help needed!!! anyone with a 3 year old car or older

[aid]

ok so looking at getting the gtt re route pipe and i have spoke to my dealer and they are fine with the idea but have made it clear that if i do alter the system the warranty on the exhust will be void (to be expected) this means that if the exhaust needed replaced it would be up to me rather than mini within the first 3 years

so my question

for all those MCS that are 3 years old or older what condition is your exhaust in and have you ever had to have it replaced??????????

[ALD0]

Mine is 2 and a half years old and touch wood still going strong, when time comes to need replacing will probably go aftermarket, although there are always stock exhausts going on Ebay from when people have gone aftermarket, I went aftermaket on my prev S and just left the exhaust with MINI Sport I think it was, probably could of got 50 quid for it too!

[Jonesy]

No, mine is the original. I will likely do the same as ALD0 and get a Miltek or something similar if mine goes on the blink. Will likely replace in the next 2 years if it does not wear out anyway.

However, I need a few more payrises before I can start modding!

[Richard Crofts]

Mine had the baffles in the back box go pear shaped and start rattling about after about 35k (3 years) Sorted by fitting a Milly

[Adrian_T]

My Cooper had a shattered Cat and blown baffles at about 2.5 years

[sef]

Mine was very rusty but okay... Just changed it for a Borla tho...

[aid]

so the general ruling is that bmw put a warranty on this because they think its of a good quality and wont need replacing and from your posts that sounds about right

woohoo a wee call to gtt i think

[Richard Crofts]

I believe the exhaust its self is usually ok for a couple of years 3 or so is probably right...the main issue i believe is actually the hanger brackets etc...lots of folks seem to have had issues with those being rusted to the last little thread of metal almost about to fall off when they have changed there exhausts ...these seem to go fast...some in less than 12 months!

[aid]

nasty although i cant imagine they cost too much so its a calculated risk im willing to take

[Mini-Trainer]

4 years after ownership I had to changed my Cat pipe, It had rusted away at the knuckle joint, totally useless.

I would always advise the Milltek back box as it gives just the right amount of noise without giving you or pedstrains headache!

Mods are always best left subtle until the warranty runs out completley, after 3 years I guess yours has now, unless you went for the 650 pound package of extending it for another year.
But remember that still comes with an excess to pay if something goes wrong.

I don't know about the GTT pipe to comment on it's noise level, but I've heard a DE-Cat pipe of some sort on one Mini, It sounded awfull it was just like it had broken off from the cylinder head.
Couldn't imagine driving something sooooo loud.
Milltek would always be my recomendation, simply beacause they work with BMW's original cat.

Ps For Gods sake, don't tell Mini what your doing next time!!!

Rams

[MINImeat]

4-1/2-year-old, 40K miles MCS and I just fitted the GTT re-route pipe.
My exhaust looked very good.
I try very hard not to make short runs that don't burn off the condensation in the system and cause rust.
I used Liquid Wrench on all nuts/bolts and didn't have any trouble.
The sound is wonderful and not too loud at all.
The re-route pipe always sounded like a very sensible solution to me...

[aid]

rams the guys at my local mini stealers are very good the service guys are always happy to answer any questions and they are really quite open to modification im putting a alta v2 15% pulley on as well and they said "just supply us with the right belt and we will service it as normal under tlc"

there was a ze-max cooper s in when i was over and they said they were still doing it under tlc they just charge mini the cost of the standard service

[lespurgeon]

3 years and in a salt air environment, but low miles. Not a single problem.

[Mat-CooperS]

I've got an 03 MCS, bought in Oct 06. By december 06 there was a rattle coming from the exhaust when pulling away so I took it back to Mini. They found that the baffles in the o/s rear box had completely gone, initially they werent going to cover this under warranty so I looked at alternatives. I was drawn towards the milltek because of the reviews on here but then found the re-route pipe, which does away with o/s box anyway so I was going to get that. It was then that BMW decided to fix the problem under warranty.

My car has just been in for its last service under TLC, again there was some rattling from the exhaust so they had a look at it, it seems one of the brackets had snapped, replaced under warranty but there still seems to be some noise from it.

Personally for the cost of it I'd go for the re reoute pipe, then if the exhaust does go in the future you could always look to something aftermarket.

[Cooper Man]

The baffles broke apart in one of the back boxes at about 2.5 years - replaced under warranty. Same thing happened again about 6 months ago (car is now 4 years old) so I bought a Blueflame system!