JasMin70
Dedicated Member
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2026
- Points
- 43
So my original OEM 26 year old single pipe exhaust was blowing from the resonator and narrowly scraped through its last MOT and I have been looking for a CAT Back system for a few months now and it ain't cheap to fix - looking at £500+ just for the back box alone. I've used these guys before https://fastlanestyling.co.uk/ on a previous car and they are decent price, they do fabrication on site and they really do care about the sound etc - in other words they are not just going to pop a cherry bomb on the back and send you packing. Had a chat with them and I said my goal is to have a lovely, bass baffle that's not droning on the Motorway - I don't need bangs, cracks and pops - basically looking for a sound/ performance upgrade but nothing toooo crazy that will drive me crazy on longer trips.
Got her up on the ramp and initial inspection showed that yes we 'could' slap a new back box on there but the pipe was original and it might snap over time - also as you can see going back to the resonator it was all pretty ugly - from the resonator forwards was decent - original pipework all pretty solid and the CAT looked OK as well. So I'm now on the hook for a new resonator, back box and associated pipework. The original quote went from £220 to £450 for the additional work - frankly still reasonable money for what I was getting.
the guys cut the pipe off and as you can see - pretty ugly but bless her for 26 years and 120k miles decent life expectancy - RIP OEM Back box you served me well.
Now this was the fun part - the guys started the car with no resonator and no back box - SUPER LOAD and they asked me if this was a 10 on the volume where do you want to be?
I said that's awesome - can you make it any louder, paid him £50 quid to cut the res and the box off and left!
No, what actually happened after we could all stop our ears bleeding was I said it needs to be at least 50% quieter......
So they popped a new resonator and a new back box - during the process they started the car again and mentioned before they make all this permanent they can tinker a little more if I want it louder/ quieter etc - this is why I love these guys they know their stuff - we did go a little quieter tbf - don't ask me how but they did.
Final touch was the choice of tailpipe tip - single or double, now I am a purist my car is a 1.9 it should have a single pipe tip as per factory.
However.....
I allowed myself the only 'mod' I've ever done that is not standard which was go for two pipe tip rather than standard oval tail pipe and I'm delighted with it - visually looks really cool and fills the gap in the bumper way better than the standard small oval. They used proper BMW left hand side staggered tail pipes (one slightly shorter than the other to account for the curve of the rear bumper) - I think it looks awesome, let me know what you think.
Here's a couple more shots of the work from the replacement resonator to the new back box
All in all I'm happy with the work, she sounds awesome without being stupidly loud, will sail through MOT and emissions testing etc all good - the pipe was welded but if it lasts even half as long as the OEM fair enough - I only do a few thousand miles a year should be fine for the foreseeable.
Finally, the cost - all this work for £450 quid inc VAT - took 2.5 hrs and you just call them book a slot and they do it all same day while you wait.
What does she sound like now - here's a video I took just after, lot of background noise from the workshop but you get the idea link is here to YouTube video I don't have a dedicated channel or anything I just can't directly upload the video here (or maybe I can but I don't know how)
Obviously, getting her up on the ramp was terrifying looking at all the surface rust and I know I'm gonna have to replace the soft shocks n springs, control arms, bushes etc but lets worry about that another day - no major oil leaks though so that's a result
Got her up on the ramp and initial inspection showed that yes we 'could' slap a new back box on there but the pipe was original and it might snap over time - also as you can see going back to the resonator it was all pretty ugly - from the resonator forwards was decent - original pipework all pretty solid and the CAT looked OK as well. So I'm now on the hook for a new resonator, back box and associated pipework. The original quote went from £220 to £450 for the additional work - frankly still reasonable money for what I was getting.
the guys cut the pipe off and as you can see - pretty ugly but bless her for 26 years and 120k miles decent life expectancy - RIP OEM Back box you served me well.
Now this was the fun part - the guys started the car with no resonator and no back box - SUPER LOAD and they asked me if this was a 10 on the volume where do you want to be?
I said that's awesome - can you make it any louder, paid him £50 quid to cut the res and the box off and left!
No, what actually happened after we could all stop our ears bleeding was I said it needs to be at least 50% quieter......
So they popped a new resonator and a new back box - during the process they started the car again and mentioned before they make all this permanent they can tinker a little more if I want it louder/ quieter etc - this is why I love these guys they know their stuff - we did go a little quieter tbf - don't ask me how but they did.
Final touch was the choice of tailpipe tip - single or double, now I am a purist my car is a 1.9 it should have a single pipe tip as per factory.
However.....
I allowed myself the only 'mod' I've ever done that is not standard which was go for two pipe tip rather than standard oval tail pipe and I'm delighted with it - visually looks really cool and fills the gap in the bumper way better than the standard small oval. They used proper BMW left hand side staggered tail pipes (one slightly shorter than the other to account for the curve of the rear bumper) - I think it looks awesome, let me know what you think.
Here's a couple more shots of the work from the replacement resonator to the new back box
All in all I'm happy with the work, she sounds awesome without being stupidly loud, will sail through MOT and emissions testing etc all good - the pipe was welded but if it lasts even half as long as the OEM fair enough - I only do a few thousand miles a year should be fine for the foreseeable.
Finally, the cost - all this work for £450 quid inc VAT - took 2.5 hrs and you just call them book a slot and they do it all same day while you wait.
What does she sound like now - here's a video I took just after, lot of background noise from the workshop but you get the idea link is here to YouTube video I don't have a dedicated channel or anything I just can't directly upload the video here (or maybe I can but I don't know how)
Obviously, getting her up on the ramp was terrifying looking at all the surface rust and I know I'm gonna have to replace the soft shocks n springs, control arms, bushes etc but lets worry about that another day - no major oil leaks though so that's a result
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