Hi all,

Can you guys help me answer the following?

My Mrs has just bought an 05 Cooper which has been fitted with aftermarket exhaust which runs down the centre of the car with a single silencer box. The car also has the Cooper S centre exit bumper fitted so the exhaust comes straight out the middle of the bumper nice and neat.

Obviously being a girl she doesn't want the loud exhaust so I want to put it back to standard but can't put a cooper exhaust on as the bumper exit is in the centre and not to the right - is there any reason why I can't put a Cooper S exhaust on there which will line up right in the bumper?

I've briefly looked underneath and it looks like the S exhaust will fit fine but I didn't look at the exhaust hangers - does anyone know if this is possible?

We don't have the car currently so I can't look at it again till we pick it up.

I don't want to have to change the bumper too so if the standard S exhaust would go on that would be perfect.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Hi there you can fit an s exhaust but you will need hangers bolting or welding in place on the passenger side as a cooper doesnt have any. if you do this then the s exhaust will fit. Be aware the direction of the hangers on the rear boxes changed around 2004 so you will nedd to find the right one to suit the hangers already on the car.

Anybody know if the hangers bolt on? If so I could get genuine ones and simply bolt them on.

They need to be welded on. you also need the heat sheild for that side. what colour is ther car by the way? if its a standard cooper s rear bumper then you can just get a standard cooper exhaust and change the rear plastic vallance to the cooper one so the hole is then on the right side and you dnt need to change the whole bumper.

The car is light metallic blue. I've looked at a photo and it looks like the cut-out for the exhaust encroaches into the bumper moulding. It does have a black trim around the bottom too but the blue bumper is moulded around the tailpipe. The bumper has the 2 vents and a centre foglight if that helps....

it must be an aerokit bumper then and you will need a new one or weld the exhaust hangers in place. where are you located?

This is the bumper

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa247/chadvandonkey/DSC04438.jpg

Located near Chesterfield S41 postcode.

It's not a great problem to get the hangers sorted. I might see if I can buy them and get them bolted or welded in place. Heatsheild is not a major either.

The lower part of that bumper is interchangable with a cooper, just go to a scrap yard and get the cooper plastic bit and change it then put a cooper exhaust on and sell that cooper s one and you will most likly get more money back if you do it that way.

This is a bit better pic.

Looks like the blue bumper moulds around the tailpipe to me......

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa247/chadvandonkey/1.jpg

none of the blue does the black bit does which is changeable.

I understand what you mean but isn't it obvious that the bumper is cut-out up and over the exhaust???

Am I missing something?

The blue part of the rear bumper and the black part of the rear bumper near the exhaust are seperate they unclip or unscrew.

Take the black plastic part of the bumper off (this is the part that is moulded round the exhaust) fit a cooper exhaust and fit a black plastic part of a cooper also that has the cut out on the right hand side of the car.

None of the rear bumper (blue part) is moulded round the exhaust only the black plastic part is.

The blue bumper is straight from left to right on the car where it meets the black plastic part so its not moulded round.

Scottyboy is correct the black plastic trims are removable and can be changed for cooper trims although they are slightly different and you would need to use the side trims aswell as the lower one. they all just pop off but you need the bumper off to do it. much easier than welding brackets on etc i have done this job both ways and this is far easier.

why not just take the car to a custom exhaust builder and ask for a quiet stainless system? it would be a fairly cheap job and you could still get a nice subtle tone out of it aswell.

To be honest though the swapping of the black plastic section is dead easy as well. but then you lose the centre exit which is a nice feature imo.

where abouts are you based?

Ok cool. It did look like the actual blue bumper was cut-out up and over the exhaust but if it's just the trim then that's great. We should get the car tomoz so I'll know for sure then.

We could have a custom pipe made yeah but we're talking a girl driver here who likes a nice and quiet car hence the plan to put the a standard pipe back on. It's just too loud at the mo - even to me a hardened "car modder".

Fitting a "S" pipe would have been perfect but I'm not messing with welding or anything like that.

Just while I think about it and I realise this is the wrong section but do the outside edges of the front tyres really scuff off bad? The outer edges have 25-30mm of baldness and the dealer reckons this is normal for a Mini. Sounds like a bum steer to me - 1.6mm over centre 3/4 width.

You would be surprised how quiet a custom system can be made up. i bet your system at the moment has no middle box after the cat. it probably goes straight through to a very minimally packed backbox.
Not sure where you are based but MIJ performance in Walsall are absolutely brilliant. they did a top notch job on my old lupo gti that was no louder than standard just with a nicer tone.

Thanks for your help guys. We've got the car and your all dead right it's just the black trim I need to replace to put a standard right side exit cooper pipe on there.

I now need to find the lower cooper bumper trim either new or second hand (plus I believe the rear arches too - is this 100% confirmed?) does anyone know where to get these? I've trawled the net to no avail so any help would be appreciated.

If you go on ebay and type in mini cooper breaking, there are lots of people who are currently breaking cars for bits. You could probably get both the bumper trim and exhaust off the same car.