muffler messed up

[GNR4ALL]

Hey everyone,So two days a go it was pouring and i drove over a bad pot hole hit my muffler. i put it on the lift and it sound like theres a broken piece inside the muffler itself. When i start the car now i hear this clicking tin can sort of sound for a minute or two then it goes away. it seems that something came loose inside the muffler. my mechanic told me that aftermarket mufflers on these ('03) m45's would mess u the performance. anyone have any take or suggesions on this? I heard the oem muffler is a S*** load of $

[buhdda]

MSRP $341Infinitipartusa.com $260 probably another $50 for shipping u are looking at $300. You could probably get a after market one for half that but i personally would stick with the OEM.

http://www.trademotion.com/par...gid=1

[GNR4ALL]

[auditech10]

NO. If it was me I would just put a straight pipe there and nobody would ever know, you might notice a 2% increase in noise, thats about it.

[buhdda]

So u scrapped the piece between your Catalytic coverter and your resonator as well?

The dealer put in straight pipe for me. It is a little throatier at 2k and 3k rpm than original but i personally like the sound.

Dearlership charged $120 for pipe and labor. The entire piece would have been $714 plus another $150 for labor.

Also you might want to check with the dealership, because even though our cars have 4yr 50k mile warranties catalytic coverter are soemtimes covered to 6yr 70k miles. The dealer is sometimes willing to write it up as defective cats and they will get the whole piece for you for free.

[auditech10]

Haha, good luck with that one, but it may be worth a try.

[GNR4ALL]

Would a straight pipe add, decrease, or maintain the same performance? would it really only be 2% louder and would i have problems passing New York state inspection?
Modified by GNR4ALL at 2:49 PM 5/3/2007

[caug]

straight pipe baby. i just talk to my good friend mechanic. i am gonna be doing new performance exhaust soon . we were thinking what to take out . these was one of the first thing he point out.local shop 75 bucks plus better sound. cant wait until my pipes will start to go. .

[buhdda]

Would a straight pipe add, decrease, or maintain the same performance? would it really only be 2% louder and would i have problems passing New York state inspection?

Modified by GNR4ALL at 2:49 PM 5/3/2007

Performance difference is negligible (i have straight pipe currently). NY has emissions test that measures the amount of emission (we have it in PA as well). However putting straight pipe instead of the resonator does not fail the inspection since there isnt more emissions. The noise is not necessary louder just a little more throatier. I would recommedn that you do it and make sure that they only cut within the bolted section. That way if you dont like it worst case scenario you unbolt the section and intall the OEM section.

Feel free to ask any other question u have i just personally went through this ordeal in the last month. If you search there are a couple of threads that i have made in the lsast month regarding this topic.

[auditech10]

That pipe that you circled on the pic above is NOT a catalytic converter and will not affect emissions at all. It is a secondary muffler or resonator that is just used for sound deadening/quieting. The only way I could see there being a problem is if your state has INSPECTIONS and they knew that there was supposed to be a resonator there. My money would be on that they have no idea what goes where, they probably look to see if there is cats, good piping and a functional muffler.

[GJEMD]

Why not eliminate section 7 as well and run twin pipes to the mufflers and end up with TRUE dual exhaust and lower restriction. Very likely an increase in horsepower

[GNR4ALL]

Thanx for all the info guys. I guess ill be cutting it out before the bolt on, replace it with a pipe and see how that works.

[auditech10]

GJEMD,That seems to be a pretty effective procedure to do, as cakedaddy has already done, but lets not get carried away. "true dual" would be having each pipe go its own muffler and outlet at the rear, now that would be cool.

[GJEMD]

something tells me the final muffler is dual chambered and nonrestrictive. The bottle neck is certainly in the middle. I'd bet it would open it up .

[auditech10]

Sure, every time the flow is turned or passed through deadening material it is somewhat restricting the flow. There would be a minimal increase in performance, but an increase. Nissan opened up the intake and exhaust flow pretty well to squeeze out 340 horses from our engines, already. Actually I think it was jamestgk that did his exhaust and used larger piping and replaced the resonators and mufflers. That was some time ago but it is still on the forum. cheers