My revised opinion on Milltek

[Tempest 0]

Having brought back my mate from Germany to Stansted airport today, we couldn't ignore the blowing back box once we arrived at the terminal building, having shifted through the gears on our approach.

 

Once I had arrived back in Coventry again (and once the crap weather this morning had subdued) I had a quick look underneath and couldn't help but with my trusty torch spot a major crack in the main pipe near the inlet bend on the midbox, where it's held by 2 rubber hangers.

 

Off I went to my local Powerflow garage in Coventry (who'd previously done a superb job on my Mk2 Storm Rocco, and recently again in adapting their exhaust system to the Supersprint manifold that I recently fitted only to discover that it terminated 50 mm short and a bit higher than the original manifold had) to have a better look.

 

Indeed a crack caused by some badly welded bar across the pipe, to which the rubber hangers are attached, was clearly visible.

 

After nearly 15 minutes of trying to split the backbox from the midbox (tight as heck), we both noticed the relatively poor quality of the stainless steel material itself compared to that used by Powerflow (and having taken both apart myself, I immediately noticed the thinner gauge used by Milltek). It welded up OK again, and the guy did a better refitment of the mid- and backbox (and that cross-bar on the inlet pipe to the midbox) than the garage (don't know who that would have been, as the Milltek was already on my Rado when I bought it) who'd originally fitted the Milltek.

 

£10 later (couldn't have done it for that myself, haven't got a welder, but thinking of getting one :D , nor do I have a gas torch for cutting and heating :cry: ) I left again a happy chappy with the usual admittedly very subdued and civilised sounding Milltek.

 

I know my statements and findings may cause some wave of opinions, but that's exactly why I'm posting it. If my Rado hadn't had the Milltek yet, I definitely would have gone for a Powerflow system, happy as I am with the local Coventry fitter :D

 

Tempest

[too hot 0]

You are not the first person to have had problems with said exaust system.

Think they are possibly trading on a name now rather than quality :?:

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I found the Milltek to be appalling quality for the money. The staff at Milltek were very good and sympathetic though, can't fault that aspect of their service. However, they just weren't interested in my opinions of a glaringly obvious design fault. Nevermind. Went back to a standard system and if Milltek made their systems half as good as VW approved Liestritz OE systems, they'd sell in droves.

[stevemac 0]

Can't comment on Miltek as I've never owned a car that had one.

 

However, the Magnex system on my G60 is absoloutely first class - top quality & I would fully reccommend this system.

[Supercharged 2]

Yep, my vote is for powerflow too - superb fit and sound!

[Andy Brookes 0]

a glaringly obvious design fault.

 

what was that kev?? Very pleased with my milltek. Also fitted one to a friends VR the other week and he is pleased too.

[W3RKD 0]

i brought a miltek system for my golf and the fit was awful it would not fit staight in the bumper apeture without banging on the rear beam etc and had real problems getting it to stop blowing too.. needless to say its no longer of use and i feel £300 straight down the drain. i had one on the corrado a while ago though that did seem fine and had no problems.Maybee the quailty has dropped now they seem to have made a huge nae for themselves..?

[g60bv 0]

i'm going to get a power flow system put next, but what size pipe work, some have said 2 1/2". i thought 2 1/4 would be enough.? whatcha recon.

[W3RKD 0]

i'm going to get a power flow system put next, but what size pipe work, some have said 2 1/2". i thought 2 1/4 would be enough.? whatcha recon.

 

there is soooo much more to a good exhaust than bore size .. do some reserch and you will be suprised what you can learn and free up some extra ponies... :lol: :lol:

[hybrid 0]

Had a miltek on my 'old G60 which i was more than happy with, it was on the car when i got it and i didnt have it for all that long so not sure if it counts but hey lol, loved the sound from it too... :)

[Banana Man 0]

had my powerflow on for 3 years now and is still as good as when it was first done RSR in Redhill do a good job.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

what was that kev?? Very pleased with my milltek. Also fitted one to a friends VR the other week and he is pleased too.

