Hi all, driving home last night, the '05 MCS aka Blue Meanie got extremely loud going down the freeway. Sounds like a straight pipe! No warning lights came on, so limped home waking all the neighbors :>( Will be looking today. What might it be?

 

I would guess blown flex section on the down pipe (it is the braided section) see image...


But that is only a guess...

Motor on!

 

mm straight pipe, although if the flex joint went, it would throw a code, cause the rear o2 wouldn't see the same efficiency. the mid pipe might have disconnected or the pipe connecting to the first muffler could have

 

my son looked at it this morning and said the pipe snapped right behind the cat and suggests we get a new aftermarket header/highflow cat. any problems with that? Who has decent prices for that kind of thing?

 

Is this another "normal" MCS thing for '05's?

 

Look at post number 114 and 115 in this thread here. It is very common for this to happen.

Milltek makes wonderful products and I would probably suggest that if you're looking to upgrade. Here.



-Luccia

 

Thanks Luccia, I probably will also have to just get it welded and then replace soon. It's a bit expensive for me right after my son just graduated from high school Tuesday with presents and parties. $$$

 

My pleasure. That is what people tend to do until they can replace it. You can see the price of OEM here. As you can see, upgrading is basically the same as OEM. We should be getting Milltek in soon to our parts catalog and hopefully it'll be cheaper so keep an eye out.

-Luccia

 

What really blows is I found that mine could not really even be welded when it cracked. The crack is right up against the face of the catalyst. I ended up selling it for the $80 in scrap.

I bought an aftermarket scorpion header/cat. I kind of wish that I just went back to OEM. I don't think anyone makes an aftermarket header that won't setoff a check engine light with these cars. I've tried spacers on the rear O2 sensor and nothing.

 

That's unfortunate. Sorry to hear that. I'm surprised the spacer doesn't work. What you might end up having to do is a tune. Tunes will code out the CEL.

-Luccia

 

I'm pretty sure by next year I'll end up putting a stock OEM header back on. It looks like the standard Cooper S up to the GP share the same part number. If it's good enough for the GP it's good enough for me.

Does anyone want to trade?

 

Great News! My welder car buddy was able to weld it together. Only charged me $10 for the gas. Now, must save for a replacement. Time to MOTOR ON!! Quietly!!

 

We have the Milltek here in stock are ready to go. We are the largest stocking distributor in America.

Free shipping also !

http://www.ecstuning.com/News/MINI_R53_Copper_S_JCW_Milltek_Performance_Exhaust_ Systems_2002_2003_2004_2005_2006/











Yea it looks like it split near the Cat which happens, most guys can weld it but some just upgrade at the time. Glad you got it fixed.


You can get a stock one here also.

http://www.ecstuning.com/Mini-2005-Cooper-R53-S-Coupe-L4_1.6L_W11B16A/Exhaust/OE/

Thanks

 

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind! Man the Blue Meanie is quieter than when I first bought it suggesting it had always had a small crack in it for 2 years, then just let go on the freeway. I'll probably upgrade as this is too quiet! :>)

 

There are two typical places that the header can crack: if you're lucky, it'll crack at the main catalyst, because that's easy to weld. More often, they split at the pre-cat. That's actually also weldable with a MIG machine if you're liberal with the metal. The final result won't look particularly pretty, but it holds.

 

You are welcome.

 

Yup! Had mine welded a while ago, but it was because of this:


And I got the car home like this (By the way, NOT recommended for long distances or hills!):

 

Wow , you cracked a lower mount. OEM ? Looks like a aftermarket brand. Must had some really hard pulls.

 

Combination problem:
- Aftermarket crap part, don't buy DEA, there was a small void in the casting right at the major stress point (where it cracked).
- I was autocrossing on a half-wet course, so the powertrain took a fairly stressful hit as traction came and went...

 

That's what I figured , bad cast w/ power pull. Lemfoder here and no issues.

 

Yep, went Loemfoerder and no issues since.

 

DEA = Dead End Automotive ?

 

The nutty part is that the stock header/cat in 2013 was $1500-$1800. I wonder why all the venders have dropped the price? Has there been a lot of pattern failures?

 

Probably to be more competitive with everything on the market.

 

I think this part is next on my list. I would love to take my aftermarket header/cat off and go back to OEM.