Gutting stock muffler?
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From: Carbondale Illinois
2002 mercedes c230 kompressor coupe (CL203)
Gutting stock muffler?
Ive been thinking about what type of exhaust work I want to do on my c230 and I already know that no muffler is way too loud and droney and that the muffler on there now is way to quiet for my liking. Im not sure where I got this idea but I had the though that maybe I could pop open the stock muffler and remove a lot of the fiberglass that is in there from the factory and by doing that preserve the original geometry that was in the muffler from stock and by removing the glass and deadening mats get more sound without having an aftermarket muffler. Has anyone done this before with the w203? I know ive seen a w211 e55 amg with this type of modification done but I cant seem to find anything like that for the c230. All the youtube videos are just "yeah so my car doesnt have a muffler check this out" and ive already been there and hated it
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Joined: Jan 2024
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From: Carbondale Illinois
2002 mercedes c230 kompressor coupe (CL203)
coupe, Ill be recording when i cut into it today so Ill add anything I learn to this thread, not sure what material the exhaust is to get the right welding rods. any idea? I was thinking maybe stainless but it doesnt look clean enough and its rusted in some spots. And it definitely doesnt look galvanized. My best bet is maybe an aluminum coating or something.
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w203cl
The bottom half is ca. 1 mm stainless steel, maybe 1.2 mm, the upper half is two 0.8 or thinner stainless sheet metals in a wave like bend style which like to crack. I tried to replace the upper half with a thicker sheet but my welding skills are too bad to do this. So I weld the at least 20 cracks together from time to time.
I'm really curious if you can do it and how.
I'm really curious if you can do it and how.
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Joined: Jun 2002
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From: So. Oregon Coast
C230 Sport Coup + 2006 W164 ML350 + 99 Ford Escort RIP
I can tell you... I had supersprint header and Remus exhaust.
With my foot in it, it was VERY loud and the header ate Cats for breakfast.
Improved low end torque very nice. I got tired of sweating bullets every 2 years for
smog and also it kept blowing exhaust gaskets and Cats, went back to stock manifold.
Then I eventually just sick of all the noise in cabin on the freeway and the sound it made, not very appealing, except low revs it had nice burble. I put in a extra muffler (AR20) which helped a little to clean up the sound but it failed pretty quicky (listed in my sig).
So then I removed the Remus and went back to stock. I honestly will say, don't destroy yoiur stock muffler. You will likely want to use it again someday and it's not a very common design to say the least. And FYI yes both pieces were sold.
If you haven't removed your supercharger muffler i highly suggest it.
Sounds like an F16 at takeoff on acceleration. I never get tired of that sound.
With my foot in it, it was VERY loud and the header ate Cats for breakfast.
Improved low end torque very nice. I got tired of sweating bullets every 2 years for
smog and also it kept blowing exhaust gaskets and Cats, went back to stock manifold.
Then I eventually just sick of all the noise in cabin on the freeway and the sound it made, not very appealing, except low revs it had nice burble. I put in a extra muffler (AR20) which helped a little to clean up the sound but it failed pretty quicky (listed in my sig).
So then I removed the Remus and went back to stock. I honestly will say, don't destroy yoiur stock muffler. You will likely want to use it again someday and it's not a very common design to say the least. And FYI yes both pieces were sold.
If you haven't removed your supercharger muffler i highly suggest it.
Sounds like an F16 at takeoff on acceleration. I never get tired of that sound.
Last edited by C230 Sport Coup; Mar 11, 2025 at 04:26 PM.
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From: Carbondale Illinois
2002 mercedes c230 kompressor coupe (CL203)
well Ive got it gutted, welding it together currently mine had the double layers on top and bottom which I honestly hate because i have to weld both sheets individually. So far Ive been able to weld it fine, Ive just got to be really slow with it. Ive had some luck with using the method body panel guys do, stitch welding i think its called. Its also warping like crazy as I weld so its not gonna turn out looking oem. Another issue im having is that Im using the welder i left at my parents house and it may be the ****tiest mig welder know to humankind. Im estimating that the lowest amperage setting (it claims its ten) is somewhere around 60 so im really fighting it to not blow through.
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From: Carbondale Illinois
2002 mercedes c230 kompressor coupe (CL203)
no worries there! I went and found another exhaust before I started this so Ill have it waiting should i ever need it. that 2002 c230 I found at a pick and pull has been a real help Im honestly shocked i could find one.
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From: Carbondale Illinois
2002 mercedes c230 kompressor coupe (CL203)
I also plan to do a fully custom exhaust eventually, when I get access to a welding space that has room for it. I already have some headers done that will fit the engine but I couldnt make them fit up to the stock cats so that wont go on until I have space and a tig machine to fab a whole system, when i do that I may just go catless because my state doesnt do emissions. Unless the car throws a fit about it in which case Ill just have to weld in the stock cats
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MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,266
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From: So. Oregon Coast
C230 Sport Coup + 2006 W164 ML350 + 99 Ford Escort RIP
Where are you located? Yes, I SOOO miss picknpull. I waited years for these cars to appear there and pulled parts here and there which have come in handy, Floor shifters for the automatic trans are a hot item. $700 new on Amazon, 200 on ebay 30 at PP or 15 on 1/2 off day. They disappaear the moment they show up and the connectors vary on different years so getting the exact one is a challenge,. Glad I had a spare, I ended up needing it,
Grabbed a C7(nubs) steering wheel and had it refinished at shoe repair shop swapped, so nice and clean!
If I had electric seats I'd grab some CLK seats, on $20 seat day!
And some Miata leather seats for my Escort would be nice.
I want to do an engine swap but I'd need to drive 400 miles to pick one up in Sacramento,
Arrgh
Grabbed a C7(nubs) steering wheel and had it refinished at shoe repair shop swapped, so nice and clean!
If I had electric seats I'd grab some CLK seats, on $20 seat day!
And some Miata leather seats for my Escort would be nice.
I want to do an engine swap but I'd need to drive 400 miles to pick one up in Sacramento,
Arrgh
Last edited by C230 Sport Coup; Mar 11, 2025 at 05:05 PM.
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From: Carbondale Illinois
2002 mercedes c230 kompressor coupe (CL203)
im in Illinois usually, the picknpull i found it at is right outside st louis and was only like an hour drive for me. Ive been keeping my eyes peeled for a c32 amg at a junkyard because if I could get brakes like that itd save me a bunch, I actually know someone with a 2002 cl55 amg that he got for like 3500 and has driving and running well now, its such a sick car, im not jealous of how much his parts cost though. Especially with all the fancier stuff on that car breaking periodically.
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w203cl
crack
patch
patch2
Do you have some pictures of the welded muffler? (I used stainless flux core wire)
PS: I totally agree to remove the charger muffler.
Last edited by 112233; Mar 11, 2025 at 06:21 PM.
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From: Carbondale Illinois
2002 mercedes c230 kompressor coupe (CL203)
heres a quick video of the finished job, quite possibly the worst welds i have laid since I was 15 but I pressure tested it and it held at 30 psi so itll do.
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From: Carbondale Illinois
2002 mercedes c230 kompressor coupe (CL203)
not a single crack on either of the mufflers i have, maybe I got lucky with the alloy that happened to be used for mine or something.
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From: Carbondale Illinois
2002 mercedes c230 kompressor coupe (CL203)
haha i forgot to get a sound test, I was also doing suspension today and have discovered I need to replace basically the whole front end so ive been trying to figure out how the heck ill get that done before I have to drive back to college. sound test incoming shortly!
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From: Carbondale Illinois
2002 mercedes c230 kompressor coupe (CL203)
here it is, as I suspected it stays pretty quiet on the low end and seems to be missing a lot of the lower tones all around (I suspect thats why theres no drone, the stock exhaust was most likely designed to cancel out those lower frequencies that couldn't be absorbed in the muffler by the glass and steel wool) honestly i dont hate it, wish it had more low end but inside the car it sounds almost identical to stock which is interesting
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From: Carbondale Illinois
2002 mercedes c230 kompressor coupe (CL203)
i guess thats what I have, the muffler section bolts right on to the cat. Might be the quietest sport muffler Ive heard though, cant complain all that much because it definitely saved me the effort of cutting out the resonator from that section.
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2010 ML350
I also had the same question about clearing the muffler a long time ago, sadly this is the first post I see about it but I have already done it. It sounded alright but I wanted more out of it so I just ended up cutting the muffler off. Here are the results of both setups...
Last edited by Dimon8; Mar 22, 2025 at 08:22 PM.
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From: San Antonio, TX
2005 C55 AMG
I've always wondered what a Flowmaster muffler would sound like on a European car since they're open resonator cans with sound cancelling baffles... That might just give you that deeper sound you're looking for without the obnoxious drone (or fart can sound).
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Joined: Jan 2024
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From: Carbondale Illinois
2002 mercedes c230 kompressor coupe (CL203)
i always thought the way you get rid of the drone is by having bends that are a certian length that causes the droning frequency to like cancel itself out. maybe that was some more fancy stuff.
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From: Carbondale Illinois
2002 mercedes c230 kompressor coupe (CL203)
Thread Starter
Member
Joined: Jan 2024
Posts: 151
Likes: 7
From: Carbondale Illinois
2002 mercedes c230 kompressor coupe (CL203)
I also had the same question about clearing the muffler a long time ago, sadly this is the first post I see about it but I have already done it. It sounded alright but I wanted more out of it so I just ended up cutting the muffler off. Here are the results of both setups...
Cleared Muffler
Cleared Muffler
