Exhaust shop woes: $900 for a custom system??? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

w123fanman · #1 07-08-2015, 09:47 PM

I went to an exhaust shop today to replace the catalytic convert back on my 190E 2.6. The car has 196K on it and had a rotted out aftermarket rear muffler and the aftermarket catalytic converter was shot. I have to take the car in for emissions next week.

I have spent a decent chunk of change getting the engine running up to snuff before putting in a catalytic converter because I need the cat to last me until 2018 because emissions testing cuts off at 25 years in Metro Atlanta. It would be better if it lasts longer than that because I hate the smell of uncatalyzed exhaust and want to do my part to keep emissions down.

The shop advertised $220 for a fully custom cat back dual pipe system if you didn't get a resonator. I wanted a resonator because I didn't want a dreadful drone at 75 mph on the interstate (I wish these old Mercedes 4 speed autos had overdrive). I figured I may be looking at closer to $350-$400 for the full system. I dropped the car off and they said they would be done in about 3 hours.

About an hour later I got a call saying that they didn't have the parts in stock and had to order them, asking for my permission. I asked how much they were talking, the guy said probably $800-$900 or more installed. I balked and asked what if it was all universal parts. He said that was for direct fit mufflers and a universal cat. He wanted $369 for the universal cat though they advertise that a universal cat is $179 installed. I then asked how much it would be for a system using all universal parts. He then said it would cost about the same. I know some on parts pricing for exhaust parts so I asked why it was so much versus what they advertised. He said, "You have to understand that it is a Mercedes." I had heard that line before from Kauffman Tire when they were explaining why they wanted $50 more than a modern American car to do an alignment. I just went and picked up the car and now have to see if I can do this myself.

Current plan is to use a dual inlet, single outlet cat with a cherry bomb glasspack as the front muffler and a German made direct fit rear muffler (nicer and slightly more expensive than what they would have used). About $300 or so in parts.

duxthe1 · #2 07-08-2015, 10:10 PM

I got a full 3" system with catalyst and 2 mufflerrs for 700$. Sounds like your guys got greedy when they saw the star, I'd go elsewhere.

Hit Man X · #3 07-08-2015, 11:29 PM

Holy crap, OEM Eberspaecher center muffler and rear muffler was about $550 for my 300SEL.

Even less for your W201.

You could do a universal dual in/single out Magnaflow cat for less money. Probably a dual 2" in and single 2.5" out. 94037 would probably be fine.

This place is hilarious. Post the name so we know to avoid them.

w123fanman · #4 07-09-2015, 12:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hit Man X

Holy crap, OEM Eberspaecher center muffler and rear muffler was about $550 for my 300SEL.

Even less for your W201.

You could do a universal dual in/single out Magnaflow cat for less money. Probably a dual 2" in and single 2.5" out. 94037 would probably be fine.

This place is hilarious. Post the name so we know to avoid them.

If I wanted to spend $900, I could put on a Remus muffler!!!

That is the idea, dual in, single bigger pipe out that goes to the cherry bomb which has a reducer to go to the Eberspaecher muffler. I may have to use some flex pipe and clamps or I may look for another shop to put it all together. My issue is that I cut the exhaust off at the cat, partially because we thought we wouldn't have to worry about this, partially because we wanted to hear the straight six goodness (it sounded amazing and no, don't have to worry about burning valves, the fuel injection system work plus the extreme length of pipe before getting to the cat made sure of that), and partially because the exhaust itself leaked terribly and had bad hangers (scraped on speed bumps). That car is off the road for now besides the possibility of driving to an exhaust shop.

The shop was Rainbow Muffler of McDonough, GA. The Kauffman tire I had bad experience with was in McDonough, GA as well. Fortunately in both cases my money wasn't wasted, only my time. I would say in general to avoid McDonough, GA, there are a few good restaurants (Pasta Max gets my vote) and Summit Racing but the traffic offsets the benefits. They route almost all of the traffic through the city square, it's a very poorly planned town.

Hit Man X · #5 07-09-2015, 12:48 AM

A cheap glasspack will rot out pretty quick, consider one of Magnaflow's round mufflers instead.

Sounds like it will work otherwise.

MBeige · #6 07-09-2015, 01:50 AM

A few more large bills and you'd have a dealer item, $1000+ for a catalytic converter. I think that includes both pre-cats but I'm not sure.

Skippy · #7 07-09-2015, 04:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by w123fanman

If I wanted to spend $900, I could put on a Remus muffler!!!

