Vorsteiner exhaust - Hello titanium, goodbye overhang

[M3 Chris]

That is the exact exhaust I am looking for. It looks badass. I love how the tips are thin and not as thick as the Eisenmann's.

Now i just need to hear it with DCT....!

[SV Concepts III]

Originally Posted by M3 Chris

That is the exact exhaust I am looking for. It looks badass. I love how the tips are thin and not as thick as the Eisenmann's.

Now i just need to hear it with DCT....!

Hopefully we'll get videos of that soon, have a few sent out!

[JEllis]

Need more vids!

[badfish]

Originally Posted by JEllis

Need more vids!

I put another 70 miles on the car and it's sounding just a tad different. I will try to have some new videos or sound recorded next week with a better camera and mic.

[badfish]

In case some of you might be wondering about the quality of the exhaust, namely the welds, I took some close ups the other day.

This first picture is a closeup of the Dixis E92 M3 Titanium exhaust. Note the color and the edge around the canister and how the bracket is welded onto the pipe.



Now here are images of the Vorsteiner exhaust. I took pictures everywhere I could. Rest assured, all the welds have a consistency about them and I can't find any trouble spots.








So there is a difference and I would have to say the welds on the Vorsteiner look a lot better. Look at the solid bead on the bracket and the bead around the canister. You can draw your own conclusions.

For reference here is the welding color chart for titanium.

[Bobby_Light]

Nice vids. Perfect sound.

[ChaneRZ]

sounds hella mean.

[JEllis]

Quality looks awesome

[Bimmer Nerd]

Originally Posted by ///Mantis

yah im sure. even sound clips arent good enough as much as hearing in person.

wow 38 pounds, that's like the difference in my weight after i take a #2

lol your not afraid to express your self huh hhaha same here bro but i don't take that big of # 2, it takes me 3 min.


ohhh back to the OP, the exhaust looks really nice, the sound is really deep, the weight savings is outrageous.

[Battle]

Great looking exhaust, to tell you the truth I was worried about Vorsteiners exhaust because I have been hearing personal oppinions about the Aero fitments, thats the reason I didnt get their exhaust. Seeing from your pics they do look excellent quality. U did make me worried because I do have the Dixis exhaust waiting to get installed on Monday, I think the picture of the Dixis is just a bad unit? I do have pics of mine and they do not look like that. I have not seen the exhaust in person, I will examine it very well, if I notice anything that looks like the pics you have of them I will refuse it and send it back.

Originally Posted by badfish

In case some of you might be wondering about the quality of the exhaust, namely the welds, I took some close ups the other day.

This first picture is a closeup of the Dixis E92 M3 Titanium exhaust. Note the color and the edge around the canister and how the bracket is welded onto the pipe.



Now here are images of the Vorsteiner exhaust. I took pictures everywhere I could. Rest assured, all the welds have a consistency about them and I can't find any trouble spots.



So there is a difference and I would have to say the welds on the Vorsteiner look a lot better. Look at the solid bead on the bracket and the bead around the canister. You can draw your own conclusions.

For reference here is the welding color chart for titanium.

[badfish]

Originally Posted by Arsenal

Great looking exhaust, to tell you the truth I was worried about Vorsteiners exhaust because I have been hearing personal oppinions about the Aero fitments, thats the reason I didnt get their exhaust. Seeing from your pics they do look excellent quality. U did make me worried because I do have the Dixis exhaust waiting to get installed on Monday, I think the picture of the Dixis is just a bad unit? I do have pics of mine and they do not look like that. I have not seen the exhaust in person, I will examine it very well, if I notice anything that looks like the pics you have of them I will refuse it and send it back.

Hi, I think this might be a pic of your exhaust. I borrowed it from m3forum.net from a pic that one of the Autotalent guys posted. It showed some pics very similar to the ones you posted. Here is a link to the thread. Maybe it's just a bad apple? I honestly have to say that will the discussion about titanium cracking at the welds, welds that look like ones in the Dixis picture I would be most worried about.

This picture of yours below looks like the picture of the trouble area I posted. See how the bracket is welded on spotty and the burn marks match?


Then in this other picture you posted, the shell on the muffler almost does not seem like it's sealed at the edges.

[lucid]

Originally Posted by badfish

No, not all the way to the front but it's bolt on near the axle. Remus and Eisenmann require you to hack off the muffler and use the OEM pipes. It's similar to the picture below, but now imagine that those pipes are a lot straighter. The hack and clamp on exhausts usually end where those brackets are...

How were they able to straighten out the pipes? Don't they need to go around the diff and suspension parts? I can't see pics of the uncarriage of your car (I assume you posted them at some point, but they aren't showing).

