I find the stock exhaust system to be extremely quiet and wanted something to hold me over until I've got enough pennies saved for one of the (very expensive) aftermarket systems out there. The exhaust valves in the V8 are open by default when there isn't any voltage applied.

The system sounds very mild even in dynamic mode--quiet enough that I never want valves to be closed. From what I understand, the valves don't open until 2k+ RPM which I rarely hit around town with the amount of torque and short gearing on the 8 speed trans. I unplugged the valves a while back as a test and that gave me some sound back but still at an acceptable volume to be a good neighbor (I live in a townhome). I'm not sure if this throws any DTCs or shadow codes, but the check engine light never illuminated and that is good enough for me.

However, being that the actuators are quite expensive and not wanting to void any kind of warranty, I needed a secure way to seal up connector / port on the actuator to prevent liquid/debris intrusion in case I ever want to hook them back up. They're located in a spot that I would consider high risk for that type of damage, being right behind the rear axle.

I looked up the part number of the connector on the harness side and found the corresponding TE connector. There are tons of Chinese knockoffs out there that are more than sufficient for the purpose of keeping debris and liquid out of the connectors.

Here are the parts you'll need to basically create blanks for the male and female sides of the connections:
2x male, 2x female: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/32568...yAdapt=glo2usa
1 set of 20: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/32568...yAdapt=glo2usa

You'll have all your parts for less than $20 shipped. It took about 2 weeks for everything to show up.

Once you get the parts in, you'll need to trim the length of the blanking plugs to fit in these connectors. Push the gray grommets partially in, and push the blanks into the grommets. Repeat 6x. The male connectors have two parts -- they click together to form a single connector. Click them onto the corresponding parts on the car and then zip tie the harness out of the way. You may want to use some thermal or foil tape on the wiring as there is a small heat shield sheath at the connector from the factory, being adjacent to the exhaust.

I consider this to be the "right way" to do this mod as it is completely reversible and doesn't compromise the wading capability of the vehicle by maintaining water tight electrical connections.

I also have some parts on the way to do the same thing for deleting the side running lights on the arches. I ordered some non-NAS arches that do not have the lights and will be using a blanking plug on those connectors as well.

Here are the assembled bits:





Side note: I was editing my CCF yesterday and found a setting for "Active Exhaust Button." Which makes me think the logic is present in the software to be able to manually toggle the valves (at least to dynamic mode logic where it opens up earlier than in comfort/other modes). Several RR models have this button -- wonder if it's something that can be retrofitted (probably not without some kind of CAN module)!

 

Great write up and mod. Thank you.

 

Wow. This is extremely impressive work.

 

Surprised this isn’t something that can be activated or unlocked. Do the valves stay open at all times in dynamic mode or no?

 

Snaps . I did the same modification on the lower active radiator flap connector on my Defender, which I removed to install a bullbar and winch. Rather than leaving the empty connector hanging there, used the other half with blanks in it as you did. I was able to hunt down the exact connector from Mouser (?) and then the little waterproof blanking grommets in each of the unused terminals. Pretty cool.

 

They are not always open in Dynamic. The valves stay closed off idle to about 2k RPM. It’s the same deal with most European cars due to noise regulations.

If you want to retain control but still have the option for always open, this is the option I would use:

It uses a double-tap of the DSC button to open the valves, so no additional remotes, apps/Bluetooth tethering, or switches required.

https://europrice.us/controller-package-land-rover-defender-exhaust-valve

Would be cool to have something available to toggle in the CCF, but I doubt the logic is present for fully open all the time.

 

Thanks for sharing!....I have a V8 on order and very interested in doing the same.

Is it possible to share some pictures of these connectors installed?

 

Will do once I have the car back from the dealer. In for a warranty repair currently. I might even make a video to compare the exhaust notes!

 

Thanks and the video compare would be great

 

Here are the install photos. I zip tied the loose connector back on itself.



Driving impressions… there’s more of a low end rumble all the time now at cruise which was welcome. The engine note now builds from idle all the way to redline which is nice.

I felt like I couldn’t hear what the engine was doing before when cruising around town — sometimes that would result in more throttle application than needed resulting in some jerky driving.