Budget Exhaust Trim Retro Fit

danb986

danb986

In awe of VCDS
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After mentioning in another thread that I'd picked up a pair of stainless tailpipe trims for £4.99 from ebay, a couple of people asked for photo's before, during and after I'd fitted them.
Here's my mini project in the form of a sort of guide, if I can get the photo's to upload that is. :unsure:

It's not exactly the most glamorous or exciting mod, but I'm hoping it might help someone.


I couldn't justify to my wife spending over £50 to make my exhaust ends shiny, so I tried a different route. Searching ebay for exhaust trims didn't find me anything, so I tried searching for muffler tips and struck lucky.
The ones I found said they were for Audi's, but didn't list my year A3. It had the same dimensions as the genuine ones and they were also back-cut and rolled in the same way too. For £4.99 I thought they'd be worth a try and was half expecting them to be crappy. When they arrived I was well pleased. They were exactly as the advert and as they're stainless steel and not chrome I won't have to worry about corrosion.

Mine is an '07 TDi 140 Sportback, so it had the 2 downward curved tailpipes:

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Photo025.jpg



I started to grind off the 2 welds on the undersides of each tailpipe with my Dremel, but this was taking an age, so I dug out my belt sander (powerfile) and this worked a treat. An angle grinder was on standby and would do just as good, but I felt the belt sander was easier to get in the gap.

Photo030.jpg


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After getting them both off I slipped the trims over the inner parts that were left and spent a while lining up the pair of them so that they looked right. I thought the 2 inside edge clamps were going to get in the way of each other, but luckily the left hand pipe sits a fraction back from the right hand one (presumable to follow the line of the bumper) so they just cleared each other.

From this angle under the car they don't look great, but from the pictures further down you can see that the clamps aren't visible from behind the car.
After a few miles they will blacken up nicely inside and look even better. If when the car is out in the road I can see the clamps then I'll touch them up with some black touch up paint until they dull down.

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For less than a fiver, this has to be worth a go. It didn't take much time and I'm not the best mechanic or handyman, so if I can do it anyone can.

I hope you all think they look ok.
Please go easy on me :blush:
 
Looks good and thanks for the helpful guide, i'm sure it will help someone that is looking for a small mod or on a budget! :thumbsup:
 
i have the same tailpipe but didnt cut off my old 1 - simply slotted these over the top. As you have said, the clamps are not visible!
 
Thanks Jiggy. Small mod on a budget sums up where I was going with this. I went over budget buying the car and then spent even more on LED rear lights, VCDS cable, S-Line spoiler, Votex skirts and Votex front spoiler. I would've liked S-Line bumpers, but the fronts are going for a fortune at the momemt and I think my modding budget may have come to an end :whip:
 
roston100 said:
i have the same tailpipe but didnt cut off my old 1 - simply slotted these over the top. As you have said, the clamps are not visible!
Click to expand...

I tried that, and it fitted perfectly, but the clamps were pushed so far out because of the size of the curved trims that I couldn't get them in enough for the bolts to reach the threads.
 
Fantastic guide!!! Thumbs up. :thumbsup:

I have been watching those muffler tips from when you
Mentioned them in another post. I am defiantly going to
Order them now for when my black edition bumper arrives.
 
The Engineer said:
Fantastic guide!!! Thumbs up. :thumbsup:

I have been watching those muffler tips from when you
Mentioned them in another post. I am defiantly going to
Order them now for when my black edition bumper arrives.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the thumbs up.
I'd order well in advance if I were you. It does quote a very long delivery time, I suppose they do have to come from Hong Kong. I think mine took a couple of weeks to arrive.
 
Thanks for posting this up mate, and for taking the pics along the way. Difficult to see from the photos but do they exit pretty level with the floor, or do they point downward? They don't poke out too far by the looks of it which I thought they might!
 
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Looking better :)

Will say one thing, at £5 I'd keep them well polished - not all chrome is made equal LOL
 
Khufu said:
Looking better :)

Will say one thing, at £5 I'd keep them well polished - not all chrome is made equal LOL
Click to expand...

They're not chrome, they're stainless steel. I was kind of hoping that meant they would last ages.
 
TimG said:
Thanks for posting this up mate, and for taking the pics along the way. Difficult to see from the photos but do they exit pretty level with the floor, or do they point downward? They don't poke out too far by the looks of it which I thought they might!
Click to expand...

Hi Tim,
Yes, they come out totally level with the ground. The actual pipe underneath the curved tips I removed is straight and level so they don't point down at all. The pipe is straight anyway, but you can adjust the angle by tightening some of the clamps more than others.

