Anyone fitted their own exhaust?

[monty77]

Do-able on the driveway with a trolley jack? Or should it really be left to a garage with a 4 poster?

It's the supersprint, so shouldn't have any fitment issues (fingers crossed!)

Cheers,
Adam

 

[jediknight]

hahahahahahahaha

if you DO decide to do it on your drive.... you will swear blind that you will never do it there again!!

 

[RichA3Turbo]

Its do-able. The biggest pain in the **** will be removing the old one. Fitting the new one will take under an hour. Its much easier with a 4 post lift, but if you want to save yourself the labour charge, give it a go...

Rich

 

[Ess_Three]

I had my ill-fitting Milltek on and off several times...

As long as you can get the car high enough to get some axle stands underneath, you'll be OK.
Don't be tempted to work under a trolley jack!

The hardest thing will be getting the sleeved joint to the cat undone, and off.

The rest is easy...you simply remove the bolts that hold the exhaust hangers to the 'shell, and drop the complete system, rubbers hangers and metal hanger brackets in a single go.

With the bolts loose at the cats and the hangers un-bolted you should be able to wiggle the system back and forth enough to get the sleeved joint off the cat outlet.

Be aware though: if it's the standard system you are removing, it'd ****** heavy!
You'd be better with 2 people.

 

[Ess_Three]

[ QUOTE ]
jedi-knight83 said:
hahahahahahahaha

if you DO decide to do it on your drive.... you will swear blind that you will never do it there again!!

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, I don't know...
As long as you can get the car high enough, it's no big deal.

I've had mine on and off numerous times with no complaints...I guess it all depends on how easily the cat joint comes apart.

It takes longer to jack the car up high, and get the axle stands under it, than it does to whip the exhaust off.

 

[monty77]

It's not the labour charge that bothers me, it's :

a) Some know nothing grease monkey kicking £600 worth of exhaust around with no care
b) Aforementioned grease monkey fitting it poorly and it leaking like a sod and me having to refit it anyway
c) I get huge pleasure from doing this kind of thing myself - swapped manifold/turbo on previous car so I'm pretty brave if not particuarly gifted with a spanner /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Are the jacking points/axel stand points obvious on an S3? Any special tools/pastes etc.. I'll need before I take the old one off?

Point taken about weight, new one isn't exactly light either.

Cheers!
Adam

 

[Ess_Three]

[ QUOTE ]
monty77 said:
It's not the labour charge that bothers me, it's :

a) Some know nothing grease monkey kicking £600 worth of exhaust around with no care
b) Aforementioned grease monkey fitting it poorly and it leaking like a sod and me having to refit it anyway
c) I get huge pleasure from doing this kind of thing myself - swapped manifold/turbo on previous car so I'm pretty brave if not particuarly gifted with a spanner /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

Do it yourself then...easy when you get cracking...



[ QUOTE ]

Are the jacking points/axel stand points obvious on an S3?


[/ QUOTE ]

Don't use the normal jack points on the sills...

I use the front subframe mounts, near the rear of the subframe...and something similar at the rear where the rear arms mount to the shell - can't remember exactly where...but it'll be obvious, look for something solid.



[ QUOTE ]

Any special tools/pastes etc.. I'll need before I take the old one off?


[/ QUOTE ]

Nope...none.
Metal to metal sleeve joint at the cats...same on the new system...you can use some exhaust paste or high-temp sealer if you wish.



[ QUOTE ]

Point taken about weight, new one isn't exactly light either.


[/ QUOTE ]

I bet the Supersprint is much heavier than the Milltek...probably not much lighter than standard...and it IS heavy!

 

[RichA3Turbo]

[ QUOTE ]
monty77 said:
It's not the labour charge that bothers me, it's :

a) Some know nothing grease monkey kicking £600 worth of exhaust around with no care
b) Aforementioned grease monkey fitting it poorly and it leaking like a sod and me having to refit it anyway
c) I get huge pleasure from doing this kind of thing myself - swapped manifold/turbo on previous car so I'm pretty brave if not particuarly gifted with a spanner /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Are the jacking points/axel stand points obvious on an S3? Any special tools/pastes etc.. I'll need before I take the old one off?

Point taken about weight, new one isn't exactly light either.

Cheers!
Adam

[/ QUOTE ]

Its the reason i would do it too... You can be pleased with yourself when its done and you know you did it. Its the reason i did my turbo upgrade myself (well... partly!)

As glen says, the sleeve joints can be a massive b*tch to get loose! They are usually seized up a bit and a real pain the shift. On a m8's A3 we have to use a whole lot of penetrating oil to loosen it up a bit and use a mallet to tap it off. Took about 45 minutes for the one joint!

Have fun!

Rich