Pulling downpipe to gut cat, questions.

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RacerTodd

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2007
Location
Kirkland, WA
TDI
2001 Golf TDI
So, I'm fairly certain that my cat is in the early stages of plugging up. And with 420K on the car, that's not terribly surprising.

My first question is: can I remove the downpipe without dropping the subframe?
I have 4 jackstands and can get the front and back of the car well up off the ground. It looks like there is enough clearance for it to slide down and out easily, but I haven't pulled a downpipe yet so I'm not 100% sure. If I don't have to drop the subframe, that's $40 worth of bolts I don't have to buy.

For those that have gutted a cat, I was planning to use a 3' length of pipe with my baby 3lb sledge and bash the guts out via the rear pipe. Does that method work OK? If not, I know a guy with a welder and we could cut open the cat, empty it and weld it back up. Suppose we could even do that on the car.
 

02DslPwr

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2004
Location
Leander Texas
TDI
2002 Jetta Wagon, TDI
Talking about the removal of an emissions device is a forum no-no.

I've never heard of anyone dropping the subframe to install any part of an exhaust.
 

jimbote

Certified Volkswagen Nut
Joined
Jul 10, 2006
Location
spiral arm, milky way (aka central NC)
TDI
Tacoma 4x4 converted to TDI
no need to drop the subframe to remove the downpipe...use lots of penetrating oil on the turbo flange nuts and use care not to break the studs.... there are two short 8mm bolts that hold the exhaust bracket to the subframe and you need to loosen and slide the exhaust coupler forward...once those are loose the downpipe will slide right out
 

gneal02

Active member
Joined
Aug 9, 2012
Location
Gloucester, VA
TDI
2005 Jetta TDI 5 Speed
So, I'm fairly certain that my cat is in the early stages of plugging up. And with 420K on the car, that's not terribly surprising.

My first question is: can I remove the downpipe without dropping the subframe?
I have 4 jackstands and can get the front and back of the car well up off the ground. It looks like there is enough clearance for it to slide down and out easily, but I haven't pulled a downpipe yet so I'm not 100% sure. If I don't have to drop the subframe, that's $40 worth of bolts I don't have to buy.

For those that have gutted a cat, I was planning to use a 3' length of pipe with my baby 3lb sledge and bash the guts out via the rear pipe. Does that method work OK? If not, I know a guy with a welder and we could cut open the cat, empty it and weld it back up. Suppose we could even do that on the car.
I don't know anything about getting to it on these cars but bashing the guts out with some type of bar does work. I've done it on a couple of S-10 pickups I've owned, just break the insides up and then start and rev to blow it out.
 

Turbodude1

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 16, 2005
Location
Auburn Maine
TDI
1999.5 Golf 2dr. RCII, sprint 520s, shine susp
I *may* have removed cat parts from an off road only vehicle without removing downpipe from the the vehicle. I removed the clamp after the cat, then broke up the material with a pry bar, used a shop vac to recover the pieces, then started the car with the downpipe still open to remove the final ones.
 

VeeDubTDI

Wanderluster, Traveler, TDIClub Enthusiast
Joined
Jul 2, 2000
Location
Springfield, VA
TDI
‘18 Tesla Model 3D+, ‘14 Cadillac ELR, ‘13 Fiat 500e
A little too blatant for my tastes. Sorry.
 
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