[Daniels1117]

Hello all,

I recently picked up a low milage 22’ 550i and I’m looking to add an exhaust system to the vehicle. I’m here asking for recommendations and suggestions on which brand/type. As of now the car is stock and still under factory warranty for another 2 years or so. So ideally I’d like to be able to keep the factory warranty intact.

My understanding is that a cat-back or axel back exhaust system won’t void my BMW warranty. It seems that downpipes would void warranty but the other systems would not, Can anyone confirm?

That being said, I’ve started looking and listening to various brands that fit my car. So far the front runners are armytrix, AC Schnitzer, Meisterschaft, eisenmann, Remus, M performance.

How do I narrow it down from here? They all sounds pretty good on the videos I’ve seen.

In a perfect world I’m looking for:

a deep throaty rumble with burbles when I let off the gas at low RPMs as well as some pops and bangs on upshifts and down shifts. I would also love a system that I can cruise around town with the girl in comfort mode that isn’t too overbearing.

I’m open to suggestions about which system you guys think (cat-back, axel back) as well as your experience with various brands.

I’m planning to keep the car about 3-4 years. Also I will be having a shop do the install as I do not have the tools, skills, or space to do the install myself.

I am also in the market for a cold air intake. I think I’d rather go with the front mounted intake as the N63 runs notoriously hot and mounting intakes on top of the engine bay just seems counterintuitive to me. Any brands or types that you suggest.

[M550bernina]

Originally Posted by Daniels1117

Hello all,

I recently picked up a low milage 22’ 550i and I’m looking to add an exhaust system to the vehicle. I’m here asking for recommendations and suggestions on which brand/type. As of now the car is stock and still under factory warranty for another 2 years or so. So ideally I’d like to be able to keep the factory warranty intact.

My understanding is that a cat-back or axel back exhaust system won’t void my BMW warranty. It seems that downpipes would void warranty but the other systems would not, Can anyone confirm?

That being said, I’ve started looking and listening to various brands that fit my car. So far the front runners are armytrix, AC Schnitzer, Meisterschaft, eisenmann, Remus, M performance.

How do I narrow it down from here? They all sounds pretty good on the videos I’ve seen.

In a perfect world I’m looking for:

a deep throaty rumble with burbles when I let off the gas at low RPMs as well as some pops and bangs on upshifts and down shifts. I would also love a system that I can cruise around town with the girl in comfort mode that isn’t too overbearing.

I’m open to suggestions about which system you guys think (cat-back, axel back) as well as your experience with various brands.

I’m planning to keep the car about 3-4 years. Also I will be having a shop do the install as I do not have the tools, skills, or space to do the install myself.

I am also in the market for a cold air intake. I think I’d rather go with the front mounted intake as the N63 runs notoriously hot and mounting intakes on top of the engine bay just seems counterintuitive to [...]

Nice profile pic!

For exhaust there's a couple things to think about, some are full cat back and others are axle-back, as you're aware. Full cat back is going to give you a straight pipe and remove your mid pipe with resonators and an axle-back is exactly that, it just hooks up to your stock mid pipe.

Also some exhaust use your stock valves. So when you go into comfort or sport is when it changes your valves position (like stock). Other manufacturers have their own remote valvetronic.

I have an armytrix cat back, but since I have catless downpipes, I had them welled up a piece to use the axle back portion mounted to my stock mid pipe. The reason for that was too much drone with catless downpipes. My exhaust has a little handheld remote to open and close the valves or you can use an app on your phone.

Yes downpipes can ruin your warranty, but if you're cool with the service advisor at your dealership, you can go in for oil changes if you just let the SA know you have downpipes, they won't flag you. But again, it's all about who you know. Also downpipes will give you a check engine light if you don't get it tune.

I also have front mount intakes on my 2021 M550. I bought the silicone from n63 intake and I made my own velocity stack with AFE filters (idea came from the M5 guys)

Something to think about with front mount intakes is you have to remove the active grill shutters. That will also give you a check engine light, but you can just have that coded out.

Yes you spoke of the intakes being mounted on top of the engine, I would say that they're more in front of the engine. Talk about counterintuitive, our turbos are on top of our engine (hot v design).

Front mount intakes sound awesome as hell, but they really don't do anything for performance so you'd be doing it just for sound. A lot of people just do a charcoal delete and put BMC filters in to the stock air boxes.

