300SE (w126) exhaust hitting the cross member
 

So, I guess this is not unheard of.... Every post I've seen about it says "replace the motor mounts, etc."

Well, I did my motor mounts and my trans mount, and now the problem is worse, not better. Yes, they were good quality mounts, bought them from our sponsor.....

Before I did the mounts, the exhaust was sitting on the idler arm. Now that's fixed, but the bottom exhaust pipe that comes from cylinders 1-3 is sitting so close to the cross member that the slightest torque makes it touch. At a stoplight, unless I put it in neutral, the pipe chatters against the cross member cause it's just close enough to touch some of the time, but not always.

Part of me sez "fuggit", stick a 4' pry bar under there and put a small dent in the bottom of the pipe to improve clearance, but that would be a very crude thing to do, indeed.


Has anyone else had this issue? I think it quite bizarre, and very unusual for a German car.


-tp

BTDT many times and your solution isn't far from being ideal. My solution has always been to take a torch and cut a sliver half way through the pipe in the proper position and then push the pipes together again and weld the seam. Takes about ten minutes. If done properly the problem will never reoccur no matter how bad the mounts get.

The point of cutting the sliver is the change the angle of the bend not to remove material.

Oh, that's interesting.....

So this is not unusual? Weird. You'd think that MB could have engineered that a little better.


That's a pretty cunning fix. Thanks for the advice.


What's the best spot to cut the sliver out?


-tp

Pretty hard to tell you the point in text. If you don't weld yourself visit your local discount muffler guy and tell him what you want done he should be able to tell where to cut it, it is intuitive for anone used to moving pipes around.

Loosen the bolts at the exhaust manifold and the support at the trans and push the pipes up to get more clearance, a small jack would be helpful. Tighten all the bolts. You do have the support at the back of the trans don't you? Make sure all the exhaust rubbers are installed.