I need to unbolt the old exhaust from the cat flange.

First I tried PB Blaster and a wrench, but the bolts are too rusted and possibly welded. So I decided to cut it free.

I tried yesterday with a dremel with a flex shaft, but didn't make it that far. The blade and the dremel form a T shape, forcing me to hold the Dremel horizontally where it gets in the way of the cat.

I believe I need a tool that's similar in size but with the blade facing away from the tool, so that I can hold the tool vertically but cut horizontally. Needs to be small enough to fit in the space and not cut into anything it's not supposed to.

There's very little clearance; especially the top bolt. I attached a pic that I found on Google to illustrate how little space there is. The blade and the tool have to be fairly narrow.

I don't know if these bolts were welded but they seem fused together. Even when I cut off part of the nut, the bolt and the nut were a solid piece with an irregularly shaped seam... The nuts themselves are shaped in such a way that I can't get any wrench around them. I don't know why anyone would do that but this to the OEM exhaust but this is a preowned MINI so who knows.

Any ideas on how I should proceed?

 

That is a pretty clean looking exhaust (looks BRAND NEW), with the bolts in GREAT shape in the pic....Maybe you need to try a different wrench? Thinner perhaps or different number of POINTS? maybe a longer bar attached to it once you get it on...might only get a 1/4 turn, then try it again...
If it still will not budge after the pb-blaster...take a blowtorch, and heat up the bolt, then try again.
If you give up....a local independent auto shop can do it,,,,they deal with MUCH worse daily.

 

Haha I wish my exhaust was bolted on that cleanly. That's just a pic I found on the Googles to illustrate how little space there is for a cutting tool.

 

Mine was pretty much a pile of crap welded together, couldn't use anything on the bolts, not even an extractor. Since I work in a garage, I used to good old cutting torches, then drilled what remained of the bolts to get it free. I've drilled them to install new bolts since I was planning to remove it at home the next weekend. If you don't have access to torches, your best bet is to get a proper cutting tool.

 

What kind of cutting tool would you recommend? I definitely don't have a torch.

 

A sawzall to cut the bolts on each sides of the flanges or a carbide bit to grind them off.

 

LOL that explains it!!
After about a years worth of salt, the bolts get rounded off from corrosion...the exposure to heat makes it happens extra fast!!
I would pay a shop the $50 bucks to tear off the old on, and bolt up the new one!! You MIGHT/Likely need a new gasket that connects between the 2 parts...most muffler shops/auto repair places have them around..about an extra 6-10$.

 

At this point I'd gladly pay to have someone install the new exhaust for me. Every time I ask a shop to install a part for me they say they won't do it unless I get it from them.

What I might do today is ask a muffler shop if the old exhaust can be separated and then re-attached with new bolts. Then I can drive home and do the install myself. That's assuming there's no other roadblocks. I can't say because I never got past the first step of unbolting the pipe from the flange.

 

I had clean the hex nut as much as possible ,then I had to heat the area with a torch and used a closed end wrench while using a pipe on the wrench for leverage. Came loose but took some work and having it up on a rack helped.

They can really get rusted under there from the road salt. I replaced mine once i got the old ones off.

Some guys have cut the pressed in threaded bolt and pressed a new one in.


Hex nut with flange. x 2 07130757758

http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/07130757758/ES16372/



Here is the threaded Bolt x 2 , you can see how the thread stud is constructed. 18107520438

http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/18107520438/ES39444/




+1 on a new gasket to prevent further leaks. 18111170941

http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/18111170941/ES39515/





Good luck on the removal I hope you get things back together.

 

I didn't even know I needed a new gasket; although I definitely considered it since I figured it would be rusted along with everything else. Thanks for the heads up.

 

I had the exhaust installed at a shop since I was tired of trying to remove the old one. It cost me just under $100.

Exhaust sounds mean Here's (someone else's) video demonstrating the sound http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...iN6dV1uE#t=38s

I noticed on two separate drivers some pretty intense vibrations in the cabin, and with the stereo off it is downright annoying. Also, when stopped on a slight incline there was some noisy rattling going on.

