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View Full Version : Help need on C43 Exhaust disaster



Tump43
10-03-2003, 03:10 PM
Hi all!

I'm having a bit of trouble here with Benz and my C43. Two weeks ago a landscaper truck dropped a large rock intended for a stone wall on the public road and I ran over that rock before I could swerve to avoid it.

The rock lifted my car up about a quarter inch and let it drop back down. Looking at the damage afterwards I saw a large dent in the left side catalytic converter under the car (not the cat on the header) and a smaller dent in the center resonator.


The car ran fine for two weeks after the incident and then stopped shifting automatically, lost all acceleration power and finally stalled and would not restart unless I manually shifted it into neutral. I had the car flat bedded to the Benz dealer, Estate Motors, in Golden's Bridge New York, .

Benz wants $9,000.00 or more to repair this damage. They claim that both right and the left catalytic convertors under the car come as a pair and cannot be replaced individually and that the center resonator needs to be replaced as well as, possibly, the muffler. Benz claims that the left cat had broken apart and clogged up the exhaust from the left cat on.

I believe that the damage they observed is correct but I do not believe that I have to replace both the right and the left catalytic convertors at $3,000 each plus the center resonator at $950 and the muffler at $1,600 for parts alone. Also, it seems unlikely to me that the muffler could be clogged; the broken cat would lodge in the ss screen in the cat or the center resonator.

What I really want to do it buy two aftermarket stainless steel metallic substrate cat's and weld them onto the AMG exhaust pipes in place of the Benz ceramic cat's that I will have cut off and disposed of. In place of the center resonator I want to install a y-pipe.

MKB makes a y-pipe for the C43, but they are in Germany and I do not know how to get them to send me a pipe. STEVE (MBenzNL) can you help? Anyone know who could make such a pipe for me?

By reading the posts on this site I found a company on the web called warpspeedperformance.com that will sell me two replacement metalic substrate SS cat's 2.5 inch in/out tubes and between about 10 and 14 inches long. Will this work? Could anyone help me out about finding a shop that will do this work in the New York area (Westchester near Stamford Connecticut and New York City)? and letting me know if they have a better idea for fixing my car?

Any help would certainly be appreciated!

Thanks,

99C434ME
10-03-2003, 03:54 PM
Why wouldn't you just let your insurance company fix your car?

Denlasoul
10-03-2003, 06:04 PM
Tlak to CKlasse, I believe he works in an exhaust tuning shop?

CKlasse
10-04-2003, 08:02 AM
Tump43,

This is a very great opportunity. I work for BMS Racing, and we built turbo kit, turbo back, headerback, and exhaust system for high performance car. We are the first exhaust shop in Denver, and the most experience when it comes to this. We can do much more for the money than anyone in the business. Some of our daily work include Ferrari, Porche, Lambo, and tons of BMWs. Sadly, as a MB enthusiast, I hardly see any AMG in the shop.

BMS is also in talk with Jeff/ Speedybenz in building a headerback system for his C43. Unfornately, he has many more mods to be done before the Eurotuner race, and most likely unable to drive his car to our facility in Colorado. I have been looking for someone to volunteer his/her C43 ever since.

If you are interested, I can extend BMS offer to you to build the same system that we designed for Jeff's C43.

This is the offer....
3" mandrel downpipe, extension
3" BMS SPEC built by CARSOUND High Flow Performance Cat/s (100 catacomb/sq2 instead of your stock of 400-500 catacomb/sq2)
3" Straight through replacement cat pipe
O2 Sensor Resistor (I have to check on this one)
36" Magnaflow Resonator
and SS Magnaflow Racing Series Exhaust.
Before and After DYNO
and one cool BMS sticker :D

As an incentive, we'll pay 50% of the shipping cost, and only charge you Material Cost not including labor. We simply want to put the research/ R&D into marketable form.

Contact me directly at Kennetong@aol.com or 720-2769197 and I ll be able to answer any of your questions.

Couple picts of the system we designed....
http://members.aol.com/kennetong/temp.jpg
http://members.aol.com/kennetong/temp5.jpg

98c43amg
10-04-2003, 04:11 PM
oh crap. Sorry to hear this.

Go custom. You wanted to replace the center resonators with the Y-pipe anyway.

Anyway, real sorry to hear this. (the HPS supercharger is on hold then :( ?)

Tump43
10-06-2003, 03:33 PM
CKlass:

Thanks, I sent you an email -- I am very interested in having your exhaust package installed. What specifics can you let me know. Did you design this for Speedybenz's 99 C43 specifically taking all the engine statistics into account? Will your system pass emmissions tests? Will it add horsepower, if so, how much.

Ready to go with BMS! My car won't run till I replace the exhaust.

98C43: yeah the HPS is on hold for now -- too bad. You still interested in getting it installed?

Thanks,

CKlasse
10-06-2003, 04:13 PM
no mail yet?

Tump43
10-07-2003, 12:29 PM
CKlass --

I just responded to your email. My system was down last night.

Oh I forgot, with my car being lowered about 1.5 inches, will your custom exhaust be any more liable to be damaged by road debris than the OE AMG system?

Thanks,

98c43amg
10-08-2003, 03:29 PM
Originally posted by Tump43
CKlass:
98C43: yeah the HPS is on hold for now -- too bad. You still interested in getting it installed?


Can't, had to spend funds on more pressing matters. I had to break down and do something for the wife (and myself too). Took out a HELOC and bought a '97 Jeep for the winter; so we don't get snowed in, or washed in during a nor-easter, or worse yet OUT after coming home from work and not able to get home to take care of the dogs. ...Wife wouldn't let me spend HELOC money on a supercharger. :mad:

Did you see the pricing of the Kleemann by Evosport? $11K? zoink! ...Competition is good. All we need to do now is talk Kenne Bell into building a solution for the modern Mercedes 8 cylinde engine (I've already started), and we may be able to buy a supercharger kit w/o over paying by 50% to 100%!
;)
http://www.kennebell.net/