Help needed with C43 Exhaust Disaster

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Hi all!

I'm having a bit of trouble here with Benz and my C43. Two weeks ago a landscaper truck dropped a large rock intended for a stone wall on the public road and I ran over that rock before I could swerve to avoid it.

The rock lifted my car up about a quarter inch and let it drop back down. Looking at the damage afterwards I saw a large dent in the left side catalytic converter under the car (not the cat on the header) and a smaller dent in the center resonator.


The car ran fine for two weeks after the incident and then stopped shifting automatically, lost all acceleration power and finally stalled and would not restart unless I manually shifted it into neutral. I had the car flat bedded to the Benz dealer, Estate Motors, in Golden's Bridge New York, .

Benz wants $9,000.00 or more to repair this damage. They claim that both right and the left catalytic convertors under the car come as a pair and cannot be replaced individually and that the center resonator needs to be replaced as well as, possibly, the muffler. Benz claims that the left cat had broken apart and clogged up the exhaust from the left cat on.

I believe that the damage they observed is correct but I do not believe that I have to replace both the right and the left catalytic convertors at $3,000 each plus the center resonator at $950 and the muffler at $1,600 for parts alone. Also, it seems unlikely to me that the muffler could be clogged; the broken cat would lodge in the ss screen in the cat or the center resonator.

What I really want to do it buy two aftermarket stainless steel metallic substrate cat's and weld them onto the AMG exhaust pipes in place of the Benz ceramic cat's that I will have cut off and disposed of. In place of the center resonator I want to install a y-pipe.

MKB makes a y-pipe for the C43, but they are in Germany and I do not know how to get them to send me a pipe. STEVE (MBenzNL) can you help? Anyone know who could make such a pipe for me?

By reading the posts regarding our cars I found a company on the web called warpspeedperformance.com that will sell me two replacement metalic substrate SS cat's 2.5 inch in/out tubes and between about 10 and 14 inches long. Will this work? Could anyone help me out about finding a shop that will do this work in the New York area (Westchester near Stamford Connecticut and New York City)? and letting me know if they have a better idea for fixing my car?

Any help would certainly be appreciated!

Thanks,

[suginami]

Try contacting www.timevalve.com

They are a frequent advertiser in the Star Magazine, and make stainless steel OEM quality parts.

I'm sure they either sell or could fabricate the part that you are looking for.