cost of Turbo-back exhaust

[rallysam]

Hey guys,

I've probably read in a dozen places on this board that the cheapest way to get a TBE is to get a custom fab job for $500 or less. That's not the numbers I am seeing at all. I've shopped around and gotten 3 quotes now that are astronomically higher than that.

* Performance Shop 1: $1300 (concrete quote after taking measurements and looking up parts)
* Performance Shop 2: $800 (ballparked)
* Performance Shop 3: $1000 (ballparked)

That's parts + labor. Most of the cost is parts ($950 in parts alone for quote 1).

Here are my specs, maybe the discrepancy is that I am asking for something relatively nicer than the systems you guys are talking about for $500:

* 3" all the way
* stainless, mandrel bent
* high flow cat
* high flow muffler

Anyways, I don't necessarily need advice about what to do next. Instead, I'm mostly just curious to spark a little discussion.

[Legacy777]

your prices are high because you're asking for SS.

[rallysam]

Oh really? I don't know anything about the material choice issues, that spec basically just made the list based on what the shops recommended.

What is the cheaper alternative and are there any tradeoffs? If the only advantage of stainless is having a bling look, then I don't care. I will tell them to downgrade and save some real money.

[Legacy777]

SS is typically at least 1.5 times the cost of mild steel. Or at least it is for the equipment we buy at work.

Also, non-mandrel bends would be cheaper, but no idea on how much cheaper.

The trade off with SS and mild steel is corosion protection. The SS is going to last, while the mild steel may not last, especially in the salt belt.

[Psychoreo]

i got a ballpark for mine at $350-$450 parts and labor

[irishsetter]

Mine was 325 solid for a turbo back with a magna flow muff. Hey what do you guys think about magna flow?

[rightandtight]

I'm having a 3" mild steel exhaust made up next week with muffler and resonator. My mechanic told me the mild steel pipe is 1/5 of the price of stainless.

It will rust a bit, but I figure it's a 12 year old car, in 3-4 years I'll have newer sled to drive around. I'll just spray paint that b*tch high-temp flat black and run it. Hopefully it will give me a reason to wash my car more often.

[rallysam]

i got a ballpark for mine at $350-$450 parts and labor

Mine was 325 solid for a turbo back with a magna flow muff. Hey what do you guys think about magna flow?

Argh! For these prices, are both of you guys talking about mild steel?

I'm having a 3" mild steel exhaust made up next week with muffler and resonator. My mechanic told me the mild steel pipe is 1/5 of the price of stainless.

It will rust a bit, but I figure it's a 12 year old car, in 3-4 years I'll have newer sled to drive around. I'll just spray paint that b*tch high-temp flat black and run it. Hopefully it will give me a reason to wash my car more often.

I hear ya. These cars won't last forever. Also, I'm going to be bashing the exhaust on rocks anyway, so rust is probably the least of my probs. I should probably get something cheap and disposable.

rightandtight - Do you know what the bill is going to be yet? ballpark?

[rightandtight]

rightandtight - Do you know what the bill is going to be yet? ballpark?

Not yet, but as soon as it's done I'll let you know. It should be done by the first week in Sept.

[Psychoreo]

it's probably mild steel, but are you going to "performance" shops or a good ol' exhaust shop? Any time the word "performance" involved it's going to cost you an arm and a leg.

[Project_Legacy]

it's probably mild steel, but are you going to "performance" shops or a good ol' exhaust shop? Any time the word "performance" involved it's going to cost you an arm and a leg.

yea thats definately true.


i went to three seperate places also. all i have right now is headers and a downpipe. i wanted them to continue off the downpipe the rest of the way.

shop 1: about 400 with a high flow cat
shop 2: 300 with a flex pipe section
shop 3: 450 for just the piping (no flex pipe or cat)

not sure if it was in stainless or mild. maybe i should've asked. maybe it was stainless because all i really needed was a mid-pipe and the axle back.

[IronMonkeyL255]

I was just asking a local Flowmaster shop what it'd be for 3" all the way back.

They said just for the piping (I'll provide the muffler), it's be $125 for parts and labor. However, they use crush-bent aluminized steel.

I want to find a shop that uses mandrel-bent piping. and after reading this, I decided that stainless isn't that big a deal for me.

Also, for anyone looking into magnaflow stuff, try checking out justmagnaflow.com. For the muffler I want, they are abour $70 cheaper than magnaflow's website, and $20 cheaper for the tips.

[greg donovan]

the high flow cat will add alot to the estimate too. i would imagine that most of the 500 dollar guys are using a local muffler shop w/cut+weld piping, mild steel, no cat and a really cheap muffler.

what type of a DP are you gonna have made?

bellmouth, just like stock or a divorced wastegate like on a CES? that could affect the cost too.

[rallysam]

I ended up paying $934.37 installed.

$500 for the used, all-stainless, complete TurboXS exhaust system for an STI (including cat, muffler, etc...)
$280 labor - modifiying the system to fit and mounting it
$123.31 for misc hardware and raw materials


I'll start another thread about the details of the install once I get the photos up... this is just the costs stuff

edit - fixed some of the detailed numbers after scrutinizing my receipt

[Kelly]

Whoa, $450 to add 6 inches and move a couple hangers?

[rallysam]

Whoa, $450 to add 6 inches and move a couple hangers?

Yeah, you're right. I scrutinzed my receipt and it's actually $280 labor (I edited my post above to fix that).

But for reference, I think $450 would be closer to reality for the labor they invested. The shop just billed me $280 because they realized that it took them longer than expected and they ate the difference themselves instead of charging me. I mean - I stood there and watched one tech spend most of the day on it with a second tech helping at times... yet they only billed 3.5 hours of shop time.

For those who are considering this, here's some things that made it more labor than expected:
1) the whole undercarriage is rusted to hell, dirty, and rally-beaten. Nothing was as easy as it should have been.
2) I didn't walk in with a "solution" in hand. Instead, we spent a lot of time test fitting different stuff they had lying around the shop searching for the best solution. I mean, our original concept was to custom fab the whole thing from mild steel raw material.
3) time spent correcting the previous owners f* ups. For example, we had to put new studs in the turbo because the downpipe had been attached to the turbo using tiny little bolts (someone had just compensated for the tiny bolts by putting huge washers under the bolt heads! )
4) We didn't shortcut the 6" extension by just cutting the pipe and soldering more straight pipe in there. Instead, we built a whole new extension pipe with flanges on the end so that the WRX system could mount up unmodified / plug n play. That took more labor, but it helps if I ever want to part out the system to a WRX kid, or if I need to replace or upgrade just one part of the system.
5) I asked them to mount everything as high as physically possible for rallycross. That means a lot more time fitting and refitting the hanger locations and the extension pipe.
6) Welded extra O2 bung for wideband.

[THAWA]

Whoa, $450 to add 6 inches