That is the idea, dual in, single bigger pipe out that goes to the cherry bomb which has a reducer to go to the Eberspaecher muffler. I may have to use some flex pipe and clamps or I may look for another shop to put it all together. My issue is that I cut the exhaust off at the cat, partially because we thought we wouldn't have to worry about this, partially because we wanted to hear the straight six goodness (it sounded amazing and no, don't have to worry about burning valves, the fuel injection system work plus the extreme length of pipe before getting to the cat made sure of that), and partially because the exhaust itself leaked terribly and had bad hangers (scraped on speed bumps). That car is off the road for now besides the possibility of driving to an exhaust shop.

The shop was Rainbow Muffler of McDonough, GA. The Kauffman tire I had bad experience with was in McDonough, GA as well. Fortunately in both cases my money wasn't wasted, only my time. I would say in general to avoid McDonough, GA, there are a few good restaurants (Pasta Max gets my vote) and Summit Racing but the traffic offsets the benefits. They route almost all of the traffic through the city square, it's a very poorly planned town.

I went to high school in that town. I would say your assessment is correct.

w123fanman · #8 07-09-2015, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hit Man X

A cheap glasspack will rot out pretty quick, consider one of Magnaflow's round mufflers instead.

Sounds like it will work otherwise.

I'm considering a Vibrant ultra quiet resonator actually. I want to make sure it's an actual resonator vs just a muffler.

gatorblue92 · #9 07-09-2015, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by duxthe1

I got a full 3" system with catalyst and 2 mufflerrs for 700$. Sounds like your guys got greedy when they saw the star, I'd go elsewhere.

This.

w123fanman · #10 07-09-2015, 11:47 PM

Here's the idea for the system:

Magnaflow 94007 dual 2 inch inlets, single 2.5 inch outlet. Band clamps between the original pipe and the inlets, and band clamp to the 2.5 inch outpipe, which will be two 45 degree mandrel bent pipes with another band clamp in the middle and a band clamp going into the Vibrant 2.5 inch Ultraquiet resonator. From there, there will be a U-clamp exhaust hanger going to a 2.5in to 2.25in reducer which will go into the Eberspaecher muffler which already has a U-clamp on it.

All in all about $450 in parts but still cheaper than $900 and at least the section rear of the cat should last longer than a welded system.

lsmalley · #11 07-10-2015, 01:22 PM

What a rip off. I'm in California and I was able to get quad exhausts, a catalytic converter (universal), and 3 mufflers for under $400

w123fanman · #12 07-11-2015, 04:21 AM

Found a nicer $200 Magnaflow cat at Summit in their scratch and dent section for $75. Saves me $25 and should hopefully last longer than the $100 one I was looking at. Unfortunately, band clamps do not fit on the downpipes to the inlets of the cat (not enough space on one side as the heatsheild is too close) and the pipes have to be spread apart to fit onto the cat anyway. We tried with some flex pipe but I'm convinced that setup will rub worse than before. I'm going to find another shop to just weld the cat in and we'll get the rest assembled ourselves.

We had thought about reusing the resonator but once I got the tailpipe disconnected from it and gave it a good shake, I discovered it was also rusted out. I have no clue how old it was but it was made by Starla.

vstech · #13 07-11-2015, 06:20 PM

... buy a mig welder, and order the parts online stainless. .. be done right under $600

w123fanman · #14 07-20-2015, 11:51 PM

I found another shop and had the guy install the whole system. Very reasonable price for installation and his welds looked great. Unfortunately the muffler seems to be shot. It is a Eberspaecher muffler so it should be good quality but Amazon's shipping was horrible. It was shipped loose, not it a box and was pretty banged up which I thought was just cosmetic damage. Also was missing the clamp (was supposed to come with one but didn't) so the guy just welded it in. They refunded me 30% for that but once I got it installed, the muffler droned worse than the rotted out one. It sounded just like when we had the muffler itself cut off or my 190E parts car that didn't have a muffler at all. We traced the drone to the muffler itself, seems like the baffles were severely damaged when it got dropped or whatever it was that bent up the tips. Amazon is shipping me out another unit which I hope I can install using clamps but may have to go back to the shop and have it welded in.

Fortunately it passed the emissions test with flying colors.

Skippy · #15 07-21-2015, 12:15 AM

I know some people who've worked at Amazon. Apparently their top three priorities are production, production, and production. Quality and safety get little if any consideration.