Exhaust Fitting Question - Fitted it!

[beko1987]

Bit of a back-story...

 

The backbox on the meriva had snapped both it's mountings, so I bought a new one for £20 from euro car parts with a discount code. Great! Went to get the old one off and it's rusted on to fuck. No amount of hammering, grinding, swearing and heat would move it.

 

So I gave up on that, and planned to get the rest of the exhaust from the cat, to tidy it up a bit (had an emissions advisory last year, and its all pretty rusty anyway)

 

Just ordered this: https://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/Vauxhall_Meriva_1.6_2005/p/car-parts/car-body-parts-and-car-exhaust/exhausts/exhaust-parts/?704721891&1&596a6e270549fbbdbbdad8b7b96acd2e7a74ba39&000430 for £55. Looking at the 3 bolts that secure it to the cat, they look equally fucking rusty. What are people's experience with rusty exhaust fixings?

 

The ideas I have had are:

1 - They all undo, job jobbed

2 - Get some plusgas, they undo AND do back up again

3 - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CATALYST-CAT-FITTING-KIT-FIT-FOR-VAUXHALL-MERIVA-1-8-2003-KIT455-/230831062933?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item35be9a7f95 and just use the 1 gasket and new studs

4 - 2 of the 3 snap off flush with the cat, causing me to hurl tool across the driveway narrowly missing windows etc.

 

Any thoughts?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I'm afraid ALL exhaust swaps involve rusted bolts snapping off etc. If you havent got lots of big hammers, blowtorches and grinders etc you could be getting into a load of grief!

[trigger]

When the exhaust went on the Cortina i brought a new system from the local motor factors and got my local tyre and exhaust garage to fit it, it only cost me £20 and saved me a shit load of pissing about on my back in the driveway.

[PhilA]

I'd say, based upon experience, 2 plus 4 (gallons of plus gas but you don't have time to leave it to soak, so 2 come off, one doesn't) coupled with swearing and a half hour leant over the bathroom sink peeking in the mirror trying to get the little chunk of flaky rust out of your eye.

 

Pay the extra and have someone do it up on a ramp with a gas torch and an old pair of Mole grips.

 

-Phil

[beko1987]

Will have to ask my local tyre matey. It's only 3 bolts though...

 

*touch wood*

 

Will see how brave I'm feeling when I come to do it.

[Volksy]

I spent four hours last saturday changing the front pipe on the Audi, it had been bodged to buggery in the past, an over-sized stainless system from the front pipe back, of a different diameter, and three inches too short with a bit of steel wedged in as a sleeve.. So had to then decide weather to leave it blowing until I could afford to replace the full system, or recreate the 'bodges' so i could use the car. With the help of M.Imp we managed to extend the new front pipe in a somewhat better fashion than the lumpy welded mess that was on the old pipe, then fashion a better arrangement to help the whole lot mated together. I should have waited until I could borrow a ramp at my mates workshop, as I HATE doing exhausts on the floor..

 

Best advice would be to soak every fitting in plus-gas the night before, and again before you start the job, use six-sided sockets rather than twelve sided ones, when loosening the nuts which are on studs do one turn off, half a turn on, to try and stop the inevitable shearing, and find something comfy to lie on, you may be there a while...

[beko1987]

The rest of the exhaust came today, thank fuck I work a 2 min walk from mums, it's the same length as the ZX! I got a quote of £119.85 for an MOT and fitting of the bits (£54.84 for the MOT and £65 for an hours labor on the exhaust. Tempted, cleaning a car tomorrow so hopefully that will soften the blow a bit.

 

Did have thoughts of fitting it myself, but it's fucking heavy, and I have bad thought of it all going wrong etc. May have a go at the bolts and see, but in all honesty I think I'll book it in for both early next week and have done with it. It's too cold for lying on my back on the drive swearing a bits of rusty opel!

 

Unless anyone's close to south bucks and fancies lending a hand for beer tokens?

[trigger]

£65 quid! robbing basards!

[retrogeezer]

I fitted a new rear box (includes a long centre pipe section) to my Bluebird last week on my back in the drive. The two bolts joining it to the front section were fine, I just had trouble with one of the rear box hanger bolts. I guess I was lucky as it looks like it has been there the whole 24 years since the car was new!

[beko1987]

£65 quid! robbing basards!

 

Sadly, they are the only good garage in the area, and the cheapest too. The only other option is quickbodge or similar. They do have a horrible habit of finding little bits of waxoyling or fettling to do, adding 20 quid here, a fiver there to the bill when I specifically say "call me if anything crops up, as I'm skint"

 

I am still tempted to do it myself, will get more satisfaction out of it. Will have a few beers tonight and see what happens! Supposed to piss with rain on sunday though, so that leaves next weekend...

