Stainless or Genuine Exhaust?
My exhaust is finally starting to go home, adter numerous repairs to the mounts , the silencer in the middle is blowing as it is the original all bolts totally corroded etc , did replace the downpipe a couple of years ago so only need the other threee sections! Has anyone had a BAD experience of a stainless exhaust on a 463? Noisy, Vibrations etc. My mechanic mate reckons the original will be far superior but I am not convinced. Also the quotes for stainless seem to vary by £300.
I've had stainless on my 460 and found it a bit noisy but more importantly the joints don't oxidise together and rattle loose every now and then - I'd go original but it is expensive.
Stainless for me, www.longlife.co.uk, Bristol,Cardiff, Leeds, Basingstoke, London x 2, Plymouth and Swansea, very reasonable with me
In my experience stainless can resonate and the welds have a nasty habit of fracturing.
Having said that both my 460 and 463 have stainless exhausts.
Given he choice if the rest of the G is standard I would go with genuine MB
There are two side of the fences here, yes, the s/steel exhaust can be prone to fractures and cracks due to vibration and resonance in the system, particulally s/steel is a rigid material, it will crack. There are differnet grades of s/steel though. Most assemblers do use a high grade s/steel.
The other side of the fence, original is better, yes, but in terms of cost you need to realise that the system will last between six to ten years and if you were to spread the intial cost of buying a cmplete exhaust system, it not so bad. It works out to cheaper than the run of the mill cars.
Regards,
go to "long- life" as I did (in Cardiff), have them make up an exhaust and delete the nearside silencer, you will save a lot of money liberate a little more horsepower and suffer little in excess noise as the catalyst acts as a very good 1st instance silencer match this to a k&n filter for even better results
I replaced my system with a ss one a few years back. The quality of the workmanship is superb. I have experienced no problems with welds nor joints moving. However, the noise is not acceptable to me. I put in 3 silencers as the standard system but it doesn't do the job. At 3500 70mph there is a drone which is quite tiring and stops any comfortable conversation. It does appear to rev better though.
Strange Roly 'cause my G has the same engine as yours and in mine I had the the first silencer box replaced with a straight pipe. No problems with welds or noise whatsoever. It sounds very sporty and revs more freely and I just love it but it wasn't at all cheap... About 700 GBP if I am not mistaken.
These are the people that did it for me: http://www.stainless-exhaust.com/
a friend of mine who replaced the rusted second resonator box (at the rear of his 300GE also reported a slight improvement in power, he also thinks it sounds better/sportier
also a bit of info here:
http://www.gwagen.de/cms/index.php?page=395
I used SS specialist (nottingham) too. No problem with quality and he did say to bring it back and he would "have a look". I think that the resonance is different to LWB and SWB due to the differing lengths of pipe. Think of a pipe organ, it is a complex science.
Jason, is yours long or short?
I used SS specialist (nottingham) too. No problem with quality and he did say to bring it back and he would "have a look". I think that the resonance is different to LWB and SWB due to the differing lengths of pipe. Think of a pipe organ, it is a complex science.
Jason, is yours long or short?
Now that you mention it, Tim Carnell's LWB 300GE has a SS exhaust made by these folks too. But it is a 300GE, though....
No mines a Short! I always thought 463 the same exhaust long or short but obiviously not! On the epc print out it shows rubber "donuts" holding the middle silencer, but on mine , never has been , also mine is covered in "Erdspracher" , presume no ones bought one direct?
No mines a Short! I always thought 463 the same exhaust long or short but obiviously not! On the epc print out it shows rubber "donuts" holding the middle silencer, but on mine , never has been , also mine is covered in "Erdspracher" , presume no ones bought one direct?
Some, if not all, original exhausts were made by Eberspächer.
I have seen in some 463 Gs that the middle silencer has one hook in each corner, supposedly to hold it from those rubber donuts that you mention. But they were help by the pipes instead...
Well I went for half a Genuine system as the lack of noise is inportant to me, replaced sections 2 and 3, think I can get another year out of section 4.
Really quiet now on problem is a a very slight noise at tickover if it on an angle, maybe those rubber mounts should be renewed but I suspect it section 4 having new mounts welded on.
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I will check out the prices but I know I will need all the little extra bits on the parts fiche! On the other other hand, the Stainless place ( J.P . Exhausts) assured me it wouldn't be any noiser, however the above comments seem to contradict this! In a rut now!