 

When did you get yours and your friends'? They might have fixed the flaw now but it was related to the centre box hanger. It's welded onto the tube 2" too far back. This meant that on both my systems the exhaust rubbers were being stretched back toward the axle. Fine for a day or so and then the front pipe's flex joint pulled the rubbers back again which caused the rear box's flyover pipe to clonk on the axle.

 

Fitted as sold there was literally 5mm axle clearance. When I got Milltek to weld the hanger 2" further up the pipe, voila, perfect fit. I don't think they acknowledged it and seemed to take it personally that a customer pointed out a design flaw :roll:

 

Anyway, after that was solved the thing was far too boomy and noisy. As tempest mentioned, the quality of stainless is poor. Too thin. Not even Tefal would use it for their kitchen ware.

[Tempest 0]

but what size pipe work,

 

The guy at my Powerflow garage in Coventry ("Mr Tyre" for that matter, can recommend them for the work done on my Storm Rocco, the Rado when they replaced the standard G60 cat with a VR6 metal cat, took them 2 hours, and only charged me £25 :D ) mentioned that 45 mm tubes are of a better quality than the 48 mm ones, showed me both types to take home. That was just one aspect of our ramblings yesterday whilst trying to tackle the crack on my Milltek midbox inlet pipe.

 

loved the sound from it too...

 

No problems with the sound on mine, as it is quite subdued and civilised compared to what I've read from others and their Millteks on their Rados. I quite like it that way, as it fits quite nicely to all the other "civilised" aspects on my Rado, cruise control, airco, not to forget the automatic seatbelts - it's a cruiser car :D

 

Powerflow offer the advantage of tuning the sound of your system though, which is where my Storm Rocco really shines, folks know that I'm travelling past them :lol:

 

Tempest

[olly elworthy 0]

my car came with an awfull scorpion syatem, soon to be replaced with a supersprint, as ive had one of these on my mk1 golf for 8 years now and the fit and qulity along with the exhast note is really impressive,,

supersprint are pricey but in the long run they show their worth it,,,

[Neil VR6 0]

My Miltek's perfect; fit, sound, quality!

[Tempest 0]

supersprint are pricey but in the long run they show their worth it,,,

 

Would agree, judging by the fact that my Mk1 Rocco has a full Supersprint system including the manifold, and my Mk2 Rocco now also has a Supersprint manifold :-)

 

Who knows, possibly if the Milltek causes me too much grief on my Rado ... ;-)

 

Tempest

[Andy T 0]

I had a bad experience with powerflow last year when I took my G60 in to have its existing stainless system (possibly powerflow) quietened down, it sounded like a straight through exhaust.

 

Two trips there and £150 later , it was louder than before, the solid rubber hangers they fitted kept breaking, and the previously fine tailpipe melted part of the rear bumper(the tailpipe shifted to the side as the system warmed up and expanded.)

 

They said they couldnt get it any quieter unless I laid out another £150 and couldn't even guarantee that it would work, and blamed the burnt bumper on the engine mounts - yeah right!

 

I junked it and bought another custom system second hand, fitted it myself using the proper VW hangers, been perfect in every way since!

[Slimbo 0]

Don't Powerflow use a lower grade of stainless steel than most "off the shelf" manufacturers?

[samm_cvr6 0]

the Skoda/Seat guys having been raving about blue flame exhausts lately, can't really comment but word on the street is they are top notch quality, sound, performance results and VFM. I have emailed them about the C but will have to call them as no reply as yet.

[Louie Lungbubble 0]

Blue Flame are only a coupla hundred yards down the road from me. I've heard people saying they turn out good stuff, but had always discounted them as I thought they only did custom-made jobbies (i.e. mega bucks)

Might give em a bell. (Not so sure about the Miltek now). :?

[thorpey 0]

my miltek system is a great fit and looks lovely,and as for the sound................awesome especially with a jmr manifold

[h100vw 0]

Custom exhausts are 300 quid from Blueflame. They did my Golf and my Syncro.

Gavin

[Guest]

Had a slight problem with my Miltek that was sorted quickly and FOC by JMR - I've got no complaints at all with mine

[scottgroovez 0]

Ian Birch uses Blueflame exhausts on his cars. I'd say that's a pretty high recommendation.