Inexpensive ALH downpipe on ebay.

I have installed my pipe. At this point I give it an A for fitment. Bolted right up, lined right up HOWEVER I just noticed a slight "squeak" when I rock the engine. What I mean is if I snap the throttle I'll get a brief squeak as if something is slightly rubbing.

I haven't bothered to investigate yet. It might be the same issue as mentioned a few posts up about the mount rubbing.

Going from a bone stock exhaust system I can say that now I do slightly hear the turbo's choppy sound when idling. It's not super loud but I can hear it. Before I never heard my turbo at all.

When idling and standing behind the car you can most definitely hear the turbo now. Before, nothing.

I want to say I feel slightly less lag when boosting up but this could all be in my head. Definitely not a huge difference.

I'd buy it again.

I was looking at the same set up for my jetta. Is it a 2.5" system?

read post 25 Phil.....

I was under my car today deleting my muffler so I took a second look at the downpipe and hangers.

The front hangers were definitely off a little bit. I gave them a slight bend and they now line up great. This was causing my middle hangers to slightly rub the heat shield which made the squeaking noise.

After this I went on a test drive. No more squeaking.

Any effect on mpg? Assuming you are driving the same way

As far as deleting the muffler goes. I hate it, stock muffler going back on.

Sounds like a$$ to me. Yes you can definitely hear the turbo but the rest of the noise just isn't worth it. Sounds horrible IMHO

firehawk618 said:

As far as deleting the muffler goes. I hate it, stock muffler going back on.

Sounds like a$$ to me. Yes you can definitely hear the turbo but the rest of the noise just isn't worth it. Sounds horrible IMHO

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A few questions regarding your set-up;

Are you running the set-up as it comes from the seller with no Cat?

When you deleted the stock muffler did you replace it with a pipe going out the back or exiting under the car?

Seems I've read here that many will put a resonator in place of the stock muffler with attention paid to the downturn angle of the exit. This is supposed to take care of cabin drone that some with no muffler complain of. They may have had a Cat too which I imagine has a muffling quality to it....

1heavyfoot said:

A few questions regarding your set-up;

Are you running the set-up as it comes from the seller with no Cat?

When you deleted the stock muffler did you replace it with a pipe going out the back or exiting under the car?

Seems I've read here that many will put a resonator in place of the stock muffler with attention paid to the downturn angle of the exit. This is supposed to take care of cabin drone that some with no muffler complain of. They may have had a Cat too which I imagine has a muffling quality to it....

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Running it as shipped. Straight out of the box.

I replaced the muffler with a section of pipe ending at the exact same place as the stock one. Tip pointing 45 degrees down vs straight down.

Issue isn't drone, it's the fact the car is ok when putting around but as soon as you're heavy on the throttle above 1800 rpms it sounds like an old chevrolet inline 6 with no exhaust. Horrible. It gets deep and farty and loud. I hate it. Kids might like it but I think it sounds bad.
Put my stock muffler back on and regret ever taking it off.

If I put this on my stock 2000 Jetta, will I gain mpg? Just hooking it up to my factory muffler? Everything else being stock. What other benefits would this be? I do not hot rod, race it or anything, just my daily driver.

Also are there any con's? Cel light, mpg go down etc...

For anyone that has installed this, would you mind commenting on the change in exhaust pitch/volume when accelerating? I have kept the stock muffler, but get a louder drone from the exhaust than I used to. This could be normal, so I'm curious of others' experience.

Fitment on mine was about a B. The two metal hangers welded onto the pipe isnt in a good place. They ended up touching against the exhaust hanger on the subframe so I had to bend the hanger forward to fix that. The engine is pulled back though by the downpipe. I had my dogbone off for the job as I wall doing my steering rack, and things didn't easily line up when putting the dogbone back on. We had to pull the engine forward quite a bit, the holes on the transmission were about an inch behind the holes on the dogbone. I tried loosening the clamp on the exhaust but that didn't help much. I'm going to have to adjust the front hangers a little more.

Mine needed the hangers bent back a little back to keep it from rubbing the subframe but it fit just fine after that.

Dug this up so I didn't have to make a new thread, worth it? Since it looks like its still in stock configuration any power difference? My cats all plugged up so it might be falling off soon.

Looks alright for the price. Thanks for posting your find.

I purchased an OEM-style replacement downpipe (with cat and original diameter) from this vendor and I am very pleased with it. Here's my experience so far

- Communication with them was fast and easy
- Packaging was good, tight box with bubble wrap. Also included a gasket and a new clamp, which is pretty neat
- Welds are not the nicest, with moderate spatter. They seem solid enough and fully seal around the the perimeter. No-name cat but didn't expect anything else
- Coated with some silver paint. I don't know if it adds any protection. Did not burn/smoke/smell after installation, so it must be high temp stuff

Installation was not a smooth plug&play. What I found out is that the angle between the flange and the line intersecting the 2 hangers is slightly off from the original DP. What this means is that on my 1st try, I couldn't slide the flange on the studs. Since I didn't want to stress the flexpipe, I tweaked the hangers a bit until I got it to work. The 2 rubber bushings are a bit stretched but it's No big deal, as there are no vibration/rubbing/squeaking after 3 weeks.

All in all, $195 shipped for a decent downpipe with some goodies is a pretty good deal for a stock daily driver with 330,000kms.

What is the diameter of the downpipe?

Another successful install. I got the version with the cat. I give it an A for fitment.

It went right on the car with no fuss. Orientation of holes in the flange is good. The length of pipe was perfect. It has at least 1" of clearance all around in the exhaust tunnel although slightly off center to the driver's side at the first hanger. I'm sure that could be fixed by bending the hanger but I did not bother. It does not appear to have put any part of the hangers or engine under stress.

Hehe, I actually pulled mine off. It keep rubbing the hanger making nasty vibrations and the flex was too short causing the whole exhaust to vibrate like crazy. Got a stock downpipe with a cat and put that on. So much better and the car doesn't stink nearly as bad.

turbocharged798 said:

409 still rusts, that what the stock exhaust is made of.

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Yep When I was making chains (legal slave labor) the 409/410 stainless scrap was thrown in with the regular steel to be recycled while 304 etc was separated
out with other quality stainless

Is this an upgraded Downpipe? It looks like stock size??

2003 jetta downpipe

Hi Does anyone know if Golf and Jetta share the same downpipe / flex/ cat? Thanks

peteguenther said:

Hi Does anyone know if Golf and Jetta share the same downpipe / flex/ cat? Thanks

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Yes!