Has anyone questioned your exhaust?

CobraRLC

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I am thinking of installing a x pipe w/ cats and a catback soon after I take delivery of my cobra. I was wondering what the service writers have been saying when you have brought your Cobra in for service? I have heard that SVT is okay with the mod of CAI and Catback, but what has been your experience with the x pipe? :rolling:
 

jshen

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My local SVT

South GA...was ok with cat back and was silent on CAI. He suggested that I not do X pipe w/cats.....but gonna do it anyway and then I'll be done until my 3/36,000 is up.

As for my Magnaflow cat back...my neighbors hate me...and I love it! :lol:
 

CobraRLC

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Thanks for your responce. I will have to make a choice soon. My Cobra is being built around the 12th of this month.
 

JKD COBRA

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the dealer I went to said "you know, I think your exhaust messes with your warranty" but I explained to him how it does not void the warranty. They shouldn't give you too much trouble about it, but even if they do your ok with exhaust.
 

davidmax

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If heaven forbid your motor BLEW they would still be legally liable for the repair even if you ran open pipe with cats.Dave S.
 

harry gilbert

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Originally posted by KevinJKD
the dealer I went to said "you know, I think your exhaust messes with your warranty" but I explained to him how it does not void the warranty. They shouldn't give you too much trouble about it, but even if they do your ok with exhaust.

:lol: :lol: Yeah, I'm going to "explain" to my dealer that he's wrong. My experience is that he laughs in my face and says, "We make the rules. If you don't agree, go get a lawyer and sue me. Ford has lots of lawyers and will tie you up in expensive litigation. Meanwhile, we won't honor your warranty". :bash:

Fighting a big company can be done, it's not cheap or easy. My dealer has tactfully suggested that ANY mods are "not warranty friendly" and has reserved the right to decline warranty coverage if they feel a mod caused a problem. This was in response to asking about having the dealer install Ford FR500 exhaust. The dealer says this would void the warranty because a change in backpressure would change the parameters and the computer was programmed to meet the stock exhaust parameters. BS? Probably, but who is presumed by law to be the expert?

In theory, they have to "prove" the mod caused the problem. Who do you think will have an easier time of hiring technical "experts" to testify that the mod caused the engine to run outside of it's factory parameters and thus caused the failure, which voids the warranty. If you have wheelbarrows of money, you can hire "experts" to testify on your behalf. Who do you think a jury will believe? And what will it cost you? My last experience with civil lawsuits is they start at $10,000 and go up.
 
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GreySnake

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Originally posted by harry gilbert
In theory, they have to "prove" the mod caused the problem. Who do you think will have an easier time of hiring technical "experts" to testify that the mod caused the engine to run outside of it's factory parameters and thus caused the failure, which voids the warranty. If you have wheelbarrows of money, you can hire "experts" to testify on your behalf. Who do you think a jury will believe? And what will it cost you? My last experience with civil lawsuits is they start at $10,000 and go up.

Well, maybe yes but probably no in my opinion. Most of the time, it is not in the manufacturer's nor the dealer's best interest to take it to court. More often than not, they are going to pay off on the warranty unless it is a blatant case to void it straight away. It costs THEM a lot to hire the experts you speak of, not to mention those fancy lawyers. Furthermore it costs THEM in public relations every time they take a customer to court....it can cost a dealer much more in sales than the case itself. It's not as lopsided an issue as most people think.
 

KenCobra03

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Just a note:
I have heard that installing a X pipe with cats
is only good for 5 rwhp.The stock H pipe isn't
that bad, and you pay for the catted X pipe and
only get 5 more horse? The catback system seems
to be where the restriction lies.They can give up to
15 more rwhp.The 2 1/2 " pipes make the engine
loose back pressure and you loose power.
I think X pipes are a waste unless you heavily mod
your car.
 

bassin247

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Have you seen a factory x-pipe? When this 03 cobra section first started and I remember a lot of debate on what exactly choked the exhaust. When everything was said and done, the consensus was the X-Pipe and not the catback.
 

Cobra'03

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Originally posted by KenCobra03
Just a note:
I have heard that installing a X pipe with cats
is only good for 5 rwhp.The stock H pipe isn't
that bad, and you pay for the catted X pipe and
only get 5 more horse? The catback system seems
to be where the restriction lies.They can give up to
15 more rwhp.The 2 1/2 " pipes make the engine
loose back pressure and you loose power.
I think X pipes are a waste unless you heavily mod
your car.

Incorrect. You do not "loose" anything from a reduction in backpressure. It's all about flow velocity, which is mostly a function of exhaust tenmperature and the pulse alignment (tuning) of the exhaust flow. 2.5 is perfect for most of the mods people run here, and it both sounds better and produces more power than stock. If reducing backpressure causes a loss in power, why not run a 1.75" system from the old GT's?
 

