[FirstTimeCaddy]

I was wanting to bump up the performance on my 96 STS for a month or so now but I didn't want it sounding like a Z28. So I came up with a decent sulution. I just did a K&N filter on the stock intake tube...nothing fansy (and it sounds great on a high compression V8 :bonkers: ) and a custom exhaust. It is a 3" cat back, with a 24" long turbo tube/glass pack muffler in the middle, then a 3"-2.5" Y with 2.5" piping to 2 dynomax super turbo performance mufflers and used the stock tips. It sounds GREAT. It is very melow. I have heard STS's with the Borla kit, and they are pretty loud IMO. It idles with an authoritative LOW murmer and cruises just the same, just a little routier than stock, but when you stomp on it, it sounds fantastic. It has that VW/Audi V6 sound but much deeper and louder. Sounds great. On the perfromance side, it feels noticable better on the highway, but low speen acceleration feels about the same as it is a big ass car...haha. I just found out another cool thing, i just manually shifted the car for the first time the other day and i do not know if it would do it stock, but when shifting from 1st to 2nd manually, it barks very hard with a nice chirp of the tires. Another thing i noticed, is how much play is there normally in the differential. I have blown out a few on my honda, and they start to "lash" at heavy throttle tip in, and my STS, if you are cruising and dont ease into the gas and just kinda step into it, you can hear a little bit of lash in the diff. I am not sure if this is normal, but STS trannies are rediculiously expensive....

Brett

 

[jonrodman]

I was wanting to bump up the performance on my 96 STS for a month or so now but I didn't want it sounding like a Z28. So I came up with a decent sulution. I just did a K&N filter on the stock intake tube...nothing fansy (and it sounds great on a high compression V8 :bonkers: ) and a custom exhaust. It is a 3" cat back, with a 24" long turbo tube/glass pack muffler in the middle, then a 3"-2.5" Y with 2.5" piping to 2 dynomax super turbo performance mufflers and used the stock tips. It sounds GREAT. It is very melow. I have heard STS's with the Borla kit, and they are pretty loud IMO. It idles with an authoritative LOW murmer and cruises just the same, just a little routier than stock, but when you stomp on it, it sounds fantastic. It has that VW/Audi V6 sound but much deeper and louder. Sounds great. On the perfromance side, it feels noticable better on the highway, but low speen acceleration feels about the same as it is a big ass car...haha. I just found out another cool thing, i just manually shifted the car for the first time the other day and i do not know if it would do it stock, but when shifting from 1st to 2nd manually, it barks very hard with a nice chirp of the tires. Another thing i noticed, is how much play is there normally in the differential. I have blown out a few on my honda, and they start to "lash" at heavy throttle tip in, and my STS, if you are cruising and dont ease into the gas and just kinda step into it, you can hear a little bit of lash in the diff. I am not sure if this is normal, but STS trannies are rediculiously expensive....

Brett

Hi Brett,
I think my 96 STS is all stock and it usually squawks the tires pretty well between 1-2. It is surprising but it shifts right around 6800 rpm. I love that.

Maybe that "lash" is smething else. Could it be a defecting motor mount, or torque arm? Could a CV joint, or ball joint, or suspension bushing be worn? Hopefully that noise is coming from somewhere other than the the transmission. Mine does not have any noise like you are describing. I had an old truck with loose u-joints that clunked into gear, but not on the STS.