I noticed today that my MCS exhaust note is rapsy and backfires a lot. The back firing is a bunch of light popping coming from the exhaust.

I had my GF drive the car down the block and the raspy note is very apparent, but that loud.

My car is stock with 60K miles on it. I just bought it used like 2 weeks ago..

I think I have a bad cat or bad muffler.

Anyone else experience anything like this?

 

Completely normal. It's an awesome "feature"!
'05+ cars have this -- search for exhaust burble...

 

they DO pop/burble. loud and raspy isnt typical of the stock exhaust though

 

The burble is cool. I dig that, but the raspy note is annoying. It sounds like a Honda with no cat.

 

you seem to have quite a stable of cars there...

is the exhaust stock? header stock? might be a blown cat

 

Thanks!

I think you can tell I love the sport compact car segment. LOL

The exhaust is stock from what I can see, the header looks stock.

Is the header and cat one piece? Or separate pieces?

 

header and cat are one. a few people have used the magnaflow cat to replace the stock cat. i need to replace my cat too and i got mine from a local MINI shop, he had a few used OEM headers laying around.

 

Maybe it's time to upgrade headers and cat-back

 

do it
try to put in the stock cat if you can, if not you'll get a CEL

 

Our Mini's can't use a o2 simulator or anything to get rid of CELs?

I like the way cars sound like no cat. It sounds raw , I love it..

 

there is an o2 sim. seems to have helped those out with the CEL.

http://www.o2simulator.com/

i love the sound too but it's just too much for me on a daily.

 

Maybe the resonator has been removed and replaced with a straight pipe. Some people do that to the John Cooper Works exhausts to make them a little louder. The resonator is usually located at about the middle of the exhaust, between the cat and the mufflers.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BLOX-...Q5fAccessories

How about something like this? Does this work on the Mini?

I use this on my EVO and I have no CEL's.

I also used something like this on my old Saturn Ion Redline.

Both cars didn't have a cat.

 

Couldnt tell you, but I know there are people who are catless without CEL's. That said I think you lose power from going catless, certainly you dont gain any on these cars. I know that isnt why you remove the cat but I thought I should point it out.

This harsh raspiness you speak of, is it happening before the car has warmed up? I know on my 05 that if I put start applying the throttle before it has warmed up for 5 or 10 minutes it sounds pretty tinny, like a honda with a fart can or something.

The way you describe it it almost sounds like your car has been one balled or something. Make sure it doesnt look like the one-ball entry at the top of this thread.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...clips-etc.html

 

Yeah... I was going to say maybe a one-ball? That's the only thing I know of that makes an OEM exhaust "raspy"...

Personally... I have a oneball with the RMW header and high-flow cat... it combines a little raspy sound with a ROAR over 4500RPM... I LUV that combo... sounds like crap when it's cold... but that doesn't last long...