[Vincent Hill]

I saw a very good deal on the Magna Flow Exhaust for the Cooper "S" for $539.00 "Delivered"! I looked around to see how loud / Quiet it was but could not see anything that made me know it was loud and Buzzy inside so I bought it!


Nice Quality and eas Install then I fired it up! Sounded like the Asian Cars with the 4 inch Open Mufflers or like a loud motorcycle! Also between 2,700 and 3,300 the Buzz / Humm inside the car bothered me and my wife (Who owns and drives the car daily! We have an Older 911 Porsche with 2 into 2 muffler and sort of loud but a good sound and no Buzz inside and we both own Motorcycles so we are no Wussy to noise!

I called Magnaflow and they suggested we put in another Resonator The the car will have "4" Mufflers! I got the 2.5 inch tube 14 inch long muffler Body and 20 inch over all length. The Mid Pipe is 21.5 inches long so I cut about 7 inches off the tube and had it welded. I should have cut 1 inch off the Muffler tube then welded it to give me more room to move the Muffler around.

I installed this part and Immediately the car was better! Just a little louder than Stock when starting up (Like the Original Muffler that had started rusting out where the main tube inters the Right Muffler) and only when on the gas was it loud but not offensive. I take it for a test drive and not bad so far. We drive it to church and hear some Frequency noise between 2,600 and 3,300 (65 to 80 MPH) but not too bad. We then washed the car and heard a few scraps under the car and a few miles later the car is Loud as ever! I looked under the car and saw nothing wrong.

Sunday I take everything apart and find that to make sue I can get it apart I had Anti-Seize in the t main bolts that hold the system to the header and 1 Bolt had backed off and left the car! (The noise we heard on the road)

I also decided to Use Header wrap to really get rid of the last bit of inside noise and found that it did not help in noise but did seem to increase the Power.

Looking under the car, this part sits lower than I would like (We have yet to scrape anything) so I bought a 1.25 inch wide 26 inch long piece of Strap Steel and 4 large hose clamps. I am going to bend this piece of Strap so it will clamp to the tube in front and behind the Resonator and act like a Skid Plate. The Resonator is 4 inch Diameter which makes it 3/4 inch lower than the regular pipe!

With this modification $60 delivered for the Resonator and $15 to Weld it, I am NOW 100% happy with the LOOKS, SOUND and Performance of the Magna Flow exhaust system for my 2003 Cooper "S"! Not quite a Stock replacement but Liveable!