Can anyone tell me whether the OEM exhaust is plug and play between all R53 model years? Will a 2005 OEM exhaust work on a 2003? When I searched, I saw something about hangers being bent at different angles, but I am unclear as to whether that means the exhaust itself is not interchangeable.

I looked on RealOEM.com and it looks like they are different part numbers, between 2003 and 2005, so that is not a good sign.

Hoping I have this posted in the right place.

 

Its the rear hangers that the big difference: Some people bend the style hangers to fit pre and post.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d-for-oem.html

 

Thank you for the response, ECS! So, if the hangers are rusted to the point where they can't be bent, then I can install 2005 hangers on my 2003?

 

Yes, they will need modified and bent

 

Hello Everyone!

I have a 2002 Cooper 5-speed base model and am looking for the best option for a cat-back exhaust, and whether or not a short-shifter is an investment worth the money. I just installed a new k&n filter and am satisfied with the results of it, and am looking for low price options to continue to modify the car. can anyone help with advice?

 

It is very hard to modify the hangers on the inner sides so if you are getting a used one find one from an 02-03 car as it will fit much easier.
Or if you remove the hangers from the mufflers you can swap them over to the 05 exh.

 

Way, thank you for your response. I have an '03 R53. The '05 exhaust is second hand, though apparently not much used. While I haven't seen the '05 exhaust in person, the seller assures me that it is essentially new, and the price is right. I guess the question is whether the hangers on my '03 are in condition enough to re-install, or whether I would have to buy replacement hangers. I must admit that I don't know whether '05 hangers will be included with the muffler assembly. It sounds like the worst case scenario is that I will have to buy new hangers.

 

Since you bought the 05+ muffler the chance is you didn't get all the necessary pieces of the hangers. From what I infer, the pre-05 hangers have one elastic thingy. The 05+ has two on each side. Here is the passenger side where the resonator was after I performed the one-ball castration.




You can see even if you were given the hanger you will still need two brackets that attach to the chassis. I would reason that the pre-05 S you have does not have the needed thread anchors (i.e. the 4 thread anchors).

 

I picked the '05 exhaust up today for $25. According to the owner, it had come off his 2005 R53 at purchase, new from the dealer, in favor of an aftermarket performance exhaust. It has the lower brackets/clamps only, but it seems like that doesn't matter given that the uppers from an '05 don't work on an '03 without modification.

 

As a follow up to this thread: my stock exhaust was finally bad enough that I went ahead and replaced it with the ‘05 takeoff I picked up back in 2017. I bought new ‘03 style upper hanger brackets because mine had seen better days. It was no problem installing the ‘05 exhaust, straight forward installation. Did not have to do any modification whatsoever. The brackets cost more than I paid for the exhaust, but whatever… It’s essentially like new.

 

Good info and great to hear you were able to sort thinks out with having to re-mod the entire assembly

Thanks for the follow-up!