HI,

I'm trying to shift the last 'bolt' on the center CAT to remove it to make way for my new pipe. Its a threaded rod with a nut on one side. The nut appears to be fixed to a plate. Does anyone know how this thing comes off, as it is obviously not possible to loosen this 'bolt' as it hasn't got a bolt head?

Picture below show what i mean...

Thanks

 

Frank its not fixed to the plate just corroded, if you have the nut off just give it a good soaking with wd40 and then give it a good belt with a hammer when you put it all back together replace the bolt cos you will have knackered the old one getting it off.

 

You appear to have hit the same problem I had when I decatted the centre section of my MY01.
For some reason that side of the flange is threaded, so the bolt needs to unscrewed from it.

Mine absolutely refused to budge as it seemed to have welded itself to the flange due to the sheer heat it's subjected to being fairly close to the turbo
I had to take mine to a local exhaust place where they heated it the bolt until it was red hot in order to get it free

 

thanks but how on earth do you get a grip on it to shift it, the nut on the other side is knakered and i have no idea how you grip a threaded rod to twist it out?

 

As Mike has said, for some strange reason the one side of the flange is threaded with a stud in it that can get impossibly tight to remove. Use a nut splitter to remove the nut then you should be able tp get enough movement to move the rear section backwards, thus seperating the two flanges. You'll need about 50mm to clear the stud fron front flange, if you see what I mean..?

It's one of those Subaru quirks that's a real PITA. Makes an easy job bloody hard..!

 

cheers jason. Sounds like some bloomin anti-tamper measure which Subaru have implemented to prevent dudes fiddling with it. So are you say the other side which in my picture has NO nut attached has a thread in the flange?

thanks

 

The nut on mine was in a similar condition to yours by the time I'd slipped a spanner off it a few times fighting with the bastward thing!

To be honest, I really had no hope of undoing it whilst scrabbling around underneath the car on the driveway with the car on axle stands!

Once the guy at the exhaust place had lifted the car 6ft off the ground giving him way more room to work than I'd had, and with better tools to grip that frigging nut and once he'd heated it up, he just casually twisted it off with ease!

He even fitted the decat section for me! £30 for half an hours labour!

Decat downpipe for me next I think

 

is there any sensors conected to this cat and what increase in power/torque is to be had also do they fail MOT with just this one removed?

Oh do you need to remap aswell?

 

Frank, sorry I couldn't view pics earlier.

Yes, from what I can tell the side without the nut (as in pics) is threaded into flange (ie. centre cat pipe flange) although the stud on mine didn't protrude as much as it seems to on yours.

As mentioned doing this on your back on the drive is a real PITA. If possible pop to a friendly local exhaust fitter and bung him..!

 

anyone ???

 

There is a sensor which unscrews from the original cat section and simply screws in to the new decat pipe (on my afterburner section at least).

I havent had a remap and the car runs fine, with a small but noticeable increase in power (scoobyworld claim about 10bhp).

Nice improvement in sound too

 

thanks

 

cheers Jase, I'll persevere with it for the time being - i've just purchased a nut splitter off ebay so I'll give that a go. I also don't trust many garages round my way and my favourable dealer is too far away to make a quick trip to get this sorted.

How do you guys get on with re-installing the sensor - do you use and thread sealant to keep it in?

I'm hoping for some noticable gains - a nice increase in torque would be nice.