you don’t mind me asking as I’m from Manchester too.+1 This
I've got an ST Cupra 280 DSG and recently removed the centre silencer. No drone whatsoever, not too much louder, proper DSG farts (without sounding daft) and it now crackles and pops on the overrun in S mode.
Has a proper rasp to it that actually isn't a million miles away from an A45.
Honestly couldn't recommend this enough for anyone wanting a more interesting sound without going down the non-res cat back route. Cheap as chips too.
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Sorry for a silly question, but is the centre silencer the big one with the wonky pipe under the car?
That's frustratingTrouble with the ST is it has an extra silencer in compared to the 5 and 3 door 290s
Trouble with the ST is it has an extra silencer in compared to the 5 and 3 door 290s
It's the triangular one on the left of this picture, guess you could actually call it the front one but I've always heard to referred to as the mid or centre box.
Here you can see it removed:
These aren't my pictures, but I'm fairly sure they are from the ST. The 3 and 5 door models have a different setup I think. Basically if you do this to an ST Cupra 280 you end up with a 290, aurally at least
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This isn't the ST setup. It's the 280 SC & 5 door.
I'll take your word for it. Either way the rounded triangular section that was removed in the pictures was the section that was removed from mine. Kept hold of it in case I ever need to revert back to stock.
So if you have a Cupra ST 280 and want to give it a nice rasp, crackle on the overrun and have zero drone for less than £100, you know what to do
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That's sounds ideal! Will it affect mot/emissions stuff?
Would it do the same for the 280SC?
No the cats are still there and it's not actually that much louder so will pass emissions and noise regs.
I ran a non-resonated 3" cat-back on a MK6 GTI which was much louder and that passed MOT fine.
Long as you don't remove the cats you'll have no issues, unless you removed al silencers and then you might run into noise regs issues. It'd probably be unbearable as a daily driver though so wouldn't recommend that!
Far as doing it on a 280SC, I'm not sure as the setup/exhaust plan is different. I'd start by removing the rounded triangular section that's closest to the front of the car, seeing how that sounded first. It will definitely sound better than stock that's for sure!
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in the grand scheme of things a turbo charged 2 litre 4 pot is never going to sound great no matter what you do to it. I hate the speakers system in mine and it sounds daft but I can't be arsed to fiddle with it as its a lease car and my daily. the 5 cylinder in the Rs3 does make a much better noise and growl than the 4 pot.
give me a flat six and GT3 at 8200 rpm with sports boxes any day ;-)
I do love a screaming small block v8 like the m3 and the v10 in a lambo or audi r8 is just amazing.