Hi. I'm in the middle of replacing the exhaust on my 1989 300 SE and ran into a snag. Everything was going fine until I got to the point of trying to separate the center muffler from cat. pipe and found that it had rusted together at the seal rings. Heavy dosage of WD-40 has yet to loosen it.

What is my course of action from here? Should I get a torch and separate it that way or is there another trick method I could try?

Any advice is highly appreciated.

Regards,
George

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2004 E320 Wagon
1989 300SE
1998 Range Rover 4.0 SE

I replaced both the center and rear mufflers on my 1989 260e last fall and ran into the same problem. I ended up using a cutting wheel on a pneumatic die grinder. I made a cut in the pipe where it slips over the pipe from the cat to relieve the death grip the rust had created. You have to be very careful not to cut into the inner pipe when making the cut length-wise . good luck Tom

What brand, and where did you guys purchase your exhaust components?
How would you rate the products?
Would you DIY again?
- or -
just order the parts and take to local shop (which is what I am more inclined to do).

Any estimate on the $$ you may have saved?

Thanks, Michael

Thanks Tom. I'll chalk this up as another "easy" DIY job gone bad. It's all abou the tools. That's exactly the solution. However, running short on time I decided to eat my pride and went to the local mechanic who forced the pipe off with a pneumatic chisel and we completed the install together.

Anyhow, it's done and I won't have to worry about it for a very long time.

Best of luck.

George

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2004 E320 Wagon
1989 300SE
1998 Range Rover 4.0 SE

I have one word.HEAT. If you have the means. next time heat up the connections with a torch,let cool and it will almost fall off..paul

I purchased my middle muffler (resonator) and rear muffler along with related rubber hangers and seals from a company called German Star. You can reach them at GermanStar.net. Each muffler was about 175.00 ; so the total for both along with other items I mentioned put the total at $400.00. The muffler's were Eppesbacher which is an OEM supplier to mercedes. I was very happy with the prompt shipping and quality. Provided you can get the old ones off this is an easy job to do. The items I replaced were the original ones and the center and rear muffler were connected together; they do not seperate. The replacements come seperate with the pipe for the rear muffler slipping over the pipe exiting the center muffler. Make sure to order the clamp that joins them together. I must tell you that German Star was the second company that I dealt with. I bought these same items from Performance Products in CA only to have them arrive damaged as a result of poor packaging. I was not very impressed with the quality either. I sent all of it back. Once it was all done I was very happy; I just couldn't digest the thought of a Midas or Meineke type install. Tom

I purchased my middle muffler (resonator) and rear muffler along with related rubber hangers and seals from a company called German Star. You can reach them at GermanStar.net. Each muffler was about 175.00 ; so the total for both along with other items I mentioned put the total at $400.00. The muffler's were Eppesbacher which is an OEM supplier to mercedes. I was very happy with the prompt shipping and quality. Provided you can get the old ones off this is an easy job to do. The items I replaced were the original ones and the center and rear muffler were connected together; they do not seperate. The replacements come seperate with the pipe for the rear muffler slipping over the pipe exiting the center muffler. Make sure to order the clamp that joins them together. I must tell you that German Star was the second company that I dealt with. I bought these same items from Performance Products in CA only to have them arrive damaged as a result of poor packaging. I was not very impressed with the quality either. I sent all of it back. Once it was all done I was very happy; I just couldn't digest the thought of a Midas or Meineke type install. One more thing; in response to the post that said heat is the answer. I used heat initially to try and seperate but to no avail. Tom

old blue - i'm just going through old posts, noticed yours and am curious to know how the replacement worked out for you?

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2004 E320 Wagon
1989 300SE
1998 Range Rover 4.0 SE

http://www.timevalve.com/cat/us/p20a.html

I don't have that much money though...

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89 300SEL Money Pit

92 Blown Buick Ultra Pimpmobile 220K and adding 1K per week

88 Wagoneer Slightly modified (Not for soccer moms)

04 Kia Sedona with every option... NICE

For all stainless? That's a very nice price. Basically, you're looking at $645 from the cat back. I paid in the area of $400 for the OEM parts and paid a local mechanic $50 to put the pieces on. The dealer wants $1,000 for the same thing and it's not even stainless. Go for it.

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2004 E320 Wagon
1989 300SE
1998 Range Rover 4.0 SE

They quoted me a delivered to my door price of about $1000 from the manifold back...All in stainless.. Not bad...

__________________
89 300SEL Money Pit

92 Blown Buick Ultra Pimpmobile 220K and adding 1K per week

88 Wagoneer Slightly modified (Not for soccer moms)

04 Kia Sedona with every option... NICE

I replaced everything from the cat back on my '91 300E with OEM parts. The parts cost me $412 from Caliber Motors in California.

The guy that replaced my exhaust system also had problems getting the muffler off the cat and finally used a pneumatic chisel. He spent a lot of time banging on the tail piece of the cat and I'm worried he damaged something.

I am fortunate to have a neighbor that makes custom exhaust sytems for a living. High performance stuff, hauls a 30-foot trailer around and does hot rods and customs.

I showed him the online diagrams and he convinced me he could do a cleaner job by bending the pipes himself. He got Ansa muffler/cat from his suppliers and fabricated the rest. Sounds great and definitely improved performance. Performance probably due to the new cat, but I don't care.

$800 bucks and it is good for another 20 years.