Very disappointed in MAD

[tyrel]

I ordered their "quiet flow" mufflers and had them installed today:

http://www.madvet.com/shop?frame=3.119.976

There is a horrible, low-level drone in these mufflers, driving in town is unbearable. Can't even hear my stereo, much less carry on a conversation with the passenger. I am very very disappointed in the quality of these mufflers, they are twice as loud as my old ones. I ordered new mufflers and will ship these back as soon as the new ones arrive. Never thought I'd be this disappointed in MAD, now I'm out the shipping charges AND I have to pay shipping for the new mufflers. I don't think I'll be ordering from MAD again any time soon.

 

[Toms007]

From my understanding you are going to get the "drone" with nearly every aftermarket muffler out there....one exception that I know of, Corsa.

 

[LT4man]

If you are going to be out only the shipping charges, you should be thankful. I know of vendors that would not accept the return of a part that was already installed.

Mid America Motorworks works overtime every day to satisfy their customers. I know. I am one of the fussiest customers alive!

The OEM exhaust systems have no drone. They don't breathe very well either!

Here's hoping the new mufflers are more to your liking!

SAVE THE

 

[geekinavette]

Your "drone" may not be the fault of the mufflers...

C4 interiors are very well known to be a rather ideal resonant chamber. It could be that you're running into a resonance problem. Believe it or not...sometimes simply extending the exhaust tips a few inches can make a world of difference in exhaust "noise" that reaches the interior. I've seen this effect first hand!

Of course it certainly COULD be that the mufflers just aren't a good match...but something to consider if you find the replacements not to your liking.

Bill

 

[Vettefan87]

My brothers car resonats BAD under normal driving conditions and he also has canister mufflers, but I have gotten used to it. My car doesnt resonat since I just have muffler eliminators on it.

 

[warp8]

My flowmasters with headers and true duals do not resonate but they are a bit loud.

 

[tyrel]

Thanks for all the responses, but I simply do not believe that brand new "quiet" mufflers are supposed to sound like this. I've owned C4s for years, and have never had new mufflers sound like this before.

I'll post an update when the other mufflers arrive and I install them.

This morning I thought that maybe I overreacted yesterday, so I went for a spin and the noise under acceleration is unbearable. This won't do at all.

 

[*89x2*]

Thanks for all the responses, but I simply do not believe that brand new "quiet" mufflers are supposed to sound like this. I've owned C4s for years, and have never had new mufflers sound like this before.

I'll post an update when the other mufflers arrive and I install them.

This morning I thought that maybe I overreacted yesterday, so I went for a spin and the noise under acceleration is unbearable. This won't do at all.

I too agree w/ LT4Man's post on Mid America's awesome service policy(s) They are a great company to do business with!

That said, I have to ask a question - were your original mufflers the model with only one outlet on each side, actually through and the new mufflers have maybe two??

Vettes w/ 2 series gears, had mufflers w/ one hole in each plugged, in an effort to combat the drone...

 

[blockhead]

MAD?

 

[Vettefan87]

MAD?

Mid America Motorworks. They are a supporting vendor here too.

 

[tyrel]

***UPDATE***

Just received and installed my new mufflers from partsamerica.com, aka Checker and a bunch of other chain stores mixed in I guess. These are the mufflers:

http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductDetail.aspx?mfrcode=WAL&mfrpartnumber=22397&parttype=15&ptset=A

http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductDetail.aspx?mfrcode=WAL&mfrpartnumber=22396&parttype=15&ptset=A

I found these same mufflers with the same product number in different stores all over the internet. Anyway, "Quiet Flow" and the product numbers (22396 and 22397) are stamped on each muffler so you know what you're getting. The ones from Mid America had nothing stamped on them.

I'm happy to report that I was 100% right, the Walker mufflers have a lovely low purr on idle, and on acceleration have a nice little rumble that isn't overpowering, my car sounds normal again, it sounds factory, the way it's supposed to.

I'm well aware that MAD is a supporting vendor here, but I'm out $150 in shipping charges with nothing to show for it. I ordered what was advertised as "quiet" mufflers which were nowhere near quiet. I'm very unhappy about this whole thing.

I'm sending the mufflers back in the morning, so let's see what happens.

 

[CharlesBrown]

Come ride in my '88 stock C4 if you believe the factory mufflers don't drone. I agree with TYREL, but I don't understand why h'ed go with the MAD system. Their ad says they act like the stock mufflers...believe me, mine DRONE!

 

[safety_match]

You might want to wait a bit. I had an old Firebird years ago and I put on a free-flowing exhaust system. At a certain rpm there was a drone so I took it back and the exhaust shop told me to wait a bit until there was a little bit of carbon inside the muffler which would help to reduce the drone.
He was right in this case.

 

[Inertia 500]

It sounds to me like Mid America mistakenly sent you the stock appearing mufflers with dual functioning outlets

http://www.madvet.com/shop?frame=3.119.969

I have a pair of these on my 86 coupe with 3.07 gears and even with the Walker crossover Y pipe in back they still resonate loudly inside the car from about 1200 to 1600 rpm. I just bought some genuine Walker quiet flow mufflers to replace them.

Check to see if your noisy mufflers have two functional outlets. The Quiet Flows only have one.

 

[lone73]

If you are going to be out only the shipping charges, you should be thankful. I know of vendors that would not accept the return of a part that was already installed.

Another thumbs up here for Mid America. I ordered some trim rings from them for my '73, they arrived mismatched. Some were S/S some weren't. Then one of the replacements was dinged. They promptly corrected every complaint. And these were on discontinued on-sale items.

 

[tyrel]

FOLLOW UP

Well, I found out today they gave me a refund for the mufflers, but I am still out several hundred dollars for installation & shipping, around $350. Basically I got screwed for $350 because MAD shipped me a product they thought I wouldn't complain about. Not a word of apology from them either, not a phone call, not an email, nothing.

I've learned a valuable lesson in all of this: never again will I order a single item from MAD. They are on my s**t list forever.

 

[RodsnRides]

I've had good luck with MAD. And Corvette Central. Ecklers gave me a bad deal once.

But, I gotta say, I think you would be hard pressed to find ANY vendor to reimburse shipping (unless it was an obvious error, perhaps) and certainly not install/deinstall labor.

Think about it. Say you buy a crate engine. Something happens under warranty. Of course, the vendor should cover the warranty with a replacement engine, but ain't no way they're gonna cover labor. I know of no one that does that, unless, maybe, you bought the warranty engine from the same shop that built that warranty engine and installed that warranty engine. Do you?

Rick
:gap

 

[74bigblock]

I've had bad luck with MAD too. I even had correspondence with Mike Jr. here on CAC, and he dropped the ball too. I no longer shop there unless absolutely needed.