I’m looking for technical help or recommendations on: BBR Super 200 - whether to decat mani or not
Hi all, I’ve done a search but can’t find anything specific.
Who’s had BBR work (N/A) done to an ND2? I’m looking at the Super 200 (so 4-2-1 and a starchip remap essentially) and they offer a catted manifold and a decatted version.
Are there 2 cats in the ND MX5? If so, if you were to decat the manifold, would it still fail the emissions for MOT? I’ve done a decat on a previous car and will never do it again due the the faff. It’s 99% a road car so needs to be done properly (reliably and legally).
Then comes the question on the BBR centre section - that does look to come with a cat in place?
I’ve already emailed BBR but not yet had a reply so asking here.
Also be good to hear of folk’s experiences, taking their ND2 here. What have you had done and what results (not just rolling road figures but impacts on driveability/reliabilty/warranty/mpg, etc)
We have catted manifold, catted centre section and touring rear box, not much louder than standard at lower speeds, nice ‘growl?’ higher up the range. We did origunally have the sports rear box which was not recommended with decat manifold, but possibly ok with catted manifold - to me it was far too loud and droned. My wife however was quite happy with it and was somewhat dissappointed when we changed to the touring
Mine already has the ulter backbox on and is just right as it is. Think catted just makes more sense, don’t want everyone to stare! £300 is a nice saving though if you can get away with it.
What did yours make with that setup? Much better throttle response?
I had the BBR Super 220 conversion done to my 2019 ND. I had the BBR “Sport” catted manifold option fitted with the standard OEM centre section (which has a cat) and BBR GT rear box. I was told by BBR that the decatted manifold would not cause the car to fail MOT’s but I decided to fit one to ease my conscience. The BBR catted manifold (which loses 5 bhp compared to non catted) is not as efficient as the OEM one, as a result if a line of code in the engine management system is not deleted by BBR the car will keep throwing up a P0421 fault code with the engine management light sometimes also coming on. BBR “forgot” to delete the line of code on my car which required a return trip at my not inconsiderable expense to have it deleted. Previous to this my engine had also developed a mild misfire and and resultant EMS misfire fault code after the conversion. This also required a return trip at my expense to BBR. BBR’s solution was to narrow the spark plug gap from the Mazda specified 1.2/1.4 mm to 0.8mm! which did appear to stop the misfire. I was not really happy with this as it seemed like a sticking plaster solution as the root cause I felt was not investigated or addressed. I was told by BBR that this was required because all their turbo conversions required it, as the volume/velocity of air pushed into combustion chamber blows out the spark! If this was really required why was it not done during the initial conversion and why is it required on a non turbo conversion? I have asked another member who had the Super 220 conversion to measure his plugs and they were at the OEM specification of 1.2mm. As it is not advised to try to open up the gap on iridium coated plugs I had to purchase new plugs with the specified 1.2mm gap (costing me a further £100). The car has run perfectly fine with the new plugs ever since, so whatever the problem was it has gone away.
So not the best service then! I’m sorry you had such a disappointing experience with BBR I would feel the same. You should not have to pay for their mistakes, under the C.R.A you should be able to claim back your costs and/or a price reduction. Smells of them fobbing you off with the spark plug gap thing a bit. I would say to others that there are other garages offering very similar packages to BBR.
Doesn’t sound very reassuring ha. I want a bit more power but no threat to oem reliability or any niggles and certainly no engine lights. Rather leave it stock.
I’ve had a sports cat on a megane R26 before and yeah, that was a lower efficiency so actually needed the p0421 mapping out. But it still did it’s job and passed the mot.
You could consider just a high flow midpipe to compliment your current backbox. Even though the following link shows different model/brand, you can get decent gains with just a high flow midpipe and backbox (without remapping):