Check out the local MINI Clubs, some have garage days and stuff. Good way to meet up and find some help.

 

I just put the same setup on my car - where are you located? Also, because the CNT comes in multiple pieces, you're going to want to get better clamps than those they sent or plan on welding them together. Don't weld the downpipe to the rest, but weld the three cat-back pieces together. I also want to replace my V-band clamp, but in my haste and not having a replacement when I had the pipe welded, I ended up using a cut up piece of scrap aluminum and made a "gasket" out of it to pinch inside the clamp. If you have any questions or problems mounting it, let me know - you honestly don't need a lift to swap out this exhaust as easy as it drops.

 

I didn't find any problem with the clamps my CNT came with.

 

They shipped me 2 single-band clamps which weren't enough to prevent exhaust leaks at both connections and both connections flexed no matter how tight I got the band. I would suggest for both to get a minimum of 2 double-band clamps.

 

I installed mine on stands instead of a lift, because my uncle had a disabled truck on his lift. I have to throw it up on the lift to adjust the part the passes the crossmember this week. I may just put wider clamps on, just to be safe. Thanks for the info.

 

To sit high enough off the crossmember, I kinda jerry-rigged mine. I took two hose clamps and tightened them around the front two hangers (one per hanger) to pull the front section higher. What I found was the exhaust is heavier than stock and was pulling hard enough on the hangers to position everything a little too far down in the front which flexed everything in the back (mainly the exhaust tips) too high to the point where they were touching the bumper. Tightening the front hangers seemed to straighten everything out well enough that nothing is touching anymore. This is a short-term fix, but I'm not really sure what I want to replace the rubber hangers with that will support well enough. Let me know if you run into anything else and I'll try to help you out from my experience.

 

Not sure if all mini hangers are like this, but mine are wrapped in some sort of nylon strap. The middle pipe cleared the crossmember fine, but I left the bend to close to the crossmember. Fortunately when I did the install, I pushed the middle section all the way against the resonator. I have at least 1/4" that I can move it back more to get the bend to clear the cross.

 

Yeah, I think mine have the nylon strap as well, but that's more of a max limit strap and mine were maxed out to it. I imagine there are heavy duty hangers that wouldn't flex as much, and that's probably what I need to get. I don't think all of my exhaust sections were fully seated like that, and now my system is welded, so I don't have that option anymore. OP, you should give that a shot and see if fully seating helps with touching the crossmember.

 

Does anyone know if that bracket in the middle of the car over the exhaust is structural? If not, I may just remove mine.

 

I have been looking into the CNT exhaust but have found out that it is sold out. Can anyone tell me where I can still buy one? Never mind. CNT has them in stock now.

 

Great price with free shipping too lol

 

I don't have any factual data on this, but the sub-frame/chassis of this car are moderately sturdy. I don't think this bracket is majorly structural, but it may prevent a minor amount of flex. I left mine on because I drive mine hard; otherwise I don't think it will make much of a difference. If you live in an area with not-so-generous conditions or if you put some abuse on it in the curves, I'd leave it in.

 

I drive hard too, so I may just bend or cut out the section that is hitting.

 

If you bend it, you're losing some of your structural integrity from it - have you tried tightening the front hangers like I've done? I know the hose clamp method sounds cheap, but it makes it sit much higher and it's a solid connection; it doesn't dangle/wiggle. I'm headed to my dad's garage later to change my oil and lube my rear sway bar bushings (that damn creaking sound), and if you want I can jack it up and take pictures of what it looks like with the clamps and the gap I have over the bracket.

 

I'm throwing it up on a lift tomorrow to try to get it corrected. My driveway is right up against my house, and I can see under the car from the basement really easy. Where the rear clamp it, it looks like it's sagging. I don't think I put enough pressure on the coupled part before fastening. In case it's sagging because the clamps are trash, I bought two of those flat band clamps that are twice as wide as the ones that came with the exhaust. And to be perfectly honest with you, I may have done a bad job installing it. I was on my back under stands, and that is not how I like to work. I know for a fact that I have exhaust leak because I can smell it with the car is idling parked.

 

If you removed both cats, there's always going to be a little bit of a smell; otherwise, if you just installed it recently there's going to be a chemical smell that goes away after a couple/few weeks. That smell is just some kind of residue or coating of the stainless steel that burns off after some time. To tell if you have an exhaust leak, when you're back under the car you would see black streaks coming from around the connections. With the small clamps that came with mine, I had small leaks with the main leak coming from the v-band clamp between the downpipe and the back half of the exhaust. To alleviate that, I took a piece of scrap aluminum heat shield, cut it down to make a makeshift gasket, shoved it in between the clamp and pipes, and tightened the hell out of it. That got rid of all the exhaust leak noises, but I'll have to put it back up in the air to look for more streaks to see if all the leaks are gone.

 

Thanks for that info dude. It's been on there less than a week but already has 200+ miles on it. I figured the oil would have burnt off by now. I'll report back after I fix the sag.

 

No problem and I just hope I can help! I know coming to the forums I hope people can offer me advice based on their past experiences so just pay it forward! As for the smell, now it's been about a month and a half I don't smell the exhaust, but my wife still complains that it smells occasionally.

 

I wanted to say thanks. I tried shorter insulators on the front, but they were too tight. Your hose clamp method was the winner here. There was totally an exhaust leak that I was smelling. You should have seen all of the carbon on one of the joints. I ended up using Nickson flat band clamps to secure the segments. The only problem left is that the exhaust tips are way too tight against the bumper. I'll just have to pick up some adjustable insolators.

 

You're welcome! That's unfortunate the shorter insulators didn't work up front; I'd much rather have a long-term and more practical solution than hose clamps, but I am glad they work for the time being. I assumed I was the only one with the exhaust tip problem because my bumper was bumped before I bought the car and threw off the geometry. Not bad enough to move anything major and wasn't even bad enough to break the paint. Since this is the case, I'll offer what my dad did but I wouldn't really suggest doing it because I'd be afraid to break the tips: he took a long pry-bar, stuck it inside the exhaust, put a jack under the muffler to create a pivot, and bent the tips down. That maybe gave me a 1/4" of extra clearance. Aside from that, the part I would suggest, is I took the rear hangers bolts out and put a bunch of washers in to space it out. I think I put like 4 or 5 washers on each bolt. That may give you better clearance. Good luck!

 

Oh the hangers are bolted on? I totally didn't even think to look. I'll take a peek when I get home.

 

Yeah, it's kind of a weird assembly. The hangers are attached to a bracket that is bolted AND looped around a mount. If you take out the bolts, those brackets won't just fall because they're looped over the top; the bolts tighten into the top part of the bracket a pinch it together so you can't remove them unless you remove the exhaust from the hangers or hangers from the bracket. In this instance, you don't really need to remove them. Just remove the bolts and put washers on the bolt so the hangers sit lower.

Other people have mentioned bending the hangers, but the way these are designed you have the potential for a worn hanger to slip off the bracket, so I'd avoid bending them.

 

I bought slightly longer insolators on the way home, installed them on the muffler, and I now have 1/8" clearance of my rear bumper. She's 100% perfect now.

 

Awesome! What are the insulators and how do they look? I was thinking of something to space out the tips, but I don't think I had the same thing in mind as what you installed.