Exhaust Replacement
by Michael Hornisher
New Jersey Chapter
BMW CCA Bulletin
My older 325e needed a muffler replacement. Several holes had appeared in the tail pipe, at the front of the muffler and at the rear of the resonator. The cost of a catalytic converter back system (cat back) from the dealer was over $600. Midas gave me an estimate of $295. An ad in Roundel had a system by Ansa for just $125.
I gave the mail order place a call on a Friday using a charge card. A week later it was delivered UPS to the house. I brought the two rear rubber hangers by mail for $4.50 each and the front rubber hanger for $2.25. A front joint gasket was $4.95 by mail and $9.18 at the dealer. Even with $9.43 in shipping on the system, the Ansa unit was less than half of the Midas system and one-third the dealer's.
But what about installation? That's the beauty of a cat back system,. all the welding is done and it just bolts right on. All you need are some 12 and 13 mm sockets, a short extension, ratchet, some jackstands and a good work area. Total time to remove the old system about 40 minutes, most of which was needed to free up the three frozen bolts at the front of the system. Be sure to use anti seize compound on all bolts during reassembly. Putting the new system on took about 30 minutes, with a few minutes off for a beer. OK, it was more than a beer. Oh all right, it was more than a few minutes. Anyway it didn't take a lot of time and I saved a pile of money. The only problem was disposing of the old system, but you can figure that out for yourself. The new system now sounds great and it no longer leaks.