Installing Aftermarket Exhaust

[Doug96GS]

Has anyone installed an aftermarket cat-back by themselves? My Apex should be arriving tomorrow and I was contemplating putting it on myself. How hard is it? I would imagine that the hardest part is ripping the old stuff out. I know that I must have rusted bolts under there. If there is a step-by-step process that I should follow, even a vague one, it would help a lot. I figured what the hell, I'll make a day of it :)

[Dsmman]

I wouldn't event attempt it if you don't have a torch. Bolts are probably rusted and you'll curse and bust your knuckles to get that damn cat back off! Go to an exaust shop to put it on. It sould only be 1/2 to a full hour of labor.
Later

[LaFemmeDSM]

Well we did two catbacks in two weeks so here are the problems we ran into and you can decide for yourself.
First of all, if you don't have a torch you will definitly need a grinder and varying sizes of good drill bits.
The most dificult part is at the cat-con, if you have the stock cat it is held to the rest of the exhaust with studs. Most likely the nut will be so rusted you will have to either grind or torch them off and drill them out. (if your real lucky you can get them off without it, but probably not.) After geting the studs out you may have to pull or grind at the flange, it might be rusted together.
As for the rest of the bolts we were lucky enough to get them all loose and off with breaking only one of them.
Take a good look under your car before attempting because it may be worse than what you think, also it will vary by how much the car is outside and what kind of weather conditions you have in your region. (we have snow, salt prety much everything.)

Good luck!

[Doug96GS]

I went underneath my car tonight thinking that I was going to stay up all night putting on my exhaust. As soon as I saw that 2 bolt flange on the cat I changed my mind :) . I think that I'm going to call my Mitsu dealer tomorrow to see if they will do it. Any ideas on how much it might cost?

[LaFemmeDSM]

You are probably better off with an exhaust shop that has a torch. (will be cheaper, ex. Midas, Whitrock etc.) Mitsu will charge you in excess of $60 an hour for labor (going rate here for general labor) They might be good for the gasket though if you didn't get that one. (we didn't)

[Doug96GS]

I thought about a muffler shop like Midas, but I didn't think that they would do it. I think that I'm just going to try and see if I can find a ricemobile shop that will do it.

P.S. I called my local Mitsu dealer today and they wanted between $200 and $250 to do it. Haha :)

[LaFemmeDSM]

"$200-$250"

I thought so :) Nasty isn't it?

[Doug96GS]

Well, I found a guy that put my exhaust on for $65. I'm still getting used to the sound, but I think that I am going to like it. My only concern is the way that the muffler hangs. It hangs well below the factory cut out and I really wanted the tip to be snug under there. Any suggestions on how I might alter the clearance? I was thinking of drilling a new hole in the rubber hanger at the end of the muffler so that I could put the metal hanger from the muffler up higher. Any thoughts???

[LaFemmeDSM]

Not sure if I can help you with the hanging thing but here are some pictures of how ours looks. (it is pretty much the same height as the GST exhaust we had on there previously)

http://tsiawddsm.homestead.com/files/Apr21_05.JPG
http://tsiawddsm.homestead.com/files/Apr21_06.JPG
http://tsiawddsm.homestead.com/files/Apr21_08.JPG

[n/t_dsm]

What kind of exhaust is that LaFemme?

[LaFemmeDSM]

Apexi World Sport

[Doug96GS]

Yea see, yours is straight, mine is algned a little bit. I was pretty surprised on how loud it was. Apexi's desciption of the exhaust was somethign like "This is Apexi's interpretation of how every exhaust should come from the factory." I think that if every car that was sold in the United States had this exaust you would see car sales plummet :) . It's not too loud, but I'm still getting used to it.