OEM Active Exhaust reliability vs Cutouts

[RevvdMedia]

Something I've been thinking about these days is the long-term durability of active exhaust systems that now come factory on cars. For years, you'll hear from pretty much any long term owner of an aftermarket cutout that they either leak, or the motor failed. I suspect this commonly comes down to poor design, or inexpensive parts/machining. The price point of a cutout compared to OEM quality active exhaust is MUCH less, but you also lose the "active" aspect.

What I wonder is how many owners of OEM active exhaust systems will experience failure of the gear motor, or eventually suffer from leakage? Can we trust the OEM to produce a product that will last 5+ years? I personally went with Badlanz myself since the owner actually gets back to you, and has a 5 year warranty, so I feel relatively covered, even if that means the inconvenience of having to warranty and replace parts once in a while. But what about OEM, and considering one of the ways to extend the life of a cutout is to remove it in winter - which you can't reasonably do with OEM active exhaust? I just wonder if people ordering this will experience hardships in their ownership with it getting stuck open, closed, etc.

Sponsored

 

[Coconut]

Might want to ask this on a Corvette or Camaro forum. The NPP active exhaust has been around for a few years on those cars.

 

[70monte]

I think you will have issues with this type of exhaust as time goes on. Rust usually gives problems as time goes on, especially those that live in northern states and drive their cars during the winter. The heat of the exhaust system would probably cause electrical parts to have issues as time goes on as well.


Wayne

 

[at_t_2d]

Might want to ask this on a Corvette or Camaro forum. The NPP active exhaust has been around for a few years on those cars.

I am the original owner of a 2008 Corvette with active exhaust and have had 0 problems. It gets driven year round.

 

[arghx7]

One of the things you've got to remember is that these OEM active exhausts, besides being covered by the factory warranty, have the benefit of being engineered as part of the whole system.

When you as an end user cut a hole in a pipe and insert a cutout somewhere, there's no testing or simulation being done for vibration, moisture accumulation, etc. You're eyeballing a spot where it fits and using a general rule of thumb. Or maybe you get a kit that incorporates into the system, but the vendor you get it from doesn't have the resources of an OEM or Tier 1 supplier.

When GM puts a butterfly valve inside the muffler of a Camaro it's engineered as part of hte whole system. A friend of mine has the active exhaust on his 2017 Camaro SS 1LE and it sounds awesome. They have to work with suppliers who do these systems on multiple vehicles for different OEMs.

 

[Synyster06Gates]

I'm running a combination of OEM and aftermarket. I have a Magnaflow GT350 catback with the active exhaust valve and OEM Ford motors/actuators to open and close it. A Borla control box and fob to control it. No issues so far, but it's only been a few months. I don't anticipate any failures - the OEM motors have been pretty well tested and as long as you get the spring in the slot when you do the install, not much can go wrong.

Sponsored