new exhaust, funny story

[TSImonkey]

So i finally got around to installing my new 2.5" turbo back. Consists of a 2.5" punishment racing down pipe, which i love, nice clean finish, quick shipping, great bang for the buck, good quality, Magnaflow cat, and custom 2.5" piping from the cat back to a performance muffler. I had an exhaust shop install it for me, but boy did they f*** up . check this out

They tell me to come back in about 3 hours and they'll have it all installed. i go back in under 3 hours hoping to see how they're doing, make sure the welds are nice, and all that business. so i go under the lift and i see 2.5" piping from the cat..connected to about 8 inches of STOCK piping, connected once again to 2.5" piping....i was like..WTF ...the reason why they left a section of the stock pipe you ask?? because they couldn't get the O2 sensor out.
So i was like..why the hell didn't you call me and tell me what the deal is instead of leaving it there, i told them to heat the mother up and get it out of there and put in a new section. which they did. So they welded everything back in, and everything seemed fine and the bolts "seemed" secure.

an hour later i passed by my friends house to show off the new investment...as I'm doing a pass by and all i hear is a "metal falling to the ground" sound...By now I'm just like ..YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!! Turns out the bastards FORGOT!!! to tighten the two bolts holding the down pipe and the cat!!!! and one of the bolts fell off.....it fell off...it fell the hell off!! Can you believe this !?!?! next day i put the car on my jack, got under, luckily i found the bolt on the street, so i got under tightened the bolts made sure everything else was tightened, and long behold..the idiots forgot to weld on a secure mount by the O2 sensor, so the Cat section just kind of wiggles....

I cant believe people are so F'ing stupid. next Saturday I'm going back to them and telling them to fix all those problems because its pathetic. I just thought i would share my story with you guys, let me know what you think.

Here's a link to my photobucket , you can check out the pics of the whole setup, and i have a video clip of it too. let me know what you think.

http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f271/Aycu247/Exhaust/

thanks

 

[DRated]

Yeah I know the feelin there. The vid clip is nice but I wish the sound was better. Maybe its just my laptop... Nice looking exhaust.

 

[Cs4g63]

Looks clean.

 

[PieEyedPiper]

The sound on the vid is very nice on my Klipsch speakers
What kind of muffler is that and how much? It's exactly what I'd be looking for.

Sorry you got jacked around, but by the end of it I'm sure it'll be a great setup!

 

[TSImonkey]

First off let me say I'm amazed this thread even posted because i was trying to post it for about an hour. for some reason the site wasn't functioning rite..but anyway back to the point

As far as the sound goes..i filmed it with a digital camera, so the sound got a little distorted. You might get the impression that it's a can at WOT but it really isn't. It def. is louder, but its not LOUD. I'm quite satisfied with the sound, and whether my dad is satisfied with it is a different story .

The muffler is simply a universal 2.5" performance muffler. You can get them from eBay. Just make sure if you have the AWD that you measure the total length, it can get tricky because they all have the outlet in the center of the muffler, so it was a tight squeeze. As far as how much for the muffler itself , i don't even know. I payed 600 to install the whole thing. Keep in mind i bough the punishment dp myself aside. But than the Cat was like 300 dollars the guy said. I'm not too happy about the price, i definitely got jipped, especially cause of the quality work they did. But I've been waiting to do this for about a month and i didn't want to hold it off another week.

In general I'm pretty satisfied though. The punishment dp was most definitely worth the one week wait. Really impressed with the quality.

Thanks for the feedback

 

[absolute_DSM]

Looks good.

By the way, which shop did the "work"?

 

[TSImonkey]

The guys were "Tony's Muffler" in Wallington NJ. I'm sure they are capable of doing good work...just don't leave them alone. You have to like, hold them by the hand each step of the way and make sure everything is done how you want it to be done.

 

[levee000]

ive had that done to me too so dont worry it pissed me off badly and i ripped the muffler guys A** for it

 

[boostfreak87]

that exhaust looks great and sonds good too. thats sonds like a real pain in the a** about the shop. but at least you found the bolt and got everything taken care of. in the end after the price and the shotty work. was it worth it?

 

[b00stedtalon2]

sounds good homie!

 

[spyderturbo007]

Looks like you need to wash all that salt off the car.

 

[TSImonkey]

So I've been driving around with the new exhaust for about a week now, and I got to say, I'm pretty satisfied. The sound is pretty good, I was hoping for something a tad quieter, but I've driven by the police with it already and I didn't even get a glance, so i guess its fine haha.

and the salt...yeah most definitely washing it this weekend. I basically only wash my car on the weekends because i don't have time during the week, and it's like 25 degrees out, and the water is cold and i am not taking my car to a car wash haha.

thanks for the feedback everyone, i really needed to share my frustration with someone, and who better rite?

