How hard is it to fit a De-Cat pipe???

[ritch_w]

answer - pretty f**kin hard!!!!

1st attempt - on drive up ramps - cant get bolts / nuts loose - not enough purchase to loosen when lying under the car with about 1ft of useable room :(

2nd attempt - take to tyre place that fitted the one to my V6 for £10
"sorry mate, we cant fit stuff now unless we supply it..." fook off then

3rd attempt - its 4.30 mate - i'm going home for my dinner try tomorrow

4th attempt - VR4 in for service at mitsi - "how much to fit a decat?" i ask, the reply - "whats that?" i quickly explain, blah blah blah, "an hours labour £55, if its only 4 bolts probably less" ....... "thanks but no thanks....."

5th attempt - cant get car on the lifter - not a drive on ramp 4 poster - 2 poster with swing out supports cant clear the side skirts (its not lowered!!!) advised that "bloke round the corner, and jimmy up the road also have the same types of ramps"..... :(

6th attempt - "nah mate - need to book it in, can only price it once its done..."

7th attempt - "nae problem - not today - come back saturday"

aaaaarrrrrgggghh

so saturday it is - tho i'm going to try and blag a drive on ramp at my dads mates garage 1st..............
:end:

[Smokinmasta2]

PSBARHAM done mine - however he lives in Lincolnshire!!
Lots of WD40 and swearing or gas torch is the only option!!
Paul used a breaker bar (car on ramps) and his legs (push with extending leg from nearside of car whilst holding onto the underside of sill).
1 stud pulled out and 1 snapped!! all with Paul's brute strength!!
Also used a imperial sized socket (have to ask him what sized he used!!) so he did not round off the nuts.

Good luck m8

Smokin................

[Kieran]

Yes, Hordak's were solid too! Fortunately, the local tyre place sorted me out.... Helpful lad! Tried it myself first.... Jacked car up, put it on stands..... And then papped my pants as I realised my efforts were just making the whole car shudder about!!! I have never exited the underneath of a car so quickly in my life!!!!! :inquisiti :inquisiti /help :rolleyes4

[Nick Mann]

The last VR4, no probs. This one, tried last night and gave up. Soaked it in WD40, tried several sockets (19 too big and 18 too small?) will try again another time.

I am waiting to find out how much it affects the insurance - no point wasting all that time and effort if it will cost a fortune in raised premiums!

It's only 4 bolts - it won't beat me! :inquisiti

[pezza]

Yup mine were a *&$%S to take out too!

Two mechanics in the end got them off with a couple of extensions on the ratchet for leverage and lots of leg power!!

Hope you get yours sorted ASAP Ritch as Saturday is tooo long to wait!!!

[simpsonm]

All my bolts snapped, had to get the originals drilled out by an engineering firm. They went through 2 diamond bits costing me £96 all in all for 4 ****ty little bolts.

[Smokinmasta2]

The last VR4, no probs. This one, tried last night and gave up. Soaked it in WD40, tried several sockets (19 too big and 18 too small?) will try again another time.


That why Paul used an Imperial size on mine - it's whatever the size is that's between the two metric sizes - he said that's the same on nearly all the metric!!
And old witworth are between sizes again!!

I'll PM Paul and ask...........

Smokin................

[Wodjno]

When i changed mine it weren't to bad .. Not even the use of WD40. But thought i ain't putting same bolts back in , so went round to Local Kwik Fit 5 mins from me and they supplied me with new set of nuts and bolts for 2 squid .. When i put them on i covered them with copper grease..
I'm going outside when i finished posting this up to put my cat back on as the my local garage failed me on my MOT for emmisions so it's gotta go back on .. I will let you know how i get on but hopefully it should go ok as 2 of the bolts were only undone 2 days ago when i had the stainless system fitted .. I was supposed to take my cat up with me when i had Zorst done to be put on then but remembered about it when i was 20 miles up the A1 ..
And yes B4 for you ask , "I WAS GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION" /yes

[paulmc]

Ritch,

If you are up for a quick spin drive to my house and we can stick it up on the ramp :thumbsup:

[Smokinmasta2]

Ritch,

If you are up for a quick spin drive to my house and we can stick it up on the ramp :thumbsup:
Think it might cost than the £55 mits quoted for the petrol though......... :) :) :)

Smokin..........

