CRAZY_RUSSIAN

holly mother of rust... thats one thing i enjoy about NM cars... things dont rust around here :-) ill take a look on Sundays at what i have to work with and ill let you know. btw, check your pm

CRAZY_RUSSIAN

sorry man, i didnt know that it was a WFD car:-( i was quite pissed when i seen that!

Lago Blue

Grillage,

I have the same Y-pipe as you with the two small stainless hex-cap plugs on those short threaded bungs (seen in your earlier photo), but I have more original looking cats forward of that.

Not seen in your