Milltek Troubles

Richard, get a magnet out and lift your car up. Then you will see that the BMW centre section is completly out of STAINLESS STEEL. (trust an old sheet metal worker).
The end box is mild steel asking for beeing weld all the time where the condensation is collected (btm where the pipes are going in)

Pottsy,
I did scrape the exhaust over speed bumps a few times it has to be said. But nothing major.
The split isn't near the front is it? I mean not where the front part meets the manifolds? I say this because Bexleys bored out the Milltek there to make the internal diameter fit the Sport Evo's larger manifolds. They put weld on the outside of the exhaust to compensate.
My view is that the Milltek is the best sounding exhaust of the lot. It probably makes the most power too. I was told by the Powerstation lads that Milltek designed the exhaust so that the back pressures were spot on and therefore the power was maximised.
It also sounds the best. Supersprints are too quiet, as are genuine BMW exhausts. Scorpions make a horrid noise. Boomy. I have heard that their lack of X-pipe or Y-pipe design leads to less power.
So what now? I note that the Milltek is made in 4 pieces. This is so that cats can be inserted I was told. Perhaps Milltek will send replacement faulty sections instead of a whole new exhaust? Perhaps they will remanufacture some thicker exhausts?
Anyway Pottsy, are you going to Croft in July? I have decided to take the Boxster S. I'll race ya!!

In Classic Cars July 2003 issue Barney from ML advises avoiding stainless as the harsh engine leads to it's cracking, they fit Supersprints.

Get what you pay for? Generally I think so, but the OEM is very expensive. I'm still running the original pipe but had a bit welded last year, so far so good.

Update, spoke to Phil (Millington) at Milltek - most helpful I have to say. He is sending replacement with a welded 'slider' on the front of the box to back up the strength of the weld.
Some points to note...
1. Milltek service - excellent and straightforward
2. Original batches had single skin box, they now have double skin
3. Each exhaust has a Batch 'tag' number printed on the underside. If you have any problems and are speaking to Milltek about it this will help them identify the batch and therefore construction.
4. The box has extra s/s wire holding the packing in to help with heat dispersion as well as the double skin. Phil reckons the two causes are temperature and 'panting' ie. the swap from vacuum (back pressure) to full pressure when on track. He is clear that our noise will 'mature' as this panting causes loss of some material. i suggested replacking and he said its possible and putting more/different material in at the start would help the noise but of course we would pay for performance.

In summary, good response from them. I think we pay the money and take our choice (but a more recent, double skinned milltek will probably be better than ours). From the positive way Phil discussed the issues (I summarised this thread) I wouldnt be surprised if he looked again at the design for some minor tweaks.

Hope all this helps. thanks for your input it helped with the phonecall and Phil appreciated the feedback.

Thats a great response from Milltek, just what you would hope for. Obviously Milltek don't have the financial resources and development time available like BMW and cannot know how their "new" products will last long term.

Keeping them informed of problems to highlight where weaknesses are will help them to develop and improve their product, e.g. now double skinned box.

Don't give up on it chaps, after all did you give up on Microsoft 95, 98, etc at the first sign of trouble?

Maybe Microsoft is a bad example though of how products get improved after time! but you know what I mean.

Kevin

Simon,

Good to hear that you received good service from them.

I seem to remember that each piece of mine had a small plate with a "serial number" type thing on it. Must be the batch number you refer to. It was the same number on each piece. I'm kicking myself because I normally take photos of things like this but I was so keen to get it on the car I didn't. Oh well I will have to crawl under and have a look.

The chap from Milltek didn't happen to mention the batch number when they switched to double skinned did he?

215m3 wrote: Kevin think that's a little sad taking pics of the batch no., the exhaust ok, but the batch no's!! LOL

Toby, Yep it's sad but it would mean that if something bad happened I would still have a record of identification numbers. I guess I might be a bit paranoid.

Dale...result what is the batch number on yours?

Oh & your PM inbox is full

on the back box is msbm095 and no's under that are 25581

Cheers Dale, I have msbm094 & 244x2 so I will call tomorrow to see if mine is double skinned.