I decided to do a little recon work today and scope out the underside of my car. I went ahead and sprayed some penetrating oil on all the nuts and bolts I thought I'd need to loosen for the install. The fuzzy lint you see is from a rag that I used to wipe up excess pb blaster.

Is my exhaust too corroded to be removed without screwing something up?



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That looks horrible. But that's what an air impact gun is for. It'll make short work of it. Go for it.

 

What about reinstallation? Any issues there?

 

Those fasteners need to be replaced. All of the washers, nuts, and bolts. Since you seem to be in a harsh environment for corrosion, I'd suggest using stainless ones to replace them.

 

It's a lease turn-in from new jersey. There's also a catback in my near future (hopefully 2015) but not next weekend when I plan to install the Hotchkis.

Are the bolts replaceable? In one picture, it looked like the bolt was welded in place.

After looking at it again, I think it's just corrosion bubbling up.

Also, if it's not welded, would I need a wrench on the bolt head before I hit the nut with the impact wrench?

Here's another look at it. Is that not a weld?

 

Gonna need a grinder for that and patience.

 

Oh my god...

 

You don't have to remove it, you can drop the exhaust from the hangers if you have to. I did mine without removing anything, but there was a lot of cussing and F-bombs involved.

 

When doing bars on mine, I didn't loosen or remove the exhaust. The rear bar took a bit to maneuver it just right around the pipes.

 

Mine is a lease turn in from MD and my exhaust looked the same. Left it one for the sway bar installation and worked okay.

 

Those are some pretty amazing macro shots. Wow.

Pretty sure you or your mechanic will be rolling out the torch for those bolts.

 

When I swapped out my exhaust for the FI we just took it off in one piece and cut it up later. As Rochester said in a different thread, in for a penny, in for a pound. May as well replace the exhaust too.

 

IMO. If it were me I'd take that to my exhaust shop and have them install the sways. Those bolts are typical in the Northeast. No big deal for them, but I'm not laying on my back on a concrete floor alligator arming rusted as hell bolts. Getting an impact on them may be possible if you have enough clearance, but still that looks like a major PITA. I'd pay the $200-$250 to have someone else deal with this one. I'm very interested to hear about what you find out on the end links though.

 

Wow. I think you're going to have issues getting those off.

How are the bolts back by the mufflers, the same? If you could get the mufflers off the hangers, you could probably fish the rear sway bar in.

 

They appear to be in much better condition. What material is the large junction I showed above? It seems to corrode far faster than everything else in the exhaust.