Suggest a Muffler shop

[jabjab]

Hello,

Looking for suggestion on local muffler shops in Calgary. I wanted to get a new flex pipe and possibly get a new down-pipe if its economical to do it at the same time.

thanks

[Hallowed_point]

Minute muffler Ravi Gary 32 ave ne

[pheoxs]

Ravi @ Minute Muffler 32nd ave NE

[kvg]

X3

[G-ZUS]

Do people even search anymore

[Hallowed_point]

It took 3 seconds to type..beyond search function sucks imo

[n1zm0]

I will vouch for the common suggestion, Ravi got me in on Saturday afternoon with little notice, out within 45 mins for a cat to straight pipe replacement.

[Sentry]

Eric @ Carline Muffler in Inglewood. Before I learned to weld I've had about $1500 of exhaust work done between multiple cars at this place, and the guy does top notch work. True blue oldschool car guy. Affordable prices.

[95EG6P]

carline in Marlborough does mine and is fairly cheap

[jabjab]

I went to Carline muffler in Inglewood but Eric wasn't there last week and I got quoted $250 from another guy.

I just called Minute muffler and I got quoted $140.

Audi wanted $1200!

I guess I'm going to book with minute muffler.

[Kloubek]

I have used Ravi several times and was happy every time. He's always done good work at a very fair price. My last experience was suspect though.

I brought my ZJ in to have some work done, and also asked him to check the parking brake because it... well... did nothing. I should have checked on the road after I got the vehicle back because it turns out while the lever felt fine, the brake still did nothing. How did I find out? While working in the back hatch, the vehicle started rolling towards me. Luckily, I was able to stop it and push it back into place before it picked up a lot of momentum and crushed me between it and my other vehicle parked behind it. Otherwise, this could have been a very different story.

I saw they heated up the adjustment bolt between the main line and where it breaks into 2 for each side, but on further inspection, the cam/levers at each brake were 100% seized. Like it was one piece of metal; literally fused together so no movement could occur. That in itself was enough to keep the brake from working. But in addition, the pads were 100% gone. Not just worn.... gone. Right down to the rusted metal. Clearly, the brakes were not really inspected. I'm not sure what they were thinking.

I should have called him and let him know, but they didn't charge me for the "fix" and I didn't have time to go down during the work day again either and he's closed on weekends. Eventually, it just got too late for me to want to mention anything.

And as such, this post is kind of unfair and I almost didn't add it. So I did for the sake of transparency but not to knock Ravi's shop; he has tons of great reviews on here, and likely for good reason. Additionally, I'm sure if I called him he would have fixed it up to my satisfaction. I guess it's been at the back of my mind, and when I saw this thread I figured I'd make mention of it.

And Ravi (since I imagine you view these threads), I fixed the brakes myself. Truth be known, if you spent the amount of time on the brakes that I did to fix the fused cam/levers, the bill would have been more than I wanted to pay anyway. I am asking for no compensation of any kind.... only that you keep on eye out for situations like this.

[Offroad]

Ravi.....hands down

[MGCM]

Originally posted by 95EG6P
carline in Marlborough does mine and is fairly cheap

I have always been happy with my experiences there, repeat customer and I highly recommend them to anyone needing exhaust work done to any vehicle, even buses and motor homes they do it all.

[jabjab]

Huge variations in prices I find. Obviously I'll omit the pricing from the dealership but I was surprised that Minute Muffler was about 40 percent cheaper than Carline Muffler.

[peter07r1]

As with any shop make sure you inspect the work. I took my vehicle to Ravi and a couple hours later the shop called and told me the work was done. I looked underneath and there were was an incomplete weld on one of the exhaust pipes. In addition, the second exhaust pipe leaving the muffler was not welded whatsoever. There was no explanation for this. I went back and asked what the final price was. I then told Ravi that the job was not done. They put it back in the shop and finished the welds.

The receptionist later told me that they knocked the price down because of the issue. I thought this was BS. The final price was $170 to install a muffler and add a 2 into 1 pipe after the muffler since the muffler was not a direct replacement. The muffler I had installed was dual in dual out while my OEM was dual in single out. In the end they made it right and fixed their screw up but it's hard for me to trust a shop that leaves a job incomplete. Imagine if your wife or girlfriend took their vehicle to this shop, they would never know.

[jabjab]

posts like the one above makes me question going to minute muffler,might be less of a hassle to just pay more and get it done right.

[Hallowed_point]

I will still go to Ravi/minute muffler but I'll admit that the last time I went it seemed I was charged quite a lot for one hours labor to install two mufflers excluding normal mark up on mufflers.

I guess I'm just used to getting low prices there. I didn't make a fuss but as I say it seemed to be more than normal as I've been going there for years.

If they move to regular dealership prices, I'll have to find a new shop. I hope it doesn't come down to that as I quite like the guys and the service.

[mr2mike]

Sometimes if you've got too much business, you've gotta raise your price.
Or else maybe he has a new distributor. I know metal prices have been rising constantly. Raw material prices might be filtered to the end customer too.

[Hallowed_point]

Originally posted by mr2mike
Sometimes if you've got too much business, you've gotta raise your price.
Or else maybe he has a new distributor. I know metal prices have been rising constantly. Raw material prices might be filtered to the end customer too.

True. $216.00 in labour to cut out two mufflers and weld in two more seems a little pricy to me though. I timed it out at about 1 hour from start to finish. I was expected around 100-150 in labour tops.

The mufflers weren't marked up much so maybe the labor took the hit. Either way, it seemed abnormal for that place.

I just don't remember paying anywhere near that for one muffler previously done at the same shop on my old car which seemed to be more of a hassle to install. That's multiplying the cost of course for two.

[avishal26]

So my muffler pipe rusted through at a weld it seems and broke free of the flange at the axle back connection.... where should I take it? Don't want to spend the coin on a catback system for now ....

Ravi @ Minute Muffler NE seems to be out based on above... any others? Minute Mufflers in general - are they ok? Apollo / Speedy mufflers better?