Rear Exhaust rubber mounts

[glendog74]

Looks like we've all been doing some exhaust lovin' lately!

I swapped out the OEM centre pipe for a SS unresonated centre section today. I thought it would be a 2 hour job but it ended up taking somewhat longer...! The six bolts that attach the centre section to the cats are a real pain to get to and then i struggled for a while to remove the 3 x 16mm bolts that hold the cross member in place. You need to remove this to give space to remove the pipe.

Once off i noticed that the OEM section was noticeably heavier than the SS as expected. I swapped the heat shield and mounting bracket over before fitting the SS. Fitting was a little quicker than removal although one small problem was that i noticed rather too late that the SS flanges are thinner than the OEM ones and consequently overtightened the bolts slightly... Once all back on i did a leak check and all seemed ok apart from a minor condensation weep from one of the flange unions at the back box end.

First impressions on a short test drive revealed that it is indeed noisier - particularly under hard acceleration. It makes the CSL 'rasp' sound even angrier but is not really much noisier at slower speeds

[mole]

Originally Posted by glendog74

Looks like we've all been doing some exhaust lovin' lately!

I swapped out the OEM centre pipe for a SS unresonated centre section today. I thought it would be a 2 hour job but it ended up taking somewhat longer...! The six bolts that attach the centre section to the cats are a real pain to get to and then i struggled for a while to remove the 3 x 16mm bolts that hold the cross member in place. You need to remove this to give space to remove the pipe.

Once off i noticed that the OEM section was noticeably heavier than the SS as expected. I swapped the heat shield and mounting bracket over before fitting the SS. Fitting was a little quicker than removal although one small problem was that i noticed rather too late that the SS flanges are thinner than the OEM ones and consequently overtightened the bolts slightly... Once all back on i did a leak check and all seemed ok apart from a minor condensation weep from one of the flange unions at the back box end.

First impressions on a short test drive revealed that it is indeed noisier - particularly under hard acceleration. It makes the CSL 'rasp' sound even angrier but is not really much noisier at slower speeds

I like that Those 6 bolts you struggled with that bolt centre to cats - I did too My nuts had rusted to nearly nothing. Decided to take cats off and then remove all other sections off car. Turned out to be MUCH easier. Bolted cats to "new" centre section then refitted. Then fitted backbox. Took much longer than expected, about 6 hours, but done now SOLUTIONS

[glendog74]

Originally Posted by mole

Took much longer than expected, about 6 hours, but done now SOLUTIONS

Snap - 6 hours here too!

[Mark CSL]

Originally Posted by mole

I like that Those 6 bolts you struggled with that bolt centre to cats - I did too My nuts had rusted to nearly nothing.

My nuts had rusted to nearly nothing. you dont hear that every day

[mole]

Originally Posted by glendog74

Snap - 6 hours here too!

Always takes longer than you expect, especially when cars are this old and things corrode etc

Didn't get a pic of the finished article but here are some pics along the way.

Whole exhaust off the car inc. cats.


Old flanges on backbox/centre


New centre mounted to cats, with new nuts, bolts and gaskets


New rubbers on the centre (one of the old ones had actually split, so good job I got new ones)

[shimmy]

Originally Posted by mattCSLnut

Good update Daz ... I did my mid section mounts few days ago and noticed the flanges on the mid exhaust were bent upwards therefore the mid section was hanging lower then it should be and banging on the rear suspension, especially when driving on bumpy roads. (mainly THANX to going through the Karussell 55 times few weeks ago) Now having fitted the new mid mounts (as per pic) and re bending the flanges to a fully horizontal position, has put a stop to all that banging.

after getting a rattle located at BMSport today i need to replace the mid mounts and check the brackets are level to pull the exhaust up (and then as Daz said maybe space the rear down a bit as long as it dont make the middle worse)

Can the middle mounts be done without removing the mid section exhaust - how difficult?????

[mole]

Originally Posted by shimmy

after getting a rattle located at BMSport today i need to replace the mid mounts and check the brackets are level to pull the exhaust up (and then as Daz said maybe space the rear down a bit as long as it dont make the middle worse)

Can the middle mounts be done without removing the mid section exhaust - how difficult?????

I reckon it's probably doable but don't quote me on that! Wait and see what mattCSLnut comes back with

You need to remove the 4 bolts on each of the metal sections that go over the mid section (9 in pic below), one has 2 more nuts which hold the rubber mounts. Once these are off you should be able (if you can get to the 2 nuts on top) remove the old rubbers from the exhaust itself and replace with new ones then put the metal plates back on.... hope that makes sense.



Did you get anything else done at BMSport?

[shimmy]

yep,so hard bit will be getting a spanner on the top nuts and then again tightenng them up!

[mole]

Originally Posted by shimmy

yep,so hard bit will be getting a spanner on the top nuts and then again tightenng them up!

Yes! Thinking about it more, it has to be a socket as a spanner won't get in the channel of the bracket...hmmmmm

[mattCSLnut]

Originally Posted by shimmy

yep,so hard bit will be getting a spanner on the top nuts and then again tightenng them up!

I did mine on a friends ramp... 13 mm ratchet spanner is the tool that you'll need to use on the top nuts (not enough room for anthing else) The driver side was easy but for the passenger side I pushed the whole exhaust over by wedging a block of wood against the chassis. Also remember to remove both metal plates that are bolted to the chassis. This'll give you enough room to ratchet the spanner back and forth... douse no need to remove the whole exhaust system just to change the middle mounts Having access to a proper ramp did come in very handy