TdiRacing said:
Man lurker do you even have a car to look at? There is a huge steel support just aft the coupler. That is the support there that holds most of the weight.
How could you not see this? I thought you were making your own pipes and stuff, you surely must know this? Or do you?
We have a similar set up on the Rally Car and on my own car that I built years ago. Have used it for over 130K miles and never had a failure or issue.
As for the cat, that is why he has coupler there, so you can either use a straight pipe, cat, or dummy cat as you wish.
Hi Oliver... let's see if we are even on the same page...
Here is a crude MSPaint drawing from my memory of a 99.5-05 A4 TDI DP, either VE or PD (PD has an O2 bung).
I suspect that you are talking about the Mid-(ship) Hanger Bracket and I am speaking of the Front Hanger Bracket.
If you remove the front hanger bracket the cat will weight load the flex section and the turbo exhaust flange. I'm not so worried about the turbo flange. Practically all flex joints are made in China these days and the one's Dave uses are probably no different. It is a fact of life that they are the main source for them these days. I personally choose not to add the cat's weight to the flex. If Dave has good results from doing it with his designs then I tip my hat to him for that. Let's get one thing straight, I never said Dave's design would or would not work. All I am saying is that I choose to follow the OEM design of supporting the weight of the cat on the OEM provided FRONT HANGER BRACKET AND THE MID HANGER BRACKET. That is why they put the Front Hanger Bracket there. If Dave doesn't need it, then that's cool by me.
If Dave offers diesel cats on his DP's then I stand corrected. I mistakenly thought he only offered cat-delete pipes.
A dummy cat does not come close to the weight of a real cat so it should not be considered a significant additional weight load that will be trying to swing around wildly every time you hit a pothole or take the car airborne Dukes of Hazard style.
Are we on the same page yet?