As some of you know, I was rear ended in my barely two week old MINI last month. I waited patiently to get the car into the shop and was pleasantly surprised with their quality of work. However, I was still bugged by the fact that my exhaust tips are not perfectly straight - they still point a little to the left (as you're looking at them), although not as much as they did right after the accident. So tonight I went out to take a real close look at them and found what might be the problem. In looking up through the left rear wheel well, you can see an L-shaped bar that comes up from the big exhaust box-thing (I feel stupid for not knowing what it is) that both tips go to. This L-shaped bar is held to another bar with a reddish rubber bushing-thing. On my car, it looks as though the bar from the exhaust box was pushed farther forward through it's hole in the bushing, causing the bushing to be angled and stretched slightly, which jives with where the impact came from. However, it could also be that that's how it's supposed to look. So that's where you guys come in. Can another fellow S owner snap a picture of this area for me so I can be sure? 'Cause if it's screwed up, I'm taking it right back to the shop to have it fixed. Thanks everyone.

 

Anyone?

 

I'd help if I had an MCS!

 

Thanks katherine

Side note, I think I saw you on 95 yesterday.

 

I just hop on 64 once I get through Mechanicsville to get into downtown, so it probably wasn't me. However, Stella has a twin that also parks in my parking deck - I mean, exactly the same - so it could have been them

 

OK here is an attempt. I have to say I didn't take your post under the car, but I stuck the camera under the car at three different angles. Do these help?

 

Thanks for the pics, davavd! They're really close, but don't show what I was looking at last night. I'm on my lunch break now, so I think I'll run out and snap a quick pic of what I'm talking about. I'll post it shortly.

 

Here's the thing I'm referring to:


In this pic, the rear of the car is to the upper right, and the left rear tire is kinda upper left.

Here's another angle:


This time the rear of the car is to the lower right and the tire is towards the top/upper right.

See how the gray metal bar coming from the exhaust box sticks out from the bushing a little ways? Is that normal? A co-worker told me there were a couple other MCSs parked nearby, so I went to take a look. I couldn't get a good look up underneath without arousing suspicion, but both of their exhaust tips were slightly off center just like mine (to the driver's side), so I'm wondering if I'm just being too **** about this.

 

My exhaust tips are square. I snapped some pics of the area you were looking at for my MINI. Here they are. I'd say they look different.





Hope this helps.

 

That's a huge help!!! Thanks!!!!! They are obviously different, as it looks like the L-shaped bar has been pushed so far into that bushing that the second ball isn't visible anymore. Back to the shop we go!