R129 SL500 Exhaust
Discussion
Hello
I have recently acquired an R129 SL500 in Tourmaline Green. The colour is irrelevant to this question, but it's the sort of thing you share when talking about your car, isn't it, like apparently it's the done thing to tell everyone how much your baby weighs. I've never really understood why that's of such great importance, but I do wonder how it would go down if you continued introducing your children by weight all the way into adulthood...
'This is my daughter, x. She weighs 10st 6lbs.'
Sorry, bit of a tangent there.
I did search the forums but couldn't find anything on this subject in the last decade or so, so thought it possible to ask anew without incurring any ire. Having bought myself a pretty car with a thumping V8 in it, I'm a little bit sad that it's not as pleasurable to the ear as it is to the eye. To that end I am considering some sort of aftermarket or custom, probably stainless, exhaust system.
Does anyone have any recommendations for good custom exhaust builders they have used for these cars, or somewhere I could pick up a second hand system that would fit the bill (is there an AMG version that would bolt on and release the sweet ear-honey?)? I don't want to be a hooligan annoying the neighbours, I just want a pleasantly audible idle and a lovely V8 soundtrack when I put my foot down.
Thanks
I have recently acquired an R129 SL500 in Tourmaline Green. The colour is irrelevant to this question, but it's the sort of thing you share when talking about your car, isn't it, like apparently it's the done thing to tell everyone how much your baby weighs. I've never really understood why that's of such great importance, but I do wonder how it would go down if you continued introducing your children by weight all the way into adulthood...
'This is my daughter, x. She weighs 10st 6lbs.'
Sorry, bit of a tangent there.
I did search the forums but couldn't find anything on this subject in the last decade or so, so thought it possible to ask anew without incurring any ire. Having bought myself a pretty car with a thumping V8 in it, I'm a little bit sad that it's not as pleasurable to the ear as it is to the eye. To that end I am considering some sort of aftermarket or custom, probably stainless, exhaust system.
Does anyone have any recommendations for good custom exhaust builders they have used for these cars, or somewhere I could pick up a second hand system that would fit the bill (is there an AMG version that would bolt on and release the sweet ear-honey?)? I don't want to be a hooligan annoying the neighbours, I just want a pleasantly audible idle and a lovely V8 soundtrack when I put my foot down.
Thanks
Before I begin - congrats on the R129, I’m as smitten with mine as you appear to be with yours - I even bought a 2nd one. But a note of caution - are you measuring noise by way of in the car with the windows shut & hard-top on, or with the roof down? Obviously, the acoustics are very different, so whatever you end up doing, it’s got to be liveable in both cases!
My suggestion would be to find an exhaust fabricator place close-ish to you and go have a chat with them - explain what you want in terms of noise & when - does it need to be quiet around town & only thunderous at WOT, or whatever, etc - and then see what they come up with.
X-pipes, H-pipes are all possible solutions, or it might be that you just need the back-box replacing with a straight-though pipe, what suits you might not suit me, & vice-versa. In short, any reasonable fabricator should be able to get you to where you want to be, so long as you go in knowing that it might take 3 or 4 attempts to get the sound you want, it won’t be a 30min off the shelf job.
I don’t have any personal experience of places in the Midlands, but if you’re prepared to travel S, Hayward & Scott are good (100’s of M5 owners will agree). Going North, Greenwoods (TG Silencers) in Rochdale know their stuff too. If money’s no object, I’m sure the guys at the SL Shop can sort something too!
My suggestion would be to find an exhaust fabricator place close-ish to you and go have a chat with them - explain what you want in terms of noise & when - does it need to be quiet around town & only thunderous at WOT, or whatever, etc - and then see what they come up with.
X-pipes, H-pipes are all possible solutions, or it might be that you just need the back-box replacing with a straight-though pipe, what suits you might not suit me, & vice-versa. In short, any reasonable fabricator should be able to get you to where you want to be, so long as you go in knowing that it might take 3 or 4 attempts to get the sound you want, it won’t be a 30min off the shelf job.
I don’t have any personal experience of places in the Midlands, but if you’re prepared to travel S, Hayward & Scott are good (100’s of M5 owners will agree). Going North, Greenwoods (TG Silencers) in Rochdale know their stuff too. If money’s no object, I’m sure the guys at the SL Shop can sort something too!
Thank you for the recommendations.