Tin Knocker

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I asked the service manager when I bought my car and he said if they can prove your mod caused the damage then it wouldn't be cover under warrenty
 

logan_yomtov

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i've been to a few dealerships and i told them i had cai and exhaust and non of them cared. I asked if those mods would be held against my warranty and they all said no.
 

Shadowgray03

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Originally posted by logan_yomtov
i've been to a few dealerships and i told them i had cai and exhaust and non of them cared. I asked if those mods would be held against my warranty and they all said no.
I havent talked to my dealer about it yet, but if mine gives me any slack I will goto one of the other 3 SVT dealers in town. I find it laughable that they can say an exhaust/catback or CAI can cause any problems. Im also a member of a F150 chapter in my state and hardly any of them have stock exhaust or intake and none of them get hassled. It almost seems that more trucks have modified exhaust than cars these days.
 

Orange Poison

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I have an X-pipe on right now.....but I have my stock H-pipe just in case I need to swap back in.

Come to think of it.....If I had to do it over again....I would have just left the H-pipe on and put a more muscle car sounding catback like a Flowmaster or Mac.
 

bosscobra

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Do any mods you want........if you have a problem........when you take it to Ford......tell them I said your warranty is good....you read it on the internet on a message board........got it?????
 

351MachOne

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Originally posted by harry gilbert
:lol: :lol: Yeah, I'm going to "explain" to my dealer that he's wrong. My experience is that he laughs in my face and says, "We make the rules. If you don't agree, go get a lawyer and sue me. Ford has lots of lawyers and will tie you up in expensive litigation. Meanwhile, we won't honor your warranty". :bash:

Fighting a big company can be done, it's not cheap or easy. My dealer has tactfully suggested that ANY mods are "not warranty friendly" and has reserved the right to decline warranty coverage if they feel a mod caused a problem. This was in response to asking about having the dealer install Ford FR500 exhaust. The dealer says this would void the warranty because a change in backpressure would change the parameters and the computer was programmed to meet the stock exhaust parameters. BS? Probably, but who is presumed by law to be the expert?

In theory, they have to "prove" the mod caused the problem. Who do you think will have an easier time of hiring technical "experts" to testify that the mod caused the engine to run outside of it's factory parameters and thus caused the failure, which voids the warranty. If you have wheelbarrows of money, you can hire "experts" to testify on your behalf. Who do you think a jury will believe? And what will it cost you? My last experience with civil lawsuits is they start at $10,000 and go up.

You don't sue Ford. You sue the Dealership. And NO ford will not intervene, they dont care.

I am speaking from experience by the way.
 

KenCobra03

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As far as larger pipes causing lower back pressure.
I saw a post of a person with an 03 Cobra who put
on Kooks Long tube headers ONLY, and he was upset
that on a dyno he LOST horsepower and torque.I saved
it somewhere on my computer.How can someone say
that reduced back pressure can't cause lower horsepower
and torque? This guy had other mods on his car, but the
Kooks LT's were on and then he got a dyno for results.
 

Cobra'03

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Originally posted by KenCobra03
As far as larger pipes causing lower back pressure.
I saw a post of a person with an 03 Cobra who put
on Kooks Long tube headers ONLY, and he was upset
that on a dyno he LOST horsepower and torque.I saved
it somewhere on my computer.How can someone say
that reduced back pressure can't cause lower horsepower
and torque? This guy had other mods on his car, but the
Kooks LT's were on and then he got a dyno for results.

Citing anecdotal dyno results as proof of a scientific issue proves nothing, other than the likelihood that some other factor than the issue in question caused the result.
Read and learn:

BACKPRESSURE = TORQUE?
The Forum mantra: Engines need some backpressure to work properly and make torque. That is not true. What engines need is low backpressure, but high exhaust stream velocity. A fast-moving but free-flowing gas column in the exhaust helps create a rarefaction or a negative pressure wave behind the exhaust valve as it opens. This vacuum helps scavenge the cylinder of exhaust gas faster and more thoroughly with less pumping losses. An exhaust pipe that is too big in diameter has low backpressure but lower velocity. The low velocity reduces the effectiveness of this scavenging effect, which has the greatest impact on low-end torque.

Low backpressure and high exhaust stream velocity can be achieved by running straight-through free-flowing mufflers and small pipe diameters. The only two exceptions to this are turbocharged engines and engines optimized for large amounts of nitrous oxide. Both of these devices vastly increase the exhaust gas volume and simply need larger pipes to get rid of it all.

So, for a basically stock Cobra, stick with something like a 2.5" SS exhaust, which will lower backpressure AND keep exhaust velocities high, due to the pipe diameter and SS's tendency to lose less heat tham aluminumized steel.

3" exhausts may be a benefit if you have greatly upped air flow through the engine, have gone to longtubes, or the like.
 

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