okay i have seen a lot of controversy and heard a lot of different opinions and honestly i don't know anything about exhaust systems myself so..

i have 2.0 RD1 with the stock exhaust, whenever you floor it or drive hard it always smells...i cannot describe the smell, but it's there.
so if i were to upgrade my exhaust, what is a good system to look at for overall PERFORMANCE, i do not care about tone much ?
would that even fix this? although id like to upgrade anyway
thanks

 

Usually when a catalytic converter dies, it stinks, but maybe thats just me? Is the car running more differently than normal? If so it might be running rich but doubtful.. Any smoke out of the tailpipe? If not its probably a bad cat..

 

You get that too? From day one my car has come down with a funky metallic smell whenever I keep it at WOT through a couple of gears... never been able to figure out exactly what it was... sometimes it smells like burning metal.. other times melting plastic.. either way, it is enough to keep you from going all out.

 

it's definitely smells bad, and it is impossible to tell what it smells like because it's not strong.
on one occasion i saw smoke coming from the tail when i was done and had shut the car off, that was after a pretty hard run, i've never looked any other time so maybe so?

mad i wish we could figure it out! lol but it sounds like yours is a bit worse than mine...mine smells, i can't describe it but it is not strong but it's definitely coming from the car and probably shouldn't be!

 

If your car is under warranty, take it to the dealer and ask them. Let them know about that the smell. It won't hurt--that is if you TRUST your dealer. Changing your exhaust will not fix your problem (unless your thinking of changing the cat IF your problem is the cat) but it is a good upgrade to have. Everyone and their mother recommends MBPR. I hope this helps

 

It's your cat, but from what you describe, you should be fine

If you're dumping fuel, by jamming on the gas, the cat can't keep up with what you're feeding into it, so the smell is basically unburnt fuel, passing through the cat.

Any smoke, what color was the smoke?

 

grey, black..? i didn't look too closely.
so if i were to replace my cat which one should I get to improve performance, links anyone to a good exhaust system with a cat
thanks

 

Grey/Black smoke generally means real rich..

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (iamcyclopseatme)</div><div class='quotemain'>Grey/Black smoke generally means real rich..</div>

WHICH IS FROM JAMMING ON THE GAS!!!
Oy, listen people
:roll:

 

I used to have something similar to that happen to me.

Turns out my exhaust manifold was cracked, and my flex pipe had holes in it. Might wanna check those two components.