Stock resonator

[seth]

Has anyone removed the stock resonator and just put in regular piping?
I have this issue with the heatsheild that is above the resonator.
I installed a twm short shifter and now It hits the shifter. so the logical thing is to bend the heatshield down. unfortunatly that makes the shield hit the resonator on bumps etc.

so if anyone has removed it how does it sound?

 

[blackp5ca]

Just remove your heat shield..I've had mine off for over a year..no problems.

 

[Kansei]

Has anyone removed the stock resonator and just put in regular piping?
I have this issue with the heatsheild that is above the resonator.
I installed a twm short shifter and now It hits the shifter. so the logical thing is to bend the heatshield down. unfortunatly that makes the shield hit the resonator on bumps etc.

so if anyone has removed it how does it sound?

here's what I did. Unbolt the heat shield, bend the crap out of it so that you can rotate it around the resonator (i thought that was a cat, no) then cut out an areamaybe like 6 inches by 6 inches to give the shifter room to move. then put the heat shield back and bend it as far away from the resonator (cat?) and bolt it back up. TWM really needs to do something about the setup they sell. The spacers definitely don't do it at all, maybe it was designed for the 2002 not the 2002.5-up. I heard somewhere that that resonator/cat/whatever it is is in a different place or something on them.

 

[Sir Nuke]

When I put in my catback exhaust, of course it eliminates the resonator, thus I removed the heat shield....

Personally....If I still had the resonator installed, I would NOT just remove the heat shield...its there for a purpose. HOWEVER, what I would do it to remove the heatshield...and using tin snips, trim the area where the shifter hits it out...and reinstall it.

I think you will find its not just a problem with TWM....EVERY short throw shifter I know of for our cars will hit the heat shield if its not modified or removed.

 

[Kansei]

When I put in my catback exhaust, of course it eliminates the resonator, thus I removed the heat shield....

Personally....If I still had the resonator installed, I would NOT just remove the heat shield...its there for a purpose. HOWEVER, what I would do it to remove the heatshield...and using tin snips, trim the area where the shifter hits it out...and reinstall it.

I think you will find its not just a problem with TWM....EVERY short throw shifter I know of for our cars will hit the heat shield if its not modified or removed.

exactly what i did. yeah makes sense, it's just mazda's fault for putting a resonator right there, they should have known people would want to remove the truck-like shifting. TWM and other manufacturers release spacers so that people don't think they have to take snips to their car to get the shifter installed.

I still think kartboy exhaust hangers would fix this by not allowing the exhaust system to shake so much, but I heard it raises the exhaust and I don't want my mazdaspeed melting my bumper (already has scuffs from where it must have hit bumper)

 

[seth]

question still lies. what does it sound like without resonator?

 

[AlbinoMuntjac]

question still lies. what does it sound like without resonator?

s***. You have a small displacement 4 cylinder engine. You're going to think you're riding around in a lawn mower.

 

[seth]

that makes little sense. seeing as my friend with a mega flow muffler has no rumble to his civic when he has the resonator in but when he takes it out it has a nice low grunty sound.

so really I don't see where you would get the sound of a lawn mower. being as the protege 5 has 2 L of displacement.
If my lawn mower had that displacement I would be worried to use it.

 

[AlbinoMuntjac]

that makes little sense. seeing as my friend with a mega flow muffler has no rumble to his civic when he has the resonator in but when he takes it out it has a nice low grunty sound.

so really I don't see where you would get the sound of a lawn mower. being as the protege 5 has 2 L of displacement.
If my lawn mower had that displacement I would be worried to use it.

Are you talking about an actual resonator or a baffle that goes in the exhaust tip?? Trust me, there have been more than a few people on this board that have thought taking the resonator off would free up HP and make it sound better but the opposite is true. Try searching, I'm sure you'll find many a post that will agree with me.