rear muffler came off, can it just be welded back on? 87 300E
 

the rear muffler on my car (87 300E, 171K miles) detached from the exhaust pipe yesterday. I took it off, and it seems to be in pretty good shape, other than a dent on the bottom from it hitting the road, and rust in and around the hole where it attached to the exhaust pipe.

I was just wondering what the general concensus was on just getting a piece of patch pipe and welding this muffler back in place. Will this hold up? Is this muffler actually still effective considering it is 171k miles old? I don't know how quiet the car should actually be, so I can't really judge. I am debating getting a new muffler, but they are pricey even from fastlane.

Any advice or guidance is greatly appreciated.

its purely dependent on the condition of both pieces..."falling off" the car is not a good sign however.

Replace both, from the cat on back.

You will be astonished at how quiet it is then!

The reason it fell off is that the insides are rusted away on both mufflers.

Do check, though -- the factory one is welded on, replacements are clamp-on, and if rear muffler is rotten BUT the pipe is OK, you can cut what remains of the pipe off the front muffler outlet and just install a new rear.

Don't bother to try to weld it, it's rusted away inside, and you would just be chasing holes....

Peter

my muffler on my 87 190e 2.3-16V fell off so instead of putting a MB muffler that is big time money, i made my own custom exhaust with my dad. just put a cat and a rear muffler. Sounds great now. You can actually hear the car now, and not just the intake. But if I were you, I would go and find the aftermarket muffler that will fit your car and buy it. No sense in putting the MB mufflers on.

If it will take a weld, weld it. It won't be any worse than before and you could get some more life out of it. However, if you don't have access to a welder, you may have trouble finding someone to weld it for you due to the iffy nature of the repair.
For aftermarket mufflers try Wholesale Car Parts (whslparts.com), expressautoparts.com, mbsautoparts.com, importautoparts.com and there are many others. Prices seem to range from $160 to $200.
If you need a cat, you might try Summit Racing as well as others.

I agree weld it if it can take a weld. Its a temp fix but if there is still good metal there it will hold for a couple of more years.
Cheap permanent fix would be to replace from the resonator forward with an aftermarket.
Otherwise get an MB $$ replacement.

Some state inspection rules will not allow any welding on the muffler itself
 

Pipes and connecting joints can be welded, but not on the actual muffler body in Virginia.

But if I were you, I would go and find the aftermarket muffler that will fit your car and buy it. No sense in putting the MB mufflers on.
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There are many parts places that sell excellent replacement mufflers for MBs at a huge savings over the factory mufflers. A good place to look is at FastLane, the guys who sponsor this site.

right now it looks like the route I am going to take is to weld a pipe onto the muffler intake and clamp it to the exhaust pipe. There seems to be at least some good metal left on the muffler intake. I'll post the results when I'm done. Thanks for the responses everyone.

well, I ended up having to go to mieneke, not to fix the muffler, but because I needed a piece of pipe to fit aroud the existing exhaust pipe, and nothing they sell at auto parts stores is snug enough (2 1/2" I.D. was too big). So they stretched a pipe to fit for me, cost $10. The curve in the pipe right before the rear muffler made it impossible to get a muffler clamp to fit properly around the larger connecting pipe I had made, but luckily my girlfriend's dad has a mig welder and is real handy with it. he welded the replacement pipe to the muffler, I jacked the car up, and he welded the muffler back on, Pretty simple. NOw it runs quiet again and the weld is holding up nicely.

thanks for the help everyone. (now let's just hope the resonator doesn't come off!) :eek: