A very common upgrade or fix. I did this mainly because my flexi joint was blowing.
Tools; nothing special needed.
17mm socket
17mm ring spanners
12mm ring spanner
Long bar, I used a trolley jack handle
A lump hammer
As always, this is for information only and niether me nor the forum take any responsibility for any damage you cause either to yourself or to your car. Before starting ask yourself if this is something you are capable of doing and in particular do you know and understand how to safely raise and support your car to eanble you to work under it. If not STOP.
Although this is a very common thing to do, there seems to be very little in the way of information as to exactly how to go about it, so....
1, Engine upper and lower covers off, all of them. If you need me to explain that, STOP, and get the car in the garage.
2, Jack up the front as high as possible and secure it properly, axle stands etc.
3, Remove airbox, to do this there is one screw securing a bracket that hold all the vac lines, undo it and undo the 10mm bolt on the wing. Take the top off first after undoing the clips then the bottom section whilst holding the vac lines to one side.
4, Start under the car. If the clamp will not undo or yield you will waste time putting the turbo flange nuts back on. Undo the cross brace and remove, 2x 17mm bolts. Undo the clamp nuts, both of them. Pry open the clamps. If this goes well, stay under and...
5, Undo the 12mm turbo flange nut that is nearest the engine block, you cannot reach this from above and even from below movement on the spanner is limited.
6, Topside, undo the other two turbo flange nuts, again I had to do these with a 12mm ring spanner. I've got loads and loads of tools and despte that, a 12mm ring was all that would work.
7, Pull the cat flange off and away from the turbo and give the whole thing a twist, you are trying to break the stiction on the clamp below and you'll get much more leverage from above.
8, Below, I used a trolley jack handle and a lump hammer... bash the clamp backwards, stop, wiggle and twist, bash, stop, wiggle, twist until the clamp has backed off enough to release the exhaust section. You may need to use moderate violence.
9, Back above, corkscrew the old section out. Oh it won't, back below wiggle it, oh it won't come out, tiwst, wiggle twist, top side, under the car, back up top, down below. It will come out though and from the top out through the engine bay. IT REALLY WILL.
10, Back below, get your lump hammer and from behind bash the clamp off the exhaust. Reason being; so you can lube the threads and open it up a little so as to make re-assembly easier. You could of course do it bandit style and leave it on.
11, Assemble the cat and downpipe off the car, don't worry as it goes back in much much easier than the old one did coming out. I did offer up just the cat section with the thought of doing the intermediate flange nuts and bolts up insitu. I quickly forgot about that as access would be terrible.
12, Fit the new cat and downpipe section, center the clamp and tighten it all up.
13, Fit all the other gubbins back.
Pictures are always useful....
I made sure it all fitted
Airbox on
Airbox off
Remove that cross brace
Plusgas on the clamp, the nuts were 'kin tight.
Not the best shot but a view from underneath looking at my arm and the 12mm ring spanner on the inner turbo flange bolt. I could find another way to get on that nut.
Same again looking up this time with my arm not in the way
With arm !
Partly wiggled out
Old and new
The clmap off the car. I spent a bit of time cleaning the threads up and copper greasing them and I also opened up the clamp a little bit to make the re-fit easier. Time well spend I think, it would have been a right old struggle under the car without having done this.
I marked the new section to show the half depth position
Old (left) and new turbo flange gasket
Clamp slid up the pipe to ease fitting
Old and new
All done, only the covers to fit
All done just the gubbins to re-fit
How-to B5.5 TDI 1.9 - DECAT
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How-to B5.5 TDI 1.9 - DECAT
Bog standard B5.5 Highline Estate TDI