Ok, an owner is on his way from houston as I type to trade me his OEM exhaust for my Apex-i. I told him I'd try to have the exhaust off the car when he got here, but the damn bolts are rusted and I can't remove them. Help!!!! I tried soaking them in WD-40, but that didn't help.

I really would like to sell the exhaust, esp. since the guy is making a 5 hour round trip to come get it!!

 

Short of that, take it to a muffler shop and they can take that off in two minutes.

 

Did u try putting a piece of steel tubing around a ratchet or pull handle to give you some more leverage? Try tapping that with a hammer, so they don't break off as easily. I just removed mine last weekend, and they came off very easily with little effort.

 

Air compressor.

 

Mine are rusted, which, I believe, is the main reason I'm having so much trouble.

 

Last time I did my own exhaust exchange, I discovered that bolts that have been on the car for something like 2 weeks (with daily drives) are pretty much 'welded' in place from the heat, and weakened a bit to boot. Get some extra leverage, like the steel tubing mentioned earlier, and go ahead and break them, them buy a new set.

JonasM

 

There are better penetrating oils than WD-40, though that is much better than nothing.

Here's a couple of suggestions.

More WD-40 (or Kroil, or Liquid Wrench, or PB Blaster, or whatever.) Tap the flange around the nuts (don't hit the end of the stud and damage the threads) while you're spraying. The vibration seems to help the penetrating oil penetrate better. Let the penetrant work for a few minutes, then repeat the process.

With rusted bolts, sometimes you have to loosen a little, then tighten them back a bit before continuing to loosen. As the nut threads off, it pushes rust in front of it. This builds up and makes the bolt hard to turn. Might even be useful to tighten the bolt a tiny bit, spray more penetrant, then remove. This, of course, assumes that you can move the nut. Using a wire brush to remove some of the rust might make the penetrant work better, too.

If you have a propane torch and can use it on the bolts without burning anything else, heat can help loosen frozen fasteners. However, if you don't know what you're doing, forget about this. Burning down your car and garage is too high a price to pay.

You should be able to get enough leverage (breaker bar instead of ratchet, maybe cheater pipe over handle of bar to increase leverage) to break the bolt or stud. If it's a stud, you'll have to remove the broken piece, but there will be a nice piece sticking out for you to work with. It should break off about even with the flange on the tailpipe, leaving a piece of stud the thickness of that flange sticking out of the catalytic converter.

An air-powered impact wrench would make short work of these nuts, but I doubt that you have access to one.

And with all my talk about hitting things with a hammer and breaking bolts, please wear safety glasses.

These are just suggestions. Use whatever is available to you, and good luck!

 

Go with the "Liquid Wrench" idea. WD-40 is a "make-do" kinda product. Soak 'em real good and a few minutes later, soak 'em again. They'll make one heck of a squeal as they come off but they will come off.

 

Try starting the car and get it up to temp then try removing the bolts. It is a little bit safer then a hot wrench(torch). Just be careful not to get burned.

 

The exhaust is officially stuck. I haven't tried taking it to a muffler shop yet, but that would be the only way it will come off. It isn't coming off by hand. Thanks for all the help guys!