I got a great price for my 18 JCW and picked up a 2022 recently. Love it but the experience is a bit different. Seems to ride more comfortably, steering is a touch lighter, shifts faster with more pronounced “farts” and the exhaust crackle and pop is missing! What do u think happened to my “pops” and how can I get them back!

 

They completely killed the pops and crackles which makes me sad. My 2017 F54 JCW sounded so good and my 2021 version sounds neutered. From what I understand it is due to European regulations around emissions and sound? Changing the exhaust won't help as it would take a tune and if I find one I will definitely get it.

 

Pardon my ignorance, but are pops and crackles the sign of engine/exhaust not working optimally?

https://carstopics.com/car-exhaust-cracks-and-pops/

Or perhaps unless they are artificially induced, in which case is it like https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magaz...nitor-28357269

I remembered when I was in college with a shoe string budget for car. Mine invariably would have plenty of cracks and pops. It was something I had to put up with until I it break and then the cycle start all over again until I graduated and got a job.

 

Pops and burbles are common in MINI cars.
Its one reason turbo lag is minimal.
Im not going to get into the details.
Read up on it.

Rivermac:

Does it not do it in Sport+?

 

Hahaha! Go to YouTube and search exhaust burble…. It’s all intentional theater and fun! Perfectly fine on modern cars.

 

ahhh…. Well less turbo lag is great but at the cost of my fruity exhaust? Makes me a bit sad….

 

My 2022 (U.S.) JCW Clubman All4 sounds very nice to me in Sport mode. Lots of great burbles and pops (whether artificially induced or not). I've programmed mine to start up Sport mode so I don't have to flip the switch. This is my first MINI. I don't know if the older ones were louder, but the loudness of the burbles, pops and crackles seems fine in Sport mode.

 

It is all a matter of perspective. The change in exhaust note from the pre-LCI is pretty significant in terms of the crackles and pops. If I had never driven the 2017 I would not complain as I wouldn't know what glorious notes that I was missing.

 

Was the sound due to burn off outside the engine? I didn't think that would be allowed under modern emission regulation.
In any case, if this sound has nothing to do with performance and more to do with audio feedback, maybe a viable solution is to generate it artificially. Then you can choose the exact sound level and tune you want to hear depending on the mood. And for people who don't want it, they can turn it off. Everyone wins.

 

Gas being $6 a gallon out here, I start mine in Econo mode.

 

yeah.. my 18 was a burbly crackle pop…. The 22, not so much. I can’t hear any exhaust theatrics. The artificial sound pumped into the interior is fine. The 22 does sound better on upshifts compared to the earlier cars. I hoping a future tune will bring back the exhaust character

 

That's true. It sounds good when accelerating and upshifting, but the downshifts ... not so much, and few burbles/pops when coasting after a downshift. My previous car was an M2; BMW did manage to include the nice burbles/pops in its exhaust sounds.

As to TVPostSound's comment about gas prices, he has a point about about using Green Mode. I'm very lucky in that it's a 5-minute walk for me to get to the train station and shopping district in my town, and I'm mostly working from home anyway, so gas is not a big part of my budget. I did use the Green mode on a trip to and from Washington, DC. It was amazing. I got almost twice the gas mileage.

 

That is amazing. What kind of gas mileage did you get using Green mode vs say Sports mode or Normal mode?

 

I wasn't scientific about it, so take this with a grain of salt. These are anecdotes. When I stopped for gas on the NJ Turnpike on the way to DC in Green mode, the range showed 450 miles; it's normally about 300. Driving home from Philadelphia last week, I switched to Green when I got on the highway. The miles-to-empty read 235. When I got home 65 miles and two hours later, having gotten stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic three times due to two accidents and then eventually rush hour traffic, the range now had dropped only 5 miles, to 230. That was crazy.