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Ividia G200 catback rubbing

('03-'05) 
4K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  Lonewalker 
#1 ·
So i just installed this invidia G200 cutback exhaust today and noticed a little rattle going on at speed. I checked it out and seems to be that the piping is rubbing on an axel (bearing i think). It is supposed to work with stock hangers, and the fitment otherwise is perfect. My questions are: will either of these rub through? what should I do to fix it? and will I be okay to drive it for a couple days until I find a solution. My buddy who helped me install thinks we should squeeze the pipe a bit to make more clearance. Im not particularly fond of that idea.

PS The sound is AMAZING no drone, tons of bass/rumble and sounds absolutely mean at WOT. Video clip to come soon(after this is all sorted)

Thanks for your help guys in advance guys!
 

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#2 ·
If the pipe was hitting the axle boot you wouldn't hear a rattle and would be able to see the rub marks. It is far more likely that you are hitting the outside edge of the heat shield (to the far right in your pic). Just bend the shield out of the way and see if your rattle disappears.
 
#3 ·
The first thing I checked was the heat shields and although it looks close in the pic its kinda far from it. If you see where the dirt is rubbed off in the pic its not the boot but a hard metal cylinder next to it which I assume houses bearings. I believe the rattle comes in because it may sit a millimeter or two away from said bearing housing and vibrate on it.
 
#4 ·
You should not need much more clearance there. You might try a longer urethane hanger on the midpipe mounting point and/or on the muffler mounting points. Or you could just loosen the bolts at the down pipe, have a friend force the pipe away from the axle, and then re-tighten the bolts. If you have a good gasket there should be no problem with leaks at the joint.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Wolf,

I am just finishing a build on an 04 FXT 4EAT. We've had a problem with a number of parts, and I'll write up a report when the dust settles. The two big problems have been: 1. the intercooler, and 2. the Cat-back exhaust.

The exhaust uses an Invidia bellmouth with tuning bung, coupled to an Invidia cat-back system. The last section, even though it is supposed to be designed specifically for the Forester, DOES NOT FIT. To make it fit, you must do the following:

1. remove the heavy (six bolts, I think) shield over the driveline. The exhaust pipe will rest against one of the bolts. Keeping the shield will require you to cut off a big piece of the shield. Far easier to simply remove it.

2. Even with extra-long hangers the exhaust pipe will now hit on the rear diff, and also, once you remove the shield over the driveline, will suck up tight against the axle. IN A VERY SHORT TIME THE AXLE WILL WEAR A HOLE IN THE EXHAUST PIPE.

3. Solution:
a. Install extra-long hangers
b. Remove shield from driveline
c. mark where the pipe hits the bolt on the rear diff
d. mark (if a divot has not already worn into the pipe) the point that it hits the axle
e. remove end piece of exhaust system. Heat the marked areas and dent the pipe. Be generous about the size of the dents.
f. contact whoever you bought the system from, and demand a replacement piece (from Invidia; the last piece that includes the muffler).

Invidia claims that it has re-engineered this piece, and is in the process of re-manufacturing the final section on the system. They have promised to replace ours free of charge. But we have yet to receive it.

History: We discovered the way the pipe was resting against the shield, and determined to simply remove the shield. But when we removed the shield, what we did not notice is that the system from the shield back sucked up against the diff and against the axle.

I took the car out to do an open-road tune. It felt as if it had a bad u-joint. Drove it back, put it up on the rack, and it was immediately obvious that the axle had been rubbing against the exhaust pipe. The green on the CV had been worn to a shiny metal, and there was a divot in the pipe itself where the axle had almost worn through the pipe. It was also obvious that the pipe was hitting a bolt on the rear diff.

Be advised that any one of these thing--any knocking or rubbing against the exhaust pipe--will mess up/negate a tune. The ECU literally recognizes "knock." The sound vibrates through the exhaust system, and the ECU thinks the engine is experiencing knock. It then adds in whatever it thinks it needs to add to prevent knock. And since the knock does not go away no matter what the ECU does to compensate for it . . .

PM me if you want pics of the system installed with the hangers and dents and so on. Right now it works fine, but I am not excited (to say the least) about how thin the pipe is where the axle made a divot. Invidia is supposed to send the re-engineered section soon. It's a good company; my hopes are up.
 
#6 ·
I second all of this about the G200 - a little disappointed as it is supposed to be a no hassle FXT fitment.

I think my exhaust was also bumping the same metal piece where the axle comes into the rear diff. I finally got around to buying the extended hangers from KartBoy and I think I have the clearance there now, but it still manages to move laterally and bump that driveline shield. I am considering just removing the shield as I'm not into offroading and I'm not 100% sure it's protecting anything I could damage on the street.

I guess when it warms up around here maybe I will take the exhaust off and have another look at where it is making contanct.
 
#7 ·
Any kind of bumping or grinding will throw off your tune. The ECU literally reads knock every time the pipe hits an obstruction. After fixing mine, we had to completely re-do the tune. Invidia is still promising to replace the back section, but so far still no delivery of a new back section.

If you have a 5spd, then you are most susceptible to having your exhaust pipe hit against something it shouldn't hit against when you are going from 3-gear to 4-gear, and from 4-gear to 5-gear. If at one of these points the pipe bounces against a bolt or against the driveshaft shield, then your tune goes all to hell. The ECU starts adding in fuel and timing. This is a beeeg problem because obviously your engine does not need more fuel or timing.
 
#9 ·
As of 3 May, still no Invidia replacement. Invidia acknowledged that the axle-back was mis-engineered for the FXT. But since then, it has been one excuse after another. The latest is that "it has been re-engineered, and re-manufactured, and is now onboard a ship (from Taiwan) headed for the US. I'm not holding my breath.

On another note, especially for anyone using a Blouch (my car has a 16G Blouch), of the last 4 Blouch turbos we have installed, THREE HAVE BEEN BAD. They have had catastrophic vane failure thanks to 1. bad components (in the the cassette), bad machining (the cassette itself has been slightly off center; the flange was not machined flat, the inlet hole from the uppipe was crudely machined--as if someone had done it with a Dremel). Blouch won't answer phone message, and it won't answer email. We got through once. The guy at the other end claimed that something must have plugged the orifice on the oil fitting. This is total BS. The turbo has plenty of oil, and there is no sign of excessive heat. In all cases, there was oil in portions of the turbo, but the hoses to the IC are totally dry (there should always be at least a film of oil in them). With the last turbo--a TD06H-20GXT-R--we had a gaggle of respected and Nationally recognized mechs and racers inspect the whole process of pulling the turbo and examining it. I'm getting rid of mine. I no longer trust it.
 
#11 ·
The 05 may be slightly different than the 04. Even with long, Kartboy hangers, we couldn't stop it from hitting. The big bracket over the driveline had to come off or be cut in half. In the end, we had to dent it in two places. There was no other choice.

Remember that the knock sensor is essentially an acoustic sensor. If the exhaust bangs against something even once, the ECU will read it as knock in the engine. The same thing happened on an 04 FXT with 5 spd. It only knocked when under full power, and going from 3-gear to 4-gear. The tune was great all the way up to the knock point, and then it went crazy. We built a bracket to hold a clamp that went around the exhaust pipe to stop it from hitting. In the process, it wasted at least 5 tune maps.
 
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