There is a place in Worcester that would be convenient for me, 304 Stainless Exhaust Parts, AKA A44 Exhausts. If as you say it might take a few iterations to get right then using a place that's close to one of my locations would make sense. They seem to have good reviews and appear to be able to do pretty much anything. I might scope them out and start a conversation, and see how I feel about them. I'm not in a great rush, especially with my life up in the air at the moment, but at least starting the research now will put me in a better place when I'm in a position to make it happen.
I will keep MSL in mind as well, they certainly seem to have the pedigree.
Any more personal recommendations are more than welcome.
There is a place in Worcester that would be convenient for me, 304 Stainless Exhaust Parts, AKA A44 Exhausts. If as you say it might take a few iterations to get right then using a place that's close to one of my locations would make sense. They seem to have good reviews and appear to be able to do pretty much anything. I might scope them out and start a conversation, and see how I feel about them. I'm not in a great rush, especially with my life up in the air at the moment, but at least starting the research now will put me in a better place when I'm in a position to make it happen.
I will keep MSL in mind as well, they certainly seem to have the pedigree.
Any more personal recommendations are more than welcome.
MSL - horrible outfit and not a good experience tbh, like driving into somewhere that prepares cars for banger racing, you certainly dont feel like you’re in good hands!
Dont have any recommendations though, sorry, just thought a heads up on my MSL experience might be worth mentioning.
Dont have any recommendations though, sorry, just thought a heads up on my MSL experience might be worth mentioning.
buy_cheap_pay_later said:
Thank you for the recommendations.
There is a place in Worcester that would be convenient for me, 304 Stainless Exhaust Parts, AKA A44 Exhausts.
I phoned them the other day, supply only now, no fitting apparently. Powerflow in Alcester is another alternative, but no personal experience. There is a place in Worcester that would be convenient for me, 304 Stainless Exhaust Parts, AKA A44 Exhausts.
I used a place in centre of Coventry not far from the cathedral and museums a while ago. Quite good, Mr Tyre (I think).
I’m not completely averse to the idea of fitting it myself, although I’ll caveat that with the fact I haven’t spent any time at all under this car yet or doing any research on how difficult that might be. I’ll look at Powerflow too. I’m also not far from Cov at times, so Mr Tyre could be in scope.
What I will say though is that having done some actual maths (not the man variety), I think it’s prudent to put the exhaust idea on ice until I’ve got my new garage (with detached house) and the dust has settled a bit. I have considered most of the expenses that will come with moving into the place but there will inevitably be some I haven’t thought of. I’ll give it a couple of months and come back to it I think, when I’ve got a better idea of how much spare cash I might have left.
Thank you all for your thoughts so far.
What I will say though is that having done some actual maths (not the man variety), I think it’s prudent to put the exhaust idea on ice until I’ve got my new garage (with detached house) and the dust has settled a bit. I have considered most of the expenses that will come with moving into the place but there will inevitably be some I haven’t thought of. I’ll give it a couple of months and come back to it I think, when I’ve got a better idea of how much spare cash I might have left.
Thank you all for your thoughts so far.
BrightonIMD said:
My '97 SL500 had terribly rattly cats, so I got a local LongLife dealer in Sussex to fit 2 new cats, take out the centre muffler and replace it with a stainless Y pipe. Sounds a bit nicer now, but not annoyingly loud with no drone.
I have the same problem on my 1996 SL500. Do you know what brand of cats they used as replacement? Thanks for both the above replies, had seen the BM cats but not the Remus ones.
Only concern I had with the BM cats were from the Merc specialist I use who didn't think they would be big enough/of good enough quality for the engine, even though they are designed for the V8.
We'll see, its in for Service/MOT and some other bits at the moment so will see what they say.
Only concern I had with the BM cats were from the Merc specialist I use who didn't think they would be big enough/of good enough quality for the engine, even though they are designed for the V8.
We'll see, its in for Service/MOT and some other bits at the moment so will see what they say.
J4rvis said:
Thanks for both the above replies, had seen the BM cats but not the Remus ones.
Only concern I had with the BM cats were from the Merc specialist I use who didn't think they would be big enough/of good enough quality for the engine, even though they are designed for the V8.
We'll see, its in for Service/MOT and some other bits at the moment so will see what they say.
Any update since? Also what specialist did you use? I've just bought a 1998 SL500, based in Cheshire East. Only concern I had with the BM cats were from the Merc specialist I use who didn't think they would be big enough/of good enough quality for the engine, even though they are designed for the V8.
We'll see, its in for Service/MOT and some other bits at the moment so will see what they say.
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