Cost of Uninstalling/Installing Exhaust...

[cohenfive]

i bought my early 11 e92 m3 with an installed aftermarket exhaust (magnaflow). i'm not sure if there are any noticeable performance gains, but i'm not all that enamored with the sound of the exhaust in every day driving. when you really get on it, the car sounds amazing, but in normal driving there is a bit of a drone that we don't love. anyway, i'm thinking about whether it might make sense to uninstall it and put back an oem exhaust (which i would have to buy).

is this a silly thing to do? also, is there any market for a used exhaust (13k miles of easy driving)? if i could net out flat including labor i might be tempted. thanks.

[Mr.MichaelM3]

I'd say its a litte silly. AN OEM exhaust is gonna cost you mad $. Unless you buy it used. Another thing is your going to miss the exhaust once you go back to stock. TRUST ME.

[Mr.MichaelM3]

OR you can buy an OEM BMW PERFORMANCE EXHAUST. Literally no drone aftermarket exhaust.

[cohenfive]

it does sound great when i'm on it, maybe that's the answer...just get on it more...likely if i swapped, it would be used for used, in which case i'd probably be taking out money. the used oem exhausts i see are almost free....that is not the main goal however.

do people really notice any performance gains with these exhausts? i see the claims, but in the real world is there any difference? the only e92 m3 i've ever driven is the one i own....with the exhaust already installed so it is my only reference point.

thx

[mmm def]

You're probably looking around $100-$150 labor to swap them out at a shop if you go that route. How long have you had the car? You might get used to it if you wait a bit. Bottom line if you aren't happy, do something about it. Most people on here love an aftermarket exhaust, and if you do like the sound then consider swapping it for another aftermarket with less drone. The Magnaflow from what I have researched has a lot of drone. I have a B&B on mine, and there is barely any drone at all.

[cohenfive]

i may look around a bit for a used one, but i've been living with this for a year now and it doesn't kill me....looks like a used oem exhaust is almost free, but not so with any of the 'good' aftermarket systems. not sure what the market would bear for a lightly used (13k of easy miles) magnaflow..it sure sounds great when you are anywhere but around 2k rpms....wish they had tuned the sound just a bit better.

[roddyc]

I paid $150 in labor when I had someone swap an exhaust for me, have done it a couple times myself since then and its really not that bad once you know where all the bolts are. Took me about 30 min to get my exhaust off last time I did it.

I would guess that you could interest someone in your area to do a straight swap for labor and OEM exhaust, but if not, an OEM exhaust should run around $150 if you are patient enough to have one pop up in your area.

Not sure how much you could sell your Magnaflow for, if you wanted to go that route, but I would guess around $500?

[Team Plutonium]

Dude, you can pick up a OEM exhaust for free.... just call around your local tuners... IND for example has about 50 laying around.... but before I'd go down that path I'd get the Akra... no drone, sounds awesome.

[persian54]

Used OEM goes for 100-150?

you can prly get like 300 for your magnaflow... IF you find someone who wants it

get an Akra! or the BMW Perf one

[cohenfive]

i don't want to spend thousands of dollar on this...which likely means either keeping as is, or downgrading to the oem....which i probably won't do.

[crabman]

Get a take off stock unit and have it OEM modded. It sounds to me like you would likely want to use the long pipe replacement rather than both or the straight through method. Put it on your car and sell the magnaflow part. Depending on how parsimonious you want to get with shopping the take off and patient selling the magna you can get out near zero spend and have an exhaust that does not drone and isn't as anemic as stock.

[tibra1]

I just took off n kept my stock exhaust ..purchased a used one.. moded it..painted it..instant growl...$400 all in..sounds good to me..

[CCLSVTM3]

Originally Posted by mmm def

You're probably looking around $100-$150 labor to swap them out at a shop if you go that route. How long have you had the car? You might get used to it if you wait a bit. Bottom line if you aren't happy, do something about it. Most people on here love an aftermarket exhaust, and if you do like the sound then consider swapping it for another aftermarket with less drone. The Magnaflow from what I have researched has a lot of drone. I have a B&B on mine, and there is barely any drone at all.

Yeah it does.... I have a Magnaflow exhaust and it does drone a lot below 2000 rpm!!!! I try to keep it at about 3k rpm and it sounds awesome... I bought the exhaust used so it was cheap... I'll prob switch later on in life cause the drone is bad....