I made the leap today and bought a Borla cat back and a ProMini intake. I was a bit disappointed with the fit of the borla system. The muffler hangs down a lot lower than the stock muffler did (the tip is about 2 - 3 inches lower). I tried to mess with the pipes and twist them around to see if I can snug it up closer to the bumper cutout (tip) but was not able to get it any better. It seems the hangers that they weld on the muffler are too long, making the muffler hang down low.

The exhaust sounds good, but not as loud outside the car as I thought, which I guess is pretty good. The highway driving is good, not much drone, if any at all. It seems to have some drown at a specific RPM, but I don't remember that number off the top of my head. I would rate the system an 8 or 9 out of 10.

The Promini sounds awesome. I must say that I LOVE the huge noise from the intake from 5800 to 6500 RPM! It's quite enough when you don't get on it, but loud when you want it to be. I'd give it a 10 out of 10 for noise and smile factor.

As far as performance, I really don't think either one does anything, at least by the seat-of-the-pants dyno. I have to agree with most, who have said that these do not make much of a change in power. But the noise does make you think that you have more .

I still will probably go ahead sometime in the spring and get the MTH ECU setup. I am not banking on it doing much, but you only live once, so what the heck. I think these performance upgrades only change the power points up the RPM scale. Seems like the car lost more low end, but gained some top end.

 

Glad you are enjoying your new mods, I also installed my Borla exhaust earlier this month and I love the sound too..not too loud but its there. What do you mean by the tip hanging a bit lower? My tip is about as far from trim as my stock exhaust tip was.




Borla and stock

 

Hey I have the same set-up. I installed both more than a year ago and love what it has done for power and performance ever since. My Borla system was installed by myself and a SAE mechanic friend, he showed me different ways to adjust the system to get it tucked properly up to the skirt cutout and leaving the required spacing all around. The Borla muffler is a little thicker than the OE muffler plus the OE is formed to the space where as the Borla is a standard oval muffler design. I polish it a lot and don't mind the fact that you can see it - love shiny metal!!!

 

You should be able to get the tip to fit much better than that. I had the Borla on my '03 Cooper and the tip was perfectly centered in the bumper cutout. Are you sure you're attaching the hangers correctly? I didn't install mine, so unfortunately I can't offer any specific help.

I agree, it's a very nice system, with great sound.

 

Yeah, I am sure I installed it correctly. The hangers that are welded on the pipe are too long (there is nothing to mess up). I will end up fixing it myself soon, by cutting and re bending the hangers that are welded to the muffler.

I just figured when you spend a lot on a system, you should get something that fits correctly.

My web service is down, but as soon as I can, i will post my pics to illustrate the crappy fit.

 

Finally my Web hosting is back up. So here is the crappy fitment I was trying to explain.



and...



I did fix the problem, cut the Borla superlong hangers and rebent them. Now it fits like it should.. more pics to follow on that soon!

 

Watch out for the tips growing together when they heat up.If you get rattle after car warms up check it out

 

I don't think there is much danger of TIPS growing together on a Cooper.

 

Thats a BORLA joke. HA ha

 

I don't get it.

 

The muffler is mounted a little low, hmm, how about giving those hangers a little banging and see if it fits better?

 

...