10 years ago I bought a stainless steel exhaust system from Moss with a
lifetime guarantee.
3-1/2 years ago at about 40-45K miles I asked for a replacement muffler
because the original one had gotten very loud. The whole exhaust system is
stocked under one part number, so they had to special order the muffler by
itself. It took 3 weeks to get the new muffler. They didn't want the old
one back, told me to toss it out.
This summer, at 95K miles, I had the same problem again, requested another
replacement muffler. Same story, special order for the muffler alone. They
also wanted the old one back this time, charged my account for the new
muffler, would credit my account when the old one was returned (assuming that
they agree it's defective?). This time it took 3 months to come.
Moss' current price for the whole SS exhaust system is $159.95, but the order
said $139.95 (maybe on sale). Their charge for the muffler alone was
$112.90. That seemed a bit much. but I'm expecting to get it back with the
return of the old muffler. If the muffler ever blows out again I think I'll
tell them that I refuse to weld the broken front bracket back on again, and
ask for replacement of the whole system. That way maybe they would send a
whole system off the shelf and avoid the long special order delay.
I thought that the old muffler had lost all the internal baffles or such, so
when I removed it from the car I held it up to the light for a peek through.
What I saw inside was a perforated steel tube with a straight through bore
like a glass pack. The new muffler looks exactly the same, so whatever is
missing has to be out of sight beteween the inner pipe and outter housing.
There did seem to be a difference in weight, so I weighed them both. New
muffler is 16-1/2 pounds, old muffler is 15 pounds even, so seems to be
missing 1-1/2 pounds of stuffing. Whatever that 1-1/2 pounds of material is,
it sure makes a lot of difference in the sould level.
I was also concerned for a while about back pressure, but with the straight
through design I don't think it's an issue.
Anybody else have these things blow out and get noisy?
Barney Gaylord --1958 MGA
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