Today being a holiday, I had the day off to finally install the Breathless exhaust. Job #1: remove the valence.
two T25 screws, 2 clips toward the ends, 2 push pins in the corners
Use a small flat-blade screwdriver to pull out the center pin, then yank that puppy out. Hopefully, the rest of the pin will come out on its own, otherwise work it out a bit with the screwdriver and pull it out the rest of the way with a pair of needlenose pliers.
2 more clips on the underside, six tabs that hook under the rear bumper cover, undo all that and lift out and upward and the valence comes off
Anyone know what those tabs with holes on the bottom are for? Mudflaps?
Job #2: remove the stock putt-putt exhaust.
E12 female Torx socket with a 3/8 breaker bar to get the bolt loose
10mm box wrench to take the bolt out
the bolt on the far side didn't have enough clearance to use the bar, so I used a 3/8 T-bar handle as a sort of extension on the 10mm wrench
with the bolts out, here comes the gasket. Metal center ring, and lots of flakey glitter from the edges
Don't forget to take out the little bolt above the flex pipe holding the heat shield. Little 8mm wrench works here. Even after vigorously applying WD40 to the rubber hangers, they were still tight, so I wriggled them off with a pair of channel lock pliers. No pics here, sorry.
out with the old, in with the new
Stocker weighs 15 pounds, BPP is about 7.5.
put the new one on the hangers and wriggle the flanges, bolts, and gasket into position. It can be done with two hands, but three or four would be easier.
At this point, things got icky. With a very tight area to work in and the rubber hangers shifting things out of alignment a bit, I kept crossthreading the near bolt. At this time the first of a series of thunderstorms also made its presence known. After prodigious use of curse words and dodging intermittent rain for a few hours, I finally decided to pull off the rear panels and bumper so I could see what I was doing. Having chewed up the threads on the supplied hex-head bolts I reused the originals, and pulled the left rubber hanger back off so I could line things up more easily.
finally, the exhaust is bolted up tight
I put the rear panels, bumper, and body sills back on, and fired it up about a quarter after six.
So, was it worth the aggravation and two band-aids? Heck yes. Nice deep tone, no drone, perhaps a bit on the loud side for some people (there is a quieter Touring version). Pretty quiet on light throttle, good sound on tip-in, and a nice series of brupp-brupp-brupps when the auto is downshifting.
Linear Mode
