All-
Got a B&B today and want to know if there is an existing DIY for it to help me out before I tackle this myself.

Thanks in advance,

Jeff

 

What year is your car?

If you have a 97-99 pull the rear bumper it's a snap once thats off, taking off the rear bumper is easier than you would think.

By your avatar looks like your have an S so 2000+ which means you don't need to pull down the bumper you can do it all under the car and again it's pretty easy. Just mounts at the top and at the bottom and you can do it all on the ground.

Get a look under there and you will see just how easy it is, you don't really need a DIY to be honest.

 

It's an '02.

Thanks. I've done some research and heard of the guys saying you need to pull the bumper, etc. so I'm glad I won't need to do that!

Hope to have it in tomorrow.

Jeff

 

You will love the B&B! Got one 2 years ago on my 98. They didn't take off my bumper - they quoted me 2 hours total for the swap, took them 3 hours because of some snag they had with something not lining up. Just got a new exhaust for my NSX - 14 minutes it took them! Let us know what you think of the B&B, it's the best money I ever spent.

 

First thing you need to do is pull the bumper. 1. extend the wing, once extened you will see 3 small black plastic rivets. remove the little guys by pushing the center all the way through. They will fall into the spoiler and you can retrieve them later. Once done gently pry the 3 rivets out with small screwdriver or plastic wedge. Gently pull towards the rear of the vehicle and lift the cover of the wing off. If you look at the wing at opposing edges you will see two holes about the size of a dime. In these holes are two 5mm allen bolts that are loctied in. Remove these and the wings comes right off. * Remember the three little black inserts on the rivets now gently tilt the spoiler towards the ground and these will now fall out on the ground * 2. Now you should see 3 phillips screws remove these and thats it for the top. 3. inside the wheel wells you will find one phillips screw on the passeneger and drivers side remove these as well. 4. At the rear of the car by the license plate are the two black bumper stops remove these by taking the two 8mm allen bolts out on the underside. once out gently pull down and away fromthe bumper. 5. Now on the underside of the bumper is a small series of phillips screws a total of 6 I believe remove these. 6. Now remove the bumper a little bit away and you will see the connector for the license plate lights disconnect this and the bumper comes off. 7. Use a 16mm wrench/socket to remove the two large bolts that hold the aluminum bumper on this will help remove the exhaust.
OK that all being said take a look at the rear of transmission were the exhaust muffler mounts. there are 3 13mm bolts that hold the muffler on, if you have someone helping you this will save the trouble of removing the bumper. Make sure and disconnect the exahust clamps on the catalytic converters and slide them further onto the cat. Having removed all of that now you are ready for muffler replacement.
Does the exhaust include high flow cats or headers? If it does the catalytic converters are a little tricky because of the o2 sensors all you have to do is disconnect them. The connector should have a red tab, all you do is slide the tab out and it releases the o2 sensor. Three 13mm nuts and/or bolts hold the cats to the headers. Once these are removed the the cats will slide out the back since there is no muffler installed yet. If you got headers there are 6 13mm bolts that hold them to the cylinder head. Since you live in Richmond and see some snow and the age of the car be extremely careful with the bolts holding the cats to the headers and headers to cylinder head since the are prone to rust and breaking.Enjoy it is alot easier than it sounds, if you have an questions email me...

 

P.S.....if you do put headers on, replace those crap stock Porsche "snap off waiting to happen" header bolts with some new stainless grade 8 ones. Give them a good coat of never-seize too.

.....and there was no need to pull the bumper on my '03. I had no problem at all getting the exhaust off from underneath with the bumper on.

 

There appear to be either two types of mounts or two types of people. On my 2000 S, I spent 25+ minutes trying to reach those top bolts with every type of extension known to man trying to avoid taking off the bumper. I couldn't do it. Taking off the bumper was so easy and made it so simple that I wished I hadn't wasted the 25 minutes. That said, again, others have had zero problems leaving the bumper on and scoff at us that couldn't. I've been working on cars for over 30 years, having to reach the unreachable frequently, and being somewhat good at it. So, I have no idea why this was such a problem other than that there may be two different types of mounts or something. All I know is that I could not get any type of wrench with or without any type of extension, including flexible ones, on to those top nuts and then have room to rotate.

Good luck.

 

I don't know at what point the mounting changes. Mine is a MY03 base, and that was a significant change year, so maybe that has a lot to do with it. Mine had 2 bolts over top running through a vibration mount bar and then throught a fairly heavy aluminum mount . There were also 2 wire mounts off the bottom of the muffler as well. These were easily removed from underneath. The top bolts were easily reachable with a 3/8" drive ratchet and socket on both the bolt head and the nut sides at the same time, and my arms are not small and thin.

I had removed the "U" bends and the main cat pipes as well, because I had put headers on at the same time, which also might have played into how much room I had. Once I unbolted all four muffler mounting bolts, I just rotated the exit side of the muffler toward the rear of the car and down. It dropped right out onto my chest.

 

The "S" has a beefier rear muffler mount, there is a model year change with the mounts for non "S". You should be able to remove with no problems with the bumper installed.

 

I still pull the bumper everytime, its really easy and saves so muc hhedache

 

Are you sure about the grade 8. I think maybe grad 4 or 5. Think you would have to go to steel to get a grade 8. Having said that if you have a source for the metric SS 8s I would love to buy a set as I am getting ready to do the SS header install myself. Thanks

 

Oh, I agree 99firehawk, it makes life so much easier and you can get to everything!

 

I used grade SS grade 8 bolts and washers. I got them from http://store.nutsandbolts.com/onstdi.html and had them in a day or two. It was like $25 for all the bolts, washers, and nuts I needed to do the entire exhaust system.

 

It's actually easier and quicker to leave the bumper on when working on most of the "S" models.

The earlier cars and some of the early "S" models, it is apparently very difficult to do with the bumper on.

 

i dont think so, i do alot of them and i pull the bumper every time