I've had the Alta stealth exhaust system on my mini for almost 3 years now.. and yesterday the metal part that is welded on as a part of my exhaust fell off!! I was driving when I noticed my exhaust being a lot louder than normal... I enjoyed it for a bit until I heard my exhaust hit the ground *CLUNK* and I pulled into the gas station... There was a huge hole in the exhaust... had it towed to a shop.. they welded it back on but said "no warranties"

So now I am scared of another happening like this.... what if it falls off again? I think I want to install the stock exhaust back on? Just to avoid further problems with this... what do you guys think I should do?? And does anyone have stock r53 exhaust to sell me? With all the brackets and whatever I need to put it back on? I am in the tampa bay (FL) area...

 

take the car to a muffler shop and they should be able cut, add, and weld parts together back to normal.

 

buy some mechanics wire on a roll, it wouldve taken 2 minutes and saved you a tow to get that tied off and drive to the shop, sorry it popped th, is it ok now?

 

similar happened with my alta exhaust. I am a hobby fabricator though so i cleaned it up and tig welded it back together.

I used a coat hanger for its material to use to hold it on to get home though.




i fixed the hole, then welded the attachment on for the hanger.

 

Decent looking repair job there. I am much better with an ARC vs. anything else... that was an EASY A in college :-)

 

Thats awesome that you were able to fix it!! I think I will take it to a muffler shop and see how much for them to fix it and maybe put some other kind of bracket or support for the midpipe.. I wonder if this is a common problem for these alta exhausts. I wanted to use a metal hanger to hold it up, but no one was around to bring me any...

 

I had it welded at a shop but he said since its a different kind of metal... theres no guarantees if it will stay or for how long...

 

I'm sure you'll be fine for a good while (more than a year at least). My guess is it just corroded and fell off like most exhausts will eventually in harsh climates. There have been several stock exhausts that do this as well so switching back to that won't be much better.

 

I guess I will keep the hangers and pliers in my car just in case it decides to fall off again

This is actually the second time it's been welded.. last time was about 3 months ago.

 

a small roll of wire in the back is always handy, good luck with it,

 

Been there (not with my MINI). Coat hanger works wonders in these instances. I'd say if you are really worried about it (and I don't blame you) you can pre-emptively wire it in addition to the hanger, as a failsafe.

 

I might just do that!!

Thank you guys for the support and tips!!

 

it will vibrate and buzz if you put it in there now.

 

You're talking about the wire vibrating?

 

yeah, proactively putting a wire on there and driving around with it is a bad idea.