[Barry Cade]

I fitted a new rear box (includes a long centre pipe section) to my Bluebird last week on my back in the drive. The two bolts joining it to the front section were fine, I just had trouble with one of the rear box hanger bolts. I guess I was lucky as it looks like it has been there the whole 24 years since the car was new!

 

I guess you don't have a towbar then, this makes the job a whole lot more interesting...

[retrogeezer]

Nope, no towbar but you do need to lower the rear anti roll bar out of the way so that is 4 more rusty bolts to loosen off!

[beko1987]

At least the Meriva sounds easier! 3 bolts under the cat and everything slides onto the rubber hangers. The puma would have been a pain in the arse though, had to either thread it through the rear beam with the rear bumper off or drop the rear beam completely. One of the reasons I never bothered and drove it around like a rudeboi!

[Barry Cade]

Aftermarket Puma exhausts come in 2 pieces, so are dead easy to fit- no need to drop anything.You cut the existing exhaust then fit the new back box, or easier and better, just fit a middle and rear.

 

With bluebird exhausts, if you have the height, you insert it over the suspension upside down, then turn it to fit it to the hangars without having to undo anything- you can't do this if it has a towbar and can end up in a world of shite if bolts start to snap.

[Morgan84]

Soak the threads in plenty of WD40 or similar

Wire brush the threads to they look clean,and the fixings don't bind up tight on rusty thread

Find a decent socket which fits correctly,preferably a 6 sided one and hammer it on for a good fit

If you have a impact wrench,try that,or failing that try your luck with a pulling bar,and try persuading it

Failing that,file the nuts almost through on one side to help you split,and peel them off the studs

 

Also lots of grunting and cursing may well be required !

 

Hope it goes well * fingers crossed *

[Morgan84]

Soak the threads in plenty of WD40 or similar

Wire brush the threads to they look clean,and the fixings don't bind up tight on rusty thread

Find a decent socket which fits correctly,preferably a 6 sided one and hammer it on for a good fit

If you have a impact wrench,try that,or failing that try your luck with a pulling bar,and try persuading it

Failing that,file the nuts almost through on one side to help you split,and peel them off the studs

 

Also lots of grunting and cursing may well be required !

 

Hope it goes well * fingers crossed *

[Albert Ross]

Get the engine hot, apply WD40, and hammer a smaller socket over the corroded nut! It should work. I work in a Vauxhall workshop... it's our normal method. Replace with the correct nut (Copper with steel coated threads)

[beko1987]

Right, I screwed up on the MOT date, thinking it was at the end of nov, it runs out on tues, so got it booked in at 4pm monday.

 

So this hurriedly happened around a mates this morning!

 

Drove up a set of ramps he had, and took a look at the fannymould nuts. Sprayed them up friday night and this morning when I got there after getting it hot (fun to to within 4 miles!)

 

 

Expecting the worse, I gingerly got a 1/2 6 sided socket and....

 

 

 

they smoothly undid without even a glimmer of an issue

 

 

The old system

 

 

It goes on in 2 bits, so it fits over the axle, so we raided his garage and turned up a grinder. One removed exhaust

 

 

The inside of the cat, the black smudge is where I poked it to see what it was

 

 

bit of a gap underneath (the blue rope was tied to the ramps, so when we drove up they didn't skid away (credit to my mate for that))

 

 

 

Took the old hangers off. I only bought 4 not 5, so one went on at the back so I can swap it if I can be arsed

 

 

the next job was to try and extract the lambda. I bought a lambda remover when I changed the one on the puma, so using that, and keeping nice and straight I...

 

 

swore heavily

 

quick loan arranged from my mate because I am skint resulted in a little 30 mile jolly to get a new lambda

 

 

coming back from Aylesbury, we ducked down some back roads as a shortcut and came across a hunt!

 

 

 

[/img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-JtxQBZQv0Qk/UJUiCSR47DI/AAAAAAAAIbc/RXIikvpNaws/s640/20121103_114105.jpg[/img]

 

as nice as it was to catch the occasional nice arse in jodhpurs, we waited for about 40 fecking horses to come past, took a good 15 minutes!

 

still, it was worth it as the new sensor screwed in with 2 fingers and a little tug from the ratchet.

 

 

shiney

 

 

re-used the old bolts, tightening them up as hard as I dare (will check them tomorrow)

 

 

 

Took all of 4 hours including the emergency shopping trip, and well worth it. Thanks for all the advice, I did undo the nuts 2 turns and back up 1 for a while.

 

I was only going to replace the backbox, if it had come apart the centre section would have remained. I think this would have been a mistake

 

 

 

my previous attempt to get them to part. The clamp was welded on and a bastard to get off. Pointless to try too!

 

 

Lasted 59k, hopefully I'll get that again out of it

 

 

Lol at the optimistic speedo...

 

Sam

[stuboy]

good work there...........

[Split_Pin]

Good work. I have to change the exhaust on my Corsa next week so ill use that wd 40 and heat up trick! Only the middle and back box for me thankfully!