[Daniels1117]

Thanks for reply ! Profile pic is my girl I’m sure she wouldn’t appreciate me using it but oh well.

Are you happy with the armytrix exhaust you have? I’ve heard some vids of that system with catless downpipes and it sounds super mean! I’m still teetering on the edge of wanting some cool mods but not quite ready to dive all the way in and void my warranty. I’m sure eventually I’ll get there and add a tune, downpipes, throttle bodies, etc.

I was speaking to someone on the phone today and the armytrix systems has app control but no remote. I was quoted 4800 for the cat back armytrix system with black quad/carbon fiber tips. Does that sound about right? They also told me that it’ll be 6 hrs or labor to install at $180/hr.

Is an axel back system frkm eisenmann, Remus, M performance, or Dinan even worth considering? Or should I just spend the extra money and go cat back?

I’m taking the car in to BMW tomorrow for service and was planning to talk to them about some OEM mod options and also their thoughts on aftermarket mods.

I was kind of looking for that sound from intake as it’s not too expensive of a mod and the front mounted intakes look super cool with the active front grill open. Was planning to do yellow filters on black silicone tubing to match my brake calipers.

What is a charcoal delete?

[M550bernina]

Originally Posted by Daniels1117

Thanks for reply ! Profile pic is my girl I’m sure she wouldn’t appreciate me using it but oh well.

Are you happy with the armytrix exhaust you have? I’ve heard some vids of that system with catless downpipes and it sounds super mean! I’m still teetering on the edge of wanting some cool mods but not quite ready to dive all the way in and void my warranty. I’m sure eventually I’ll get there and add a tune, downpipes, throttle bodies, etc.

I was speaking to someone on the phone today and the armytrix systems has app control but no remote. I was quoted 4800 for the cat back armytrix system with black quad/carbon fiber tips. Does that sound about right? They also told me that it’ll be 6 hrs or labor to install at $180/hr.

Is an axel back system frkm eisenmann, Remus, M performance, or Dinan even worth considering? Or should I just spend the extra money and go cat back?

I’m taking the car in to BMW tomorrow for service and was planning to talk to them about some OEM mod options and also their thoughts on aftermarket mods.

I was kind of looking for that sound from intake as it’s not too expensive of a mod and the front mounted intakes look super cool with the active front grill open. Was planning to do yellow filters on black silicone tubing to match my brake calipers.

What is a charcoal delete?

Honestly I don't have any thoughts on the exhaust. I just got it because I wanted a handheld remote so I can open or close the valves in any mode whenever I wanted.

4 hours at $150

Make sure you talk to service advisor, not any salesman. Make sure you befriend the SA in case you do mods.

If you want mean, I would say get a cat back. I've read the axle-backs are a little conservative.

The intake is not going to be cheap, plus buying high-end filters, then you have to pay to have your shutters cut out.... then you got to pay to have them check engine light coded out. I would say budget about $1300 if you're not doing the work yourself.

There is an extra restrictive charcoal filter in the air box. Everybody removes the charcoal filter and then uses BMC filters. I did this before I had the front mount intakes.

[Daniels1117]

Ya I was expecting to pay like 7-800 for parts and then a few hundred for install on the intake. That’s cheap compared to the 4-5k exhaust I’m looking at and the 6k xpel stealth ppf lol. So it’s all relative!

Yea I’m hoping I get a somewhat cool service advisor tomorrow who will know what’s up and not give me a hard time.

Any issues with reliability after your mods? And CELs or weird codes or negatives that you are aware of? Would love to improve my gas milage aswell I heard exhaust can help with that a little bit. It’s not my primary concern but it wouldn’t hurt!

[M550bernina]

Originally Posted by Daniels1117

Ya I was expecting to pay like 7-800 for parts and then a few hundred for install on the intake. That’s cheap compared to the 4-5k exhaust I’m looking at and the 6k xpel stealth ppf lol. So it’s all relative!

Yea I’m hoping I get a somewhat cool service advisor tomorrow who will know what’s up and not give me a hard time.

Any issues with reliability after your mods? And CELs or weird codes or negatives that you are aware of? Would love to improve my gas milage aswell I heard exhaust can help with that a little bit. It’s not my primary concern but it wouldn’t hurt!

No issues with reliability. That has to do with staying on top of things having the right performance shop and the right tuner all come together.

I can't help you with gas mileage. I'm running an E50 tune and don't do any expressway driving, all local. I average 9 to 11 miles a gallon!