[badfish]

Originally Posted by lucid

How were they able to straighten out the pipes? Don't they need to go around the diff and suspension parts? I can't see pics of the uncarriage of your car (I assume you posted them at some point, but they aren't showing).

It still goes around the underside but the angles are not so sharp. There was a lot of time spent figuring out how to make the pipe as straight as possible. I'll try to take pics next time my car is lifted.

[ihyln]

Please upload to the forum if possible, the flickr images aren't showing up

[Patricius]

This still only comes with a 1 year warranty correct? Or did they change that? I'd be hard pressed to buy an exhaust from a company that A) Hasn't ever produced an exhaust and B) Doesn't believe in it's quality beyond 12 months.

[ihyln]

It still has a 1yr warranty. For us Northeasterners the welds cracking due to temperature difference is a real concern.

gonna stick with stock for a while.

[lucid]

Originally Posted by badfish

It still goes around the underside but the angles are not so sharp. There was a lot of time spent figuring out how to make the pipe as straight as possible. I'll try to take pics next time my car is lifted.

OK, thanks!

[Patricius]

Originally Posted by ihyln

It still has a 1yr warranty. For us Northeasterners the welds cracking due to temperature difference is a real concern.

gonna stick with stock for a while.

To me this lack of "conforming" with a fairly universal industry standard (even with Borla) screams that Vorsteiner does not know how durable their exhaust system will be and therefore will not agree to stand behind it for more than 12 months.

Pretty harsh statement, but I can't think of any other reason why they would limit their warranty. That being said, I've generally gotten great pieces from Vorsteiner historically for my e46.

[badfish]

Originally Posted by Patricius

To me this lack of "conforming" with a fairly universal industry standard (even with Borla) screams that Vorsteiner does not know how durable their exhaust system will be and therefore will not agree to stand behind it for more than 12 months.

What do you mean by lack of conforming? The muffler shop that put my Vorsteiner exhaust on praised the fitment as being excellent and easy to install. Incidentally, they talked about a Borla exhaust system that they installed on a Corvette that had to be hacked and bent to make it fit and they ended up dropping the line because of that and poor customer service.

I'm not trying to start a comparison here but I did some research on titanium exhaust warranties. The Ericsson exhaust which costs about $11,500 for the header back and $6900 for the rear section has no warranty.

Gruppe-M is about $5300 and has a 2 week warranty.

So the Vorsteiner exhaust comes in at a lower price point and comes with a warranty that neither of the other titanium exhausts come close to.

While I was researching, I found this post about the Dixis Ti exhaust for the E46 M3. It seems that the weak point was the weld at the hanger as I pointed out in my previous post. I keep going under my car and inspecting the welds and it's hard for me to imagine that the welds on my exhaust would ever crack. On the hangers, it's a thick solid bead on both sides of the bracket where it meets the muffler. All welds are very strong high quality welds within the accepted weld range colors for titanium. I have to wonder if anyone that had problems with the welds cracking ever had welds of this quality crack.

I also have several friends running high quality titanium exhausts like ARC for several years and have not had cracking issues.

Hi res image of the hanger welds below.

[e46e92love]

Originally Posted by badfish

I ran with one for a few weeks. They wanted to improve on a few things like the piping design. The BMW zig-zag is very inefficient, almost ridiculous, and now the pipe is shorter than before, less curves.

Originally Posted by badfish

No, not all the way to the front but it's bolt on near the axle. Remus and Eisenmann require you to hack off the muffler and use the OEM pipes. It's similar to the picture below, but now imagine that those pipes are a lot straighter. The hack and clamp on exhausts usually end where those brackets are...

If BMW's zig-zag design is so efficient, why would anyone want to straighten things out?

[badfish]

Originally Posted by e46e92love

If BMW's zig-zag design is so efficient, why would anyone want to straighten things out?

I said it was inefficient, not efficient. So more zig-zag means a longer pipe and more resistance. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, right?

[Patricius]

Eisenmann - Lifetime warranty
Remus - Lifetime warranty
Borla - Lifetime warranty

Meisterschaft - 1 year warranty - had cracking problems (among "others")
Supersprint - 3 year warranty - had issues on e46 M3 Race Exhaust

My point is that I've noticed a trend among exhaust manufacturers. My casual observations are that those with limited warranties are the ones that are failing more than those with lifetime warranties.

I would guess that manufacturers of products with limited warranties anticipate that their quality isn't up to 100% snuff or they would have the stones to set forth a more consumer-friendly warranty. It doesn't exude much confidence beyond 12 months is all I'm saying.