charlieaf92

Something that bothered me from day 1 was that my driver's exhaust tip was lower than the passengers. A quick search told me that it was a sign of sagging motor mounts, so I promptly replaced them. It helped on the passenger side, but my driver's side was still about .5-1" lower than it should have been. I did a bit more research and found a few people that said adjustment is possible, and others that said it isn't.

When installing my Fister mufflers I took the opportunity to get things evened out. There is a band clamp that holds the pipe with the exhaust tip to the output pipe on the muffler and the joint itself is kind of like a ball joint. You can loosen the clamp and move the pipe around, positioning the exhaust tip.

So - for those of you struggling with uneven exhaust tips, it may not be your motor mounts at all (although its worth checking them because if they're original, they probably are shot).

Cheers
Charlie

wildbilly32

Interesting! Next time I crawl under I will look at that. I have new motor mounts to install, but have noticed the tips are not even in the horizontal plane. It appears that in a previous life my car was driven up and down a high slant short driveway to road. There are significant pavement scrapes on the bottoms of the exhaust tips. One is definitely at a higher angle from horizontal than the other. New motor mounts might put it up against the bumper cover.

Thanks for the tip!(No pun intended!)

charlieaf92

I had some pretty deep scrapes on the bottom of mine as well. Not sure how its even possible - maybe loading/unloading from a flatbed.

Both of my band clamps were totally corroded and required replacement. Pelican sells them for like $10 each.

Essentially, I assembled it all out of the car and loosely clamped everything. Then, once I got the bumper back on - I adjusted the positioning and tightened everything down. Removing the bumper isn't necessary unless you just prefer more space to work - or run into a bunch of bolts that need to be cut off (like I did). When you put it back together, make sure that you orient the band clamp so the nut side is on the outside of the car and facing forward. This will give you access to loosen/tighten as needed when everything is back in the car.

Cheers
Charlie

Paul Waterloo

Picture is worth 1,000 words...I think one of mine is off a little bit, I have after market tips.

Billup

The BBE exhaust I purchased has a secondary clamp, but it's not flared like the OEM so it gives you some extra movement to line up the tips a little better.


I however, have been very lazy and the passenger side needs to be adjusted here soon.

KoB

Yup, I have Fabspeed mufflers and tips and the driver's side is about 1/2" low. I'm going to fix it Real Soon Now.

Botsy67

There is also a little up/down adjustment on the 3 exhaust mounting bolts that attach to the exhaust bracket to the car frame body. You can push the muffler up while trying to tighten those 3 bolts, not easy when you are upside down and trying to do 2 things at the same time but can definitely help get some minor exhaust-tip height adjustments. For me the 2nd adjustments at the tip bracket is more subtle but can make the 2 tips look even and perfectly matched with each other with respect to the bumper edge. Cheers,

joseph mitro

Hm, good to know!

Explains why my muffler tip location didn't change after installing new motor mounts.

Nickshu

When I first got my car I spent a hour adjusting the exhaust tips because they were uneven. Then I learned about how the motor mounts on these cars don't last very long...so I replaced the motor mounts, and then had to adjust the tips right back to where they were in the first place LOL.

Noob mistake.

I know you said you already did the mounts...just sharing my noob stupidity story.

tekkie

same here lol, and i screwed around until i got totally pissed off because it still wasnt right lol. those things are a pain to adjust

Horsepwr

I know I am late to the party but this is great advice, I will be adjusting mine tomorrow!

professorman

Wow! You are a life saver! I have been asking my mechanic about that and he assured me there was no adjustment and showed me how sturdy the muffler was mounted to the car. Luckily I am going down to his shop tomorrow, so I have something else on my to-do list now!

Mike_A

Your mechanic, a mechanic? said there was no adjustment....wtf, I think I might take that title away from him. How does he think new tips are mounted? By welding them on maybe

gnargusto

So Ive loosened the band clamp closest to the tips. Im not getting much up/down adjustment. Laterally and diagonally yes. But I was hoping to get some lift to get them flusher with the cutouts. Im not seeing how this clamp alone would achieve this. To be fair, I have 130k on the clock and don't know when or if the motor mounts were ever done. Car feels good though. By chance am I missing an adjustment here?

JohnCA58

You need to make sure the clamps are free from both the tips and the muffler outlet, when I make the adjustments I have to use a long punch or screwdriver to break loose the clamp from both pipes. if only one breaks loose, you will have very limited movement of the tips. GL