[paulmc]

yeah you are prob right /yes

[Wodjno]

Doh ! Doh! Doh!

Some Numpty forgot to keep the 2 nuts from when he took his old Cat off... And can't find any to fit .. :embarasse
Will have to go to local ironmongers tommorow to match a couple up.

But all in all the bolts came undone reasonably easy, so when you do your De-cat make sure you cake the bolts up in Coppergrease first . Shouldn't be to bad then .. Hopefully..

I have i tip for stubborn bolts though .. If you can fit a car jack underneath the spanner and pump the jack up , this should do the trick (unless they snap)..
I used this technique when taking off the calipers on the Missus Leggy and it worked a treat .. /yes

[psbarham]

PSBARHAM done mine - however he lives in Lincolnshire!!
Lots of WD40 and swearing or gas torch is the only option!!
Paul used a breaker bar (car on ramps) and his legs (push with extending leg from nearside of car whilst holding onto the underside of sill).
1 stud pulled out and 1 snapped!! all with Paul's brute strength!!
Also used a imperial sized socket (have to ask him what sized he used!!) so he did not round off the nuts.

Good luck m8

Smokin................
the standard bolt size is 19mm or 3/4 inch depending on your age :rolleyes4
spanner / nut sizes in metric /af / whit in descending order are as follows

3/4 inch
19mm
3/8 whit
18mm
11/16 inch
17mm
16mm
5/8 inch
5/16 whit
15mm
9/16 inch
14mm
1/4 whit
if you want to know any more sizes just ask , hope this is of some help

[DaveLee71]

Struck lucky with mine, I work across the road to an exhaust place. Had been talking to them about getting and fitting one, they even said if I got the flanges they would make one up for me.
It arrived last week, nice one Calum, I took it across, straight up on the ramps and I was driving away 15 mins later and the cost of fitting, sweet FA. Great things these close nit communties!!!!
Been going there for years for exhausts so they don't charge me anyone more for small jobs.
Got a second hand stainless system for my 106 off them for £40!
Was really surprised to the difference the de-cat made, plus found out that my cat had a small hole in as well.
If you haven't already de-catted your VR-4 do it, I'm sure everyone else here will back me up, even more impressive than when I de-catted my Scooby.
Another bonus was finding out that the system from the cat back, which I knew was aftermarket, is a Fujitsubo with a helluva size bore and it looks almost new. The other bonus was seeing how clean the car is underneath for a 9 year old car, again cleaner than my Scooby and that was 2 years younger!!
Sorry for going on a bit just a bit chuffed with the Leggie!!
Dave

[Sulli]

Surprised me this thread - I have done plenty, though not on mine yet, and a bit of WD if needed, and some brute strength has always done the job, even when car just up on axle stands.
What's so tough about the VR4 bolts?

[NevGroom]

My local exhaust place (Humphries) did it for a tenner in 5 minutes and offered to do an "MOT swap" for a pint!!

[strangebat]

I took one look at the nuts on mine and thought "sod that" went an bought 4 m12 nuts and bolts, then undid all supports for the exhaust from the manifold back(took about ten minutes or so) which dropped the whole exhaust on to the floor. Then took an angle grinder to the nuts and replaced with new nuts and bolts. total time about one hour. the only thing left is to drill out the old nuts from the cat if I need to replace it at any time ....like MOT in december

[Kenneth]

Does someone know the bolt hole diameter?

Need to get some bolts for my decat pipe which is comming soon.

Ta

[Smokinmasta2]

12mm - but the holes on mine were EXACTLY 12mm so Paul had run a drill on all four holes on Daves de-cat pipe to make them 12.5mm!!!

Smokin...........

[Kenneth]

12mm - but the holes on mine were EXACTLY 12mm so Paul had run a drill on all four holes on Daves de-cat pipe to make them 12.5mm!!!

Smokin...........

Cheers

[dickytim]

mine took 10 min, a little elbow grease, no WD40 and Bobs your uncle.

BTW 19 and 17mm

Well see on 17th when I will be fitting 5 of these at my place for the members who have brought them.

[ritch_w]

well finaly got it fitted today - done it myself - got on the ramps at my dads mates place (used car outlet of the local mitsi dealer)

had to use the burner on the bolts and flanges to get them loose tho....

anyway job done :thumbsup:



sounds a wee bit fruitier but not enough!! need to get a back box or system!! :leer:

anyone got one cheap???