i just installed my ws2 on my hatch yesterday. everything seemed to be going fine, until we bolted all the pipes together... and found that the second pipe with the 2 90 degree bends is hitting the body. its almost as if the stock cat is too short, and its pulling the whole exhaust forward about 1/2"-3/4" towards the front of the car, and therefore making the piping hit the side of the exhaust routing. i took it off, reattached it again, and had the same result, so i don't think it was something i was doing wrong.

here are some pics:


you can see here how the piping just seems like its up too far.... and its hitting whatever that is on the body, right at the second 90-degree bend.


a little tough to tell from this pic, but the exhaust hangers are all slanted from being pulled, they aren't straight up and down like you'd think they would be.

i measured the cat length, and its roughly 15 1/2" long from flange to flange. from what i've found on searches here, this is pretty much the stock length.... unless someone can tell me otherwise.

so my question is.... if i take it to a muffler shop, will they be able to adjust the second pipe so it doesn't hit, without messing up my cat-back?

thanks for your help!

 

also.... just thought of this... would i be able to bend up that piece that its htting without hurting anything on the car? i didn't do this in the first place, just because i wasn't sure what the part was...

 

That looks like its hitting the factory heat shield. if thats the case, just bend it or remove it.

 

A.) what kind of car is that?
B.) did you buy it new?
C.) do you have any sort of header?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ninetfivehatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">That looks like its hitting the factory heat shield. if thats the case, just bend it or remove it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

not hitting the heatshield... i don't know if its possibly a part of the suspension, or what?

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Archidictus &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">A.) what kind of car is that?
B.) did you buy it new?
C.) do you have any sort of header?</TD></TR></TABLE>

a.) it's a 93 dx hatch... so i should be able to use my stock cat...
b.) yes, its brand new...
c.) no sort of aftermarket header... just the plain ol' rusty oem stuff.

i'm just not sure if the cat was replaced at one point with something slightly shorter than the original... can anyone confirm the exact length of stock dx/si cat?

 

just bend it out of the way I had the same problem with my N1 on my EG and then it was fine after that didnt affect anything by bending it out the way

 

my boy had the same problem w/a ws2 on a 00si, i have a ws1 but it dosent do that, maybe its just the design u just gotta bend it a little

 

i had the same problem with the install of my ws2. at first i tried to flip the "s" piece around to see if i installed it backwards. wasnt the case. so i took it back off and reinstalled it the way it was and i didnt have the problem anymore. try flipping the piece, that could be what is wrong with yours. just a suggestion

 

u can have the flange on the cat extended too. maybe 1/2 inch or an inch would do. If u ever have to put the stock exhaust back on it would only stick out that much more.

 

well, i bent part of that metal back about 1/4", so its not hitting that now. whatever part that is doesn't bend that easily, and my arm feels like its about to fall off now, haha. i'm pretty sure it didn't affect anything mecanically, everything still rides just fine. its still pretty close though... i'm sure i'd hear it hit if i went over a pretty hard bump.

now i noticed that its also hitting the gas tank, so i put a piece of cut rubber tubing in between there until i can get to the muffler shop. at least there's no more rattling for now...

good idea on extending the cat flange, i think thats what i'll do. it seems that if the whole thing could shift back a little less than an inch, nothing would rub at all. no need to ever put the stock exhaust back on... it was completely rusted through so i just threw it out.

thanks for your help guys, i'll keep this updated with what i can get done at the muffler shop.