Review: Tanabe Medalion Touring for Protege5

[FunkyBuddha]

review:

install: 15 minutes

what it came with: 2 new bolts/screws, gasket, decal

first impressions: quiet in all rpm ranges! no droning. perfect fit. can barely hear it on the highway. sounds louder than stock, probably comparable to the racing beat cat-back for the protege5. Me love long time(hopefully).

I'll post pics in a bit

EDIT: This is an axle-back

 

[Tengo]

what did you have before? stock? i cant remember

 

[ghetto waggon]

Whats up with amibiguous install times?

Unless you've got a hydro lift and 2 assistants, I imagine it took you four times this, start to finish.

 

[mountjonas]

if it's an axleback, 15 min doesn't sound crazy.

 

[Shasta]

Waiting patiently for the pics...wanna see, I was considering the RB but from Tasty's post of it rattling against the car a bit I want one thats fits like a factory cat back. Could you possibly get a sound clip?

 

[Kansei]

Waiting patiently for the pics...wanna see, I was considering the RB but from Tasty's post of it rattling against the car a bit I want one thats fits like a factory cat back. Could you possibly get a sound clip?

There's like a billion people with the Racing Beat with no problem.. I bet it wasn't installed properly, it is three pieces, things can easily get misaligned.

I love mine

*subbin for pics of this tanabe exhaust*

 

[SlowPro98]

Whats up with amibiguous install times?

Unless you've got a hydro lift and 2 assistants, I imagine it took you four times this, start to finish.

Dude, and axle back only has 2 bolts. The only way it could be longer than 15 is if your bolts are rusted... or heavy drinking was involved.

 

[Shasta]

There's like a billion people with the Racing Beat with no problem.. I bet it wasn't installed properly, it is three pieces, things can easily get misaligned.

I love mine

*subbin for pics of this tanabe exhaust*

Good to know, thank you.

 

[magnumP5]

Yes pics and exhaust diameter?

 

[Shasta]

Here are some pics from the Tanabe site.

pipe

They have sound clips there too but none on a Mazda. Really nice and quiet. Pipe diameter is 50mm and tip is 100mm. I'm taking those specs from the site.

 

[JCell]

damn, that looks pretty good

 

[Tasty]

There's like a billion people with the Racing Beat with no problem.. I bet it wasn't installed properly, it is three pieces, things can easily get misaligned.

I love mine

*subbin for pics of this tanabe exhaust*

There's really no way to misalign things on the RB system. It has two bolts at each joint and there's really no screwing that up. There are other people that have said it rattles against their car so it's not just me.

HOWEVER, I think I have fixed the problem. Getting the Kartboy hangers on required a little bit of lithium grease to aid in popping them onto the stock mounts. When I was done I went back and wiped the excess grease off, but you can never really get it all. Anyway, I got some very small hose clamps, centered up the exhaust, and now I don't have any problems. The way the exhaust is bent there is a pretty close clearance tolerance above the rear axle. When the system slid to the right on the hangers it was just enough to come into contact with the part of the car body that angled down to the right just near that area. I've driven for a day now with no problems, and you can't see the hose clamps at all.

 

[carter1551]

forgive me for my limited knowledge but I thought that was a catback system, why are people saying its an axleback?looks nice, a little cheaper than racingbeat too, Im gonna be in the market soon, would you reccomend this over racing beat catback exhaust? Does the noise pick up when you step on it? Thats all I really want from an exhaust, is a nice deep noise when I step on it but when Im cruising I dont want to be able to notice its there, and of course the hp gain

 

[Tengo]

forgive me for my limited knowledge but I thought that was a catback system, why are people saying its an axleback?looks nice, a little cheaper than racingbeat too, Im gonna be in the market soon, would you reccomend this over racing beat catback exhaust? Does the noise pick up when you step on it? Thats all I really want from an exhaust, is a nice deep noise when I step on it but when Im cruising I dont want to be able to notice its there, and of course the hp gain

the tanabe is a axle back, racing beat is a cat back, axle back is only the portion of piping that the muffler is attached to, axleback is third and last pipe on the exhaust system, it starts under the rear axle and goes to the muffler

 

[FunkyBuddha]

It's an axle-back guys. I've put another 150km on it already and it hasn't gotten louder. Looks exactly like the one on that yellow p5.

You guys still want me to post pics?


PS: I had the Mazdaspeed axle-back from the dealer before I bought the Tanabe.

 

[FunkyBuddha]

Whats up with amibiguous install times?

Unless you've got a hydro lift and 2 assistants, I imagine it took you four times this, start to finish.

axle-back...15 minutes. 2 bolts and 2 hangers

 

[Tengo]

sound clips?

 

[FunkyBuddha]

None as of yet. I'll try to post some this week...unloaded and loaded

 

[Tengo]

cool thanks. so your going to sell the other axleback u had

 

[carter1551]

does a catback system getbetter gains than an axleback?