A quick look shows one of the brackets for the exhaust hangers [18207521427] is partially broken. Somehow the hanger is in there tightly but not centered inside of the bracket like it should be. I'm no expert in this domain, but I can see that transferring undue vibration to the body of the car.

One of the clamps is quite close to the heat shield. It's not making contact while cold, but it's close enough that it possibly does in certain scenarios.

Need to jack up the car and check it out.

 

Eleo,

Did the center rubber drop on the bracket, where the exhaust hanger slides into?

Here is a picture of the part you were talking about.


http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/18207521427/ES39944/



Thanks

 

Yeah the narrow center hole where the exhaust hanger hooks into looks like it's missing all together. I don't even really know what's holding everything in place. No idea if it was already like that, broke simply from being handled or was abused by the installer... But with the muffler hanger tangent with the chassis of the car, that probably makes up for a lot of the vibration.

Seeing one is broken and that the car is 9 years old, I'll probably replace both.

I still need to jack up the car to see if there's anything else that's on its way out, e.g. 18100392258 or 51717037919. I hope I don't find anything alarming about the installation, and if I find something welded I'm going to throw a fit. Although the shop was recommended by a colleague, I don't have very much faith in these guys right now. Since I have to go back in behind them and clean up, at this point I basically paid $100 for them to cut off the old exhaust.

 

Yes,

Replacing those will tighten the exhaust up so it will not shake or rattle.

I would check those other rubber mounts also. If possible they could be the same.




http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/18100392258/ #8 in diagram one on each side.


They mount to the center exhaust carrier. #6 in diagram

http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/51717037919/ES128663/




You can inspect them by looking above the plate. Replace them it they look torn or sagging.

Thanks and good luck.

 

had the same thing happen to be. Changed the rubber mounts, mine were the rear ones, and all the noise went away immediately

 

These guys did, in my opinion, a really bad job at installing this exhaust.

So I jacked up the car to take a look at their work, and figure out where the noise is coming from.

First problem is that one of the muffler hangers has been welded to be longer. Since one of the mounts was broken, they simply extended the hanger to be flush with the mount. This means that when I do get the correct mount, my exhaust would be tilted at an angle because the hanger is longer than it needs to be. I don't fully understand why, because without the bracket, the hanger in itself moves fairly freely. There's just nothing actually securing it on that side. I can nudge the muffler fairly easily. The hanger in itself seems to have punched a hole in the heat shield.

Seems like they used the old gasket instead of fabricating a new one. Some kind of orange, rubber-like sealant was used in between the flanges.

They cannabalized the front muffler assembly... It looks like both of the pipes on either side of the resonator (?) have been welded on... I can see the artifacts thereof, most notably the fact that the color of the metal is different. The front muffler assembly used to be straight, now the pipes they welded on go in at a weird slant. The hangers at this piece seem to have been fashioned as well, and they fit in the brackets oddly. This is another part of the exhaust that I can nudge fairly easily, and it too seems like it's free enough to cause a lot of vibration.

And why would they bolt the front muffler so that the nuts are on the exhaust side and the bolts are on the cat? The instructions have it the exact opposite way.

The welding. The welding kills me inside. It's a bolt-on exhaust made specifically for this vehicle. Nothing had to be welded!!! I included a print-out of the instructions with the exhaust. It clearly depicts a MINI Cooper with the exhaust on it, so there should have been no question of whether or not the exhaust was a perfect fit.

I am both angry and depressed. I had this awesome thing I paid a lot of money for and it feels like they ruined it. I don't even care about the labor anymore, they bastardized my $600 exhaust.

http://imgur.com/MIx3Pvh left-side hanger has been extended. also its tip punched through the heatshield?
http://imgur.com/1z18ddY

 

Many "bolt on" exhausts often require lots of "tweaking" to make fit (some are actually amazingly bad). Sounds like the shop worked with what they were given. Swap out the 10 year old exhaust brackets...and see how it fits!
The sealant they used was to ensure an airtight/leakfree connection. Sometimes auto repair is not pretty...heck 10 year old exhaust parts are not pretty once they have been exposed to heat, salt and corrosion....but sounds like they got it mounted, leakfree....
Not trying to defend them, but perhaps you should consider yourself lucky. but they were given the parts, and made it work. Perhaps it is not pretty, But I'm thinking if you tried to do this on your back in the driveway, you would have gotten stuck, with it half on, not fitting.....
The guys that installed this do installs/repairs for a living.....I would only hope I could do a DIY job nearly as well.....and with no welding equipment...I think I would certainly have been defeated if it was me...

