Need some help

B6/7 S4/RS4
#1

So as some of you know, I recently had an exhaust shop custom bend me a nice 2.5" cat-back. Unfortunately, they pulled the car off the rack before I had a chance to have a complete look at their work. So, once I got home I took a peak…it looks really nice overall, very minimal bends and looks pretty straight for good flow all the way to the mufflers. The car runs beautifully (I definitely feel more power) and sounds great. So while looking at everything, I noticed that they welded the cat-back to my DP’s. Not a bad thing I suppose, but I’m running stock piggies and I want to eventually get the Trexturk DP’s. Since it’s welded, I would have to cut the CB off behind the cats, but I have no idea where to cut since I’m not sure what the exact distance between the DP’s and the cat-back should be. I plan to take the car back to the shop and have them cut and clamp, but before I do that, I wanted some guidance as to what I should tell them to do exactly.

Thanks

#2

They should be able to see where they welded. Worst comes to worst they can cut a little closer to the front and have extra slack for when they reinstall.

#3

Just wait till you get the new dp’s and deal with it then honestly.

If you take it now, and they cut it, there’s nothing to clamp to. Either way an extension will have to be done. So I’d say get the dp’s on there and have them make the appropriate cuts/extensions to have it fit properly.

#4

Seems like a good way to go. Since I’ll be putting the DP’s on myself and the exhaust shop is about 10 miles from my house…that’s gonna be a loud ride lol…

Or, maybe what you’re saying is, once I put the DP’s on, measure to see what size extension I’d need and have the shop make that for me and finish the install myself.

#5

no biggie. Weird approach (welding is cheaper than good clamps, so that probably explains it if they were trying to deliver a system to you on a budget) but no biggie.

#6

Yeah I thought it was strange too and then started thinking maybe they pulled the car off the rack without me knowing so I couldn’t see that they did that. I’m a little suspicious, because before they started I was under the car with them and mentioned that I was going to change out the DP’s eventually. Maybe they thought, “shit if we weld these on, there’s a good chance this guy is gonna have to come back here and we can charge him to do the DP’s”.

Fuckers if that’s what they were thinking!!

#7

I doubt it. They wanted to save $60 in clamps I’d say.

#8

Most places don’t like clamps too. A LOT of the mainstream exhaust that use clamps are just shit. The pipe expansion joints etc just don’t match up that great and the clamps do a decent job, but not great (think about all the aftermarket american exhausts, and then “shops” installing them), so a weld is better. And in a perfectly ideal full exhaust setup, it would be all welded (thing about headers etc, you don’t want a clamp anywhere, you want a perfectly free flow).

But I’d say they didn’t want to get blamed for a crappy clamp that didn’t mate up perfect and the customer complaining about noise or smell. So you weld it and don’t worry about it.