Sooooo ya. Anybody else happen to be an unlucky purchaser of this exhaust manifold for their baby? I bought one for my 2005 Cooper S and literally 2 months in the thing goes bad... The flex pipe separates do to heat and Magnaflow is under "redevelopment" for the part. Basically they tell me to put the broken manifold back on until they figure it out and to wait. How long????? They won't refund me or send me out a loaner or replacement for the meantime. In my opinion thats BS. What would you do if you were in my shoes? Would you run a broken exhaust on your car? NO, I didn't think so. Anybody else in the same boat as me? Let me know! Thanks.

 

I did not realize magnaflow had an exhaust manifold

 

Yeah X2, I googled to find one and I could only find an OEM replacement at JEGS with no flex joint.

 

Did I just make a huge mistake?! I just ordered this part today without checking NAM.

Have either of you gotten your issues resolved?

 

Yes :/ return it if you can. Magnaflow discontinued the manifold because it's back in R&D. The flex pipe from the header down to the pre cat separates due to over heating. I had to resend the manifold back and after 2 months they finally gave me a refund. So ya, no one should be selling it because it's defective and supposedly being fixed but they said they're in no hurry to redesign it so I wasn't gonna wait. Hope you can return yours or it'll do the same after about 1000 miles and just sound like a huge exhaust leak. Bummed cuz it gave it mad power but just can't handle to heat Mini puts out. If they won't return it, I'd show them magnaflows website cuz it says they're currently unavailable for that reason. Sucks...

 

Thanks for the quick reply! I checked the Magnaflow web site before making the purchase and it said nothing about a recall. The product is even sold on ecstuning.com now. Anyway, I'm going to cancel the order first thing in the morning just to be safe. I'd prefer to pay an extra $200 for the OEM rather than have to replace it a second time.

 

Just to be safe, I'd call magnaflow and ask for Jim Cates in sales or anyone really. Maybe they've fixed it. But as of 2 months ago, Jim over there said they had to cancel all sales and keep those things from going out because of that problem.

 

I think it's definitely worth a call before I cancel the order. Thanks again for the input.

 

For what it's worth, I'm running Way's Flashpoint exhaust manifold: http://www.waymotorworks.com/flashpo...eader-cat.html

My header was the first thing to break at the beginning of March 2015 (one week after I bought the car). The OEM manifold broke right before the cat. I personally Way's exhaust manifold, but I only have experience with that one

 

How do you like the flashpoint? Way sez they are great, and lots of folks use them, but there is not much info here on them.

How many miles have you had it on the car/how is it holding up?
Is it much louder than the stock exhaust at WOT?

 

I only had the car for a week before the OEM manifold broke, so its a little hard to recall. But next to stock r53s, I definitely felt like I was louder/had a nicer, lower rumble.


It has held up well and I've put 17k miles on the car since then (what can I say, I enjoy driving my r53).


The Flashpoint was my first mod, and I don't regret it at all.

 

If you call let me know what they say! I'm interested to hear if they solved the issue or not. Also if you're running a thicker sway bar underneath, it will rub. The pre cat is huge on that thing. I'm sure it's cuz of California emissions ******** and that's why I had to go with magnaflow with the only company making CARB legal manifolds. Mine rubbed like crazy. Rattles through the whole car but I dealt with it cuz power or noise I guess. Ha. Used header wrap on the sway bar but burned right through it so it's something you have to ignore after awhile. But anyways ya, let me know what magnaflow says!

 

You don't live in California do you :-P

 

You would if you lived in California going in for smog :-P

 

I called Magnaflow this morning and was told that the improved CA legal model was released last September. Thus far, no customers have informed them of any problems so I decided not to cancel the order (why do I feel like I'm making a mistake?) I'll keep all of you informed if anything goes wrong.

I had planned to do the job myself, but read the warranty, which states that a professional is required. Blacklistedmini, did you do the install yourself?

I have the factory sway bars installed on my car. Do you thing I'll encounter the same issue with the rattling. If so, that's a deal breaker for me.

 

Blacklisted, I forgot to ask. Was there a difference in sound? Because I also ordered the Milltek exhaust without the resonator. I understand that Milltek is mild but I don't want it to be too loud.