 

Whether they had to weld or not, that doesn't account for everything.

They clearly recognized that one of the muffler mounts was broken, as they extended the length of one of the hangers to try to make up for it. They had to know that a half-assed setup like this would cause vibrations and rattling. Either they didn't care or they didn't know. Just as notable: they didn't tell me.

Why semi-permanently mod something when all that was needed was a $20 OEM part? Even if they had to at the time, couldn't they have told me that I needed to replace it and come back and have it installed and the muffler refit?

Irrespective of the welding on the front assembly, the hanger having been modified forces me to have the hanger cut back to its original spec before I can properly suspend the muffler in the replacement mounts.

 

I talked to a Borla rep yesterday afternoon. He said that the exhaust should have been a perfect fit. Furthermore, the modifications made by the installer void the warranty. So that leaves me with no warranty from the shop or the manufacturer, which isn't cool at all.

I'm conducting an experiment:

I ordered another Borla 140030. Now that there's no rust or anything that requires more than a wrench to remove, I will DIY install this second exhaust. If it fits perfectly, then I'll ask the shop for compensation and go from there. If it doesn't fit perfectly, then I'll return it (to Amazon) for that reason.

 

So it turns out I'm an idiot.

The second Borla exhaust basically matches the one they installed. The welds, the shape, etc is right on.

But if they didn't mod anything, why are the pipes a different color? I thought. Then it dawned on me. After doing a bit of research, I confirmed that stainless steel exhausts tend to turn a gold color after prolonged exposure to heat.

With the rattling and seeing the muffler hangers being modified, I had already made up my mind that the shop did an all-around poor job. In reality they didn't mod anything serious.

I have brand new OEM mounts for the muffler now, so I'll return to them and ask them to suspend the muffler properly.

I feel dumb, but I'm also relieved. Now I can move on to other mods.

 

The bad news: you're an idiot.
The good news: you're an idiot who didn't spend $100 to wreck a $600 exhaust.

Now to get that fan replaced!

 

Still getting some slight rattling at idle, especially when I'm on an incline but sometimes when braking. It's not as loud, and it's not as frequent, but it pops up from time to time.

The new mounts are installed. I also had the shop shave the length of the hangers on the resonator; they were very clearly contacting the heatshield (you could see the marks). In hindsight it seems like the problem was that it was that the shop only bolted it on as straightforward as possible, for which I am grateful. They brought me in to look under the car before they did the small mods this time around. So my impressions about the shop were all wrong; they're actually pretty legit.

Not sure if there's anything to do at this point. It's hard to determine the source of the sounds. I guess since it seems to mostly occur on inclines, I could jack up the rear of the car, run it, see if I can identify any faults.

My heatshield itself is pretty battered and I considered replacing it, but I have no idea if that will affect anything.

 

So I've done some research/pondering and I'm wondering if the remaining vibration is the engine mounts.

Firstly, I centered the muffler better and eliminated some noise. I think the tail pipe was hitting the sides of the bumper, which was really noisy. So now, there's vibration, but I feel it more than I hear it.

So what I've noticed is that my steering wheel vibrates in synchronization with the exhaust vibrations. The vibrations are visible; the MINI logo on the wheel starts to blur. Ordinarily, I'd blame the exhaust; however, I know that my steering wheel was also vibrating with the old stock exhaust. Based on my research this might be caused by the engine mounts.

So an unstable engine is causing the exhaust to be more unstable than it might be otherwise... At least that's my theory. Either way I'm going to replace the upper/lower mounts with aftermarket, Vibra-technics mounts. See if that doesn't improve or eliminate the exhaust problems.

Be great if it did. I love the look of the exhaust. And even today I can still notice the increase in power compared to when everything was stock. I just need to balance the power with comfort