The amount they stick out the back is up to you really. You can slide the trims as far back as you like, or have them sticking out the back another 6 inches from how I've got them. You just slide them back as far as you think looks good and then evenly tighten the clamps. I prefer them back quite a way, so I did them as far back as I could without showing too much of the inner pipe. This is about the same place as the curved ones I took off.
There is a lot of adjustment in all directions and angles, so you'll be able to get the look you prefer. If I'm not happy with how mine sit when I see them from across the car park at work tomorrow, then I'll just loosen the clamps and move them a little.
 
Awesome, I'll be making a purchase sometime soon I think. For such little money you cant go wrong! Just have to figure out what Im gonna use to remove the current tips as I dont have a handy little tool like you used :(
 
You might get away with leaving the curved tips on, like roston100 did. I couldn't get the bolts in as the clamps were pushed all the way out, but you could probably get slightly longer bolts and give that a try. Then you won't have to remove the old tips.
 
Looks great. The double horses hoof look of the standard pipe annoys me so think I'll get some of these ordered. Need to dig out the angle grinder.
 
Thanks for putting the effort in the explaining this so comprehensively Danb!

Like you say, for 5 quid, it's not the end of the world if they turn out to crappy.

They will look great one you get a bit of old diesel smoke in there!
 
As said above, once you have driven a few miles and the soot had built up in there, they will blend in fine. Good job done there for the money :)
 
anyone got a link for the exhaust trims? and am i right in thinking these would fit straight on?
 
I just did a search on ebay for muffler tips, as these brought up cheaper options compared to when you search for exhaust tips/trims.
I looked through my feedback on ebay for the seller, but he never left me feedback, but I found the link in a PM I sent someone else on here.
The seller was vwoempart2, but I couldn't see any more for sale at the moment, but to be fair I didn't have a proper search.

Here's the link for the one I bought:

AUDI A2 A3 A4 A6 S4 S6 STAINLESS MUFFLER TIP NEW Pair | eBay
 
That looks good, i was quoted £120 for the tips for my SB when giving Stoke Audi the chassis number for the motor.

Are they they same size as genuine Audi ones? My mates in the process of fitting some of these to his SB, we weren't sure to start with if his were the correct size but looking at those photos, his tips are the same as your tips.

Thanks
 
I think they are the same size. I looked at some genuine ones on ebay that had the size of the pipes listed and they were the same size as these ones. Sometimes I think they look bigger than some of the others I've seen on the road, but they're only a couple of mm larger than the standard curved ones that were on there, so I think they're the correct size.
 
Good job mate - and as mentioned for £4.99 - a cheap but great looking mod
 
jackj said:
Good job mate - and as mentioned for £4.99 - a cheap but great looking mod
Click to expand...
Thanks mate.

Now they've been on a couple of months I thought I'd give an update.
The finish is still perfect and any black soot or dirt wipes off nicely and they look like new. But I suppose they should do being stainless steel.
Inside the pipes are now a nice black, so you can't see the inner pipes at all. The clamps that hold them on are still in good condition and are also barely visible.
 
fitting mine today going to try weld min on if i can see how it goes:arco:
 
I wasn't convinced that 2 weeks down the line I was going to want to adjust them, so that's why I avoided welding. That, and I don't have a welder :whistle2:
 
Do you have a link to where you got the pipes from please?

Cheers.
 
It's a pleasure. It's my first attempt at a 'how-to' guide and I'm pleased it helped someone. I think you'll agree that now you know how to do it, it's not a difficult job. I was apprehensive to start with, but it was that simple that I thought I'd try to encourage others to have a go.
Love your car in black by the way. I wanted a black car as all my cars have been black, but this dolphin grey one came up and I couldn't pass it up. People who know me keep asking 'what happened, it's not black' but I tell them it's light black and it makes me feel better.
 
AidenUK said:
Do you have a link to where you got the pipes from please?

Cheers.
Click to expand...

There's a link to the ebay ones I bought in post #20. I'm not sure if he's still got others on sale or not, but it's worth a look. Otherwise search for muffler tips and not exhaust tips as they seem cheaper this way.
 
^^ thanks for the link matey, however i clicked the link and he doesn't have anything for sale!
 
hi all, i know this is quite a old post now, but im defo thinking about doing this mod. looked at buying the 170 exhaust or having one made but as its the quattro i cant find one anywhere and its stupidly expensive just for a nice tip! is it 3 inch tips i want? thanks
 
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