 

[absolute_DSM]

........but I've driven by the police with it already and I didn't even get a glance, so i guess its fine haha.

just let off the accelerator when you go by and youll be fine

.......and it's like 25 degrees out, and the water is cold and i am not taking my car to a car wash haha.

dont blame you at all there.

thanks for the feedback everyone, i really needed to share my frustration with someone, and who better rite?

who else but car guys?

 

[spyderturbo007]

and the salt...yeah most definitely washing it this weekend. I basically only wash my car on the weekends because i don't have time during the week, and it's like 25 degrees out, and the water is cold and i am not taking my car to a car wash haha.

That's what I figured, but I still had to give you a hard time about it.

 

[TSImonkey]

Alright, so a week later, i went back to the shop to fix their crappy work. Once they put the car on the lift, i could see 2 black stains by the welds right off the bat. One of the welds was so bad you could actually see the hole where the leak was.

They re-tightened all the bolts, welded on the missing bracket, and fixed 4-5, not sure exactly , but 4-5 welds because they were leaking. 2 of which were by the muffler alone. I was amazed at how crappy the job was done.

After the numerous welds were fixed, and bolts tightened, and the whole system re-checked for leaks, everything is now fine. The car obviously runs quieter now which is a plus. And i believe that is the end of my exhaust story, it's been a fun ride

 

[DSM-Franek]

I live about 10 minutes from that exhaust shop and have never heard a good thing about them Wish I coulda warned yah

-Frank

 

[snox135]

I payed 600 to install the whole thing. Keep in mind i bough the punishment dp myself aside. But than the Cat was like 300 dollars the guy said. I'm not too happy about the price, i definitely got jipped, especially cause of the quality work they did. But I've been waiting to do this for about a month and i didn't want to hold it off another week.

In general I'm pretty satisfied though. The punishment dp was most definitely worth the one week wait. Really impressed with the quality.

Thanks for the feedback

I would be so freaking pissed if I paid $600 for that. I feel bad for you. Those welds suck. I would go back and try to get some of your money back.

 

[oncehuman]

Im not sure if anyone else noticed or not but im gonna point out just becuase. I notced in one of your pics that the grounding straps are no longer connected to your cat. if those were there stock they were there for a reason. dont know if you care or not.

 

[FlatBlackTerror]

Is it just me or do the welds on the cat look like complete shit?

 

[rennat]

Is it just me or do the welds on the cat look like complete shit?

i just saw that too... i just learned how to mig weld a few months ago... and i could do a better job... that some POOR quality stuff.

 

[ClassicalBor]

when youre gonna start doing a lot of work to your car i dont really recommend a regular garage or muffler shop... yeah they specialize in exhausts but thats normally factory crap, but still the concepts are the same, they just dont WANT to do it. IMO use the dealer and pay the extra costs for a better job, or make friendly with a tuner shop in your area big or small... even if its an hour outta the way you know they are taking pride in your car, because its their hobby too

 

[absolute_DSM]

Im with him ^^


You pay for what you get. Those welds are shit.

 

[Splitpi]

Purchase a resonator or two and install them, that will quite the exhaust down without too much power loss. Oh and take it to a different shop to have the resonators welded into place.

I bought two of these from RRE, a 12" and an 18". Course, I went with a 3" exhaust though.

http://www.roadraceengineering.com/exhaustparts.htm

 

[joesansone17]

Sounds like they had a hell of a time with that exhaust system, haha....but I dont even see how you forget to tighten those bolts haha

 

[TSImonkey]

About the welds, they look like shit most definitely, but at least they don't leak. :/

Price, definitely got ripped off, and i am never going there again with any of my future cars. The place is a joke.

Now about the grounding straps...I dont recall seeing any connected, maybe i just didn't know. But i don't think they connected anything back to the cat. def. not any straps. Is it a bad thing if they're not connected? What do they do exactly and why of all places are they connected to the cat?

As far as where I'll be doing work on my car next? I think I'll go to rx4speed in Trenton, it's about an hour away, but they look like a real reliable shop and I've gotten feedback form people on here that it is in fact a good place. so yeah

The resonators look pretty good. I don't know if I'll be needing any though. It seems like every time i fix one thing on this car, another breaks, and i really try to take good care of this car. Now my check engine light went on, putting money on it that its the O2 sensor by the cat because they heated it up to take it out, and the guy said that the light might go on, and it did, and on top of that, the same day i got my exhaust done, my left front lower control arm started squeaking like a bi***, so I'll try and grease it up first, if that doesn't help going to have to find a new one at some junkyard. In conclusion to this last paragraph, I'm pretty sure I'll be selling this car. Hopefully get myself a nice 3000GT VR-4

thanks for the feedback