jtw
Rover Rookie
Posts: 10 
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Post by jtw on Mar 26, 2015 18:31:22 GMT
There is a company in the Take Five magazine offering P5 Club members a discount on stainless steel exhausts for P5's and P5B's. This company is called GES Ltd and offers a full system for a P5B for a reasonable £568.39. I have recently bought one of these, and the system looks quite good for the money. However it's not exactly standard, and differs from an as new system in two ways, all concerning the middle silencer section. First of all this section is supplied in two pieces, the middle box and then a long pipe section which connects to the front pipes. The other difference, and this is the real problem, this pipe has a flange joint on it where it connects to the front pipes but unlike the original this flange is permanently connect to this pipe, which makes it impossible to feed through the hole in the front subframe. The subframe hole is about 800mm diameter and the flange needs a hole of about 850mm and no amount of wiggling and jiggling or swearing will allow this bit to pass. The original had an oversize flange which was removable and was held together with two collets which the flange tightens against the pipe collar.
I spoke to the company and they advised that they have supplied loads of these, and have never had a problem, I am awaiting their solution. My query to the forum is has anyone else out there bought one of these from this company, and if so how did they make it fit what is the solution?
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Post by harvey on Mar 26, 2015 18:51:51 GMT
You probably have to remove the front pipes and feed the centre pipe through from the front.
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Post by p5tgc on Mar 26, 2015 19:31:55 GMT
Can't feed through from the front as there is a bracket for the support welded on which is also bigger than the hole in the crossmember!
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Post by petervdvelde on Mar 26, 2015 19:57:55 GMT
I bought a SS system from a company called Smink in Holland. When i came home, i found out that some of the pipes were plain steel welded to a SS silencer. When i called them, they were surprised and said that it was no problem. I didnt agree and swapped it for a system which was on one the P5B's which was for sale and recently fitted. I found another SS silencer welded to a plain steel pipe fitted to a parts car i had so this short cut is taken more often.
The system i now have is a full SS system and has a loose flange so no problems there but it doesn't mention a manufacturer.
Peter
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Post by Warwick on Mar 27, 2015 1:55:10 GMT
... I found out that some of the pipes were plain steel welded to a SS silencer. ... That would be my preference anyway. But only if you weren't paying for all stainless, of course. The silencer is the part that rusts out. The standard mild steel pipes last for many years. At least that's been my experience. Are things different in Europe and the UK? Do the pipes rust through? What I don't like about stainless systems is the sound. There's a strange tinny resonance, which I suspect is a result of the thinner wall stainless tube, rather than the muffler. |
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Post by Welsh Warlock on Mar 27, 2015 9:27:05 GMT
There is a company in the Take Five magazine offering P5 Club members a discount on stainless steel exhausts for P5's and P5B's. This company is called GES Ltd and offers a full system for a P5B for a reasonable £568.39. I have recently bought one of these, and the system looks quite good for the money. However it's not exactly standard, and differs from an as new system in two ways, all concerning the middle silencer section. First of all this section is supplied in two pieces, the middle box and then a long pipe section which connects to the front pipes. The other difference, and this is the real problem, this pipe has a flange joint on it where it connects to the front pipes but unlike the original this flange is permanently connect to this pipe, which makes it impossible to feed through the hole in the front subframe. The subframe hole is about 800mm diameter and the flange needs a hole of about 850mm and no amount of wiggling and jiggling or swearing will allow this bit to pass. The original had an oversize flange which was removable and was held together with two collets which the flange tightens against the pipe collar. I spoke to the company and they advised that they have supplied loads of these, and have never had a problem, I am awaiting their solution. My query to the forum is has anyone else out there bought one of these from this company, and if so how did they make it fit what is the solution? Jim, I've been having a think about this since we spoke. What is the internal diameter of the collar on the new exhaust system versus the one on the old system? Have they made the i/d of the collar on the new one smaller such that it won't fit over the bulge in the pipe so it isn't removable as the old one was? Could you cut off the new collar and use the old as I did (but for the different reason I explained? If you're not happy to use the old collar and my thoughts are correct, why not call them and ask them to send you a new collar with the correct i/d as per the old system. |
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Post by p5tgc on Mar 27, 2015 21:41:03 GMT
So, has any forum member successfully fitted an exhaust system sourced from this particular vendor?
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Post by Roy of the Rovers on Apr 9, 2015 14:54:48 GMT
Not me sorry, I've always used Double S in Collumpton Devon. Always good for my P5s and they did my last custom one to my specifications.
If yours doesn't fit then surely its not fit for purpose? They should be bending over backwards to help you find a solution? Perhaps you could ask them for their most recent P5 customers so you can ask them directly?
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jtw
Rover Rookie
Posts: 10
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Post by jtw on Apr 12, 2015 18:14:47 GMT
Hi
I did contact them, and to be fair they offered me my money back, but when I checked with Double S exhausts, (two miles away) there was a 4 week plus lead time, so this was not a great deal of help to me. I explained the problem to GES and they had their workshop manager call me, when I told him the flange problem, he replied they supplied this exhaust with the flange fitted, since the last customer who bought one complained there was no flange!!!!!!!!!! I have since done some filing and cutting and removed the supplied triangular part of the flange, and modified the bell part or the collar, so that it is now the correct diameter to take the collets and the removable flange, as it should be.
It is currently almost fitted to the car, I'm just fiddling with the front down pipes to get a good seal here. I'm hoping to have it finished this week, but the company said they would still give me a refund if I couldn't make it fit properly, in spite of me having modified it somewhat. I think they are going through a bit of a reshuffle at their manufacturing plant, but I will give them and this forum an update when all done.
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jtw
Rover Rookie
Posts: 10
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Post by jtw on May 18, 2015 10:47:45 GMT
Well I finally managed to fit the exhaust after a lot of filing to the intermediate pipe join i.e. where it connects to the front pipe. I managed to get the collets and the flange to fit and appears to have made a gas tight seal. The car runs quite nicely but not just as quiet as it had previously been.
I tried to contact the company to make them aware of the changes they should make to the middle connection, but the telephone rang out and went to their answering machine.
We were booked to take the Rover to the Isle of Man, so of we went, most of the comments made about the car were how good she looked and how well she sounded, so I guess the exhaust is doing its job well.
On our return I tried to view the company's web site, to be advised that this account has been suspended, I also tried to telephone them again to be advised that this number is temporarily out of order, so make of this what you will.
I'm glad the exhaust so far seems to have worked out ok but as for a guarantee for life I'm not sure about that.
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Post by Phil Nottingham on May 18, 2015 17:15:57 GMT
Thanks for the update - SS is not as quiet as steel OEM but they vary a lot
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