 

Welp... Either they just didn't want to send me a new one or I don't know what the deal was but they told me it was a flawed design and would refund my purchase. So it'll be interesting to see what happens to you. My mini also has a lot of mods so it's running hotter and that's why my OE split and switched to magnaflow. I say good luck! Hope it works out better for you. Also I did read some where that the rattle happened with another guy but can't remember if he was stock or aftermarket sway bars. I think I found a thread on here or another forum. But man, it rattled like crazy under low rpms when the motor is more lopie. So in a way I'm glad the thing defected cuz it was annoying but I miss that power it had. But the information I was told was straight from the dude in charge of sales department since my friend knows him so who knows. Salesman are salesman. Full of ***** sometimes. And yes I installed it myself. I saw that whole professional install stuff myself but it didn't matter. They just wanna make sure it's done right so if there's leaks you're not blaming them. Like to the head or to the cat back. It was all a buddy through buddy deal so I wasn't worried but maybe you becomes friend with a mechanic so if it does fail, he'll sign the papers for warranty returns. Ha. Let me know how it goes! Research that sway bar tho. Can't remember if that other guy was stock or not but I did read it somewhere having that knocking issue and magnaflow blaming his motor mounts sagging. I don't know. You'll see how big the pre cat is compared to the old one. It's like 3 times bigger. Over kill but stupid emissions making everything harder...

Just to be safe I'd email jcates@magnaflow.com and get his opinion and tell him a fellow mini owner had a problem and see what he says.

 

I run the Alta 3.5" cat back and cut the resignator out myself and it did get a little more tinny sounding since the magnaflow is all separate tubing out of the head and not collecting in one like the OE one. It was a bit louder but not like omg loud but just a different more open exhaust sounding loud. I guess more racey. Hard to explain.

 

What year MINI do you have. The ALTA exhaust for 1st gen is 2.5" I think. 3.5" sounds more like one meant for Turbo equipped MINI - aka: bigger the better.

 

Nope you're right. 2.5" it's an 05 😁

 

Blacklisted, I called a couple retailers who supply the Magnaflow and was able to confirm that no issues have been reported about the manifold/cat. Just for reassurance, I then called Magnaflow again and was told that approximately 30 units have been sold with no complications. Funny enough, when I asked about banging/rattling, the sales rep said that only one issue had been reported and the problem was found to have been caused by the application of aftermarket suspension parts, haha! I assume that was you. Anyway, I received the part today and plan to install it, along with the non-resonated Milltek exhaust within the month. I'm contemplating the purchase of the Cravenspeed adjustable short shifter also since I'll have the exhaust removed.

 

For those interested, this is what the Magnaflow exhaust manifold/catalytic converter looks like.

 

Well I really wish I had all these convos on record cuz it was through the phone and they told me it was a flawed design and yes it'll hit the sway bar if it's aftermarket and probably was me noting that to them. Ha. But super weird why they'd tell me that and instead of swapping me with a new manifold they could only refund me. Don't get it... But keep this thread going if you have issues. I'd like to see if maybe they did fix it after all or they're just trying to get rid of stock and blame install failure on the users end cuz it clearly split on the flex tuning into the pre cat. Good luck man! You'll be chirping second easy with that manifold. I got a cam and injectors pillows and tune by Mynes tuning and that thing gained sooo much power with that manifold. It was so freeing on the exhaust end of that motor. But rattles and the leak have me not going back. Ha. It's an easy install too. Done it a few times and the hardest part is just placing all the heat shields back up. Don't bend em. They're a ***** to get lined back up.

 

quite an interesting looking manifold..... too many cats in that picture =D

 

Blacklisted, I initially e-mailed the guy you recommended, but he never responded. I was hoping for an e-mail exchange just for that reason. Anyway, the exhaust manifold has been installed for a couple of days and appears to be working well. Upon initial use, I saw that the flex pipe smoked like hell, but stopped after a couple of minutes. I assumed this to be normal since it was the first time the metals had reached those temperatures. There is a less than desirable noise heard under the expected tone of the Milltek cat-back system. I installed the two components simultaneously so I'm uncertain wether the noise is produced by the manifold or the cat-back. I might reinstall the OEM cat-back to check. Who knows, it might even be as exhaust leak making the noise. It was difficult as hell to fit a torque wrench at the manifold, but I torqued them down to 18 ft-lbs as recommended. The rest of the exhaust, I torqued to 45 ft-lbs. I didn't have a O2 sensor socket, so I just wrenched those on tightly. As for clearance of the pre-cat, I fortunately have had no problems with rattling against the sway bar or the heat shield. And the heat shield was quite easy to get on after I figured out how it fit. Due to the reduction of space caused by the size of the pre-cat, however, I was unable to get one of the 8mm bolts back on. I'll keep everyone posted if I run into problems.