This weekend I finally found some time to attempt the installation of the 4.8 exhaust tips I received several weeks back. I took some pics to illustrate what I did so hopefully it will help eliminate some of the complexities I faced. Although the complexity were minor it would have made the job go a little faster had I know exactly what, when and where. Also, I backed the car up on some ramps to allow more to work.
Step 1 – Remove 3.0 Plastic Covers
The plastic covers are held in by plastic fasteners that are part of the bumper that slide into slits on the four corners of the covers, three of which you can see in the image. It seems as if the plastic fasteners that slides in the slits of the cover were slightly melted to prevent the cover from being detached from the bumper. I got a utility knife and sliced the plastic fasteners to allow it to go through the slits of the cover. The main ones to get loose and cut off are the bottom ones. The tops one are hard to reach with the utility knife, once the bottoms ones are loose you can almost simply cut the top one a little and pull off.
Three yellow circles illustrate where the 3.0 covers are fastened and the
extra plastic to allow the fasteners to slide through the cover slits.
The cover has been removed.
No cover, view from under E70
No cover, view from back.
Step 2 – Cut the 3.0 tips off
This is probably the toughest step. Depending on the tools you have, this will be a breeze or very time consuming. I initially thought I would cut the pipes with a hack saw but after a few hacks I realized I would be putting to much elbow grease and time. I pulled out my cut-off tool and went to town. In less that a two minutes I had 85% of the one pipe cut. I couldn’t wrap the entire cut-off tool around the pipe because the remainder was too close to the car so I used the hack saw to finish the job. Did the same for the other side. Before making the cut I semi positioned the tip where it would go to guesstimate where the cut had to be, it turned out to be about 3 inches (4 1/2 fingers). The key is not to cut it too short!
View of the Pipe about to get chopped!
The cut point of reference
The cut
Step 3 – Slide the Exhaust tip to muffler (may require someone’s help)
As mentioned by Danielsand you may want to paint visible thermal wrap. It was already really late, so I skipped this step I may go back and do it later. Totally up to YOU!
First thing is to make sure you slide clamp over the pipe so the tip can be secured once fitted over the pipe from muffler. The image below shows the three connecting pieces. Piece number two will slide over piece number three until it is flush with the cut made to piece number 3. Piece number 1 will slide over the two piece ensuring a tight snug fit. Come out from under the car and position the tip centered in the bumper opening. Tighten clamp.
Here you see them sliding over each other to ensure a snug tight fit.
Clamped On
Final product! Sorry picture is dark, it was late when I finished. Good pic though, you can see that the thermal wrapping is visable. I will probably go back and paint thermal wrapping with flat black heat resistant paint (BBQ pit spray paint)!
Scrap metal!
Approximate completion time 3 hours. If you don't have the tools and the dealer does infact charge 1/2 hour labor for this job it might be worth letting them handle it. My dad helped me do the job and we are both DIY'ers so the bonding time we spend doing the job was priceless in my case!!
Hope this help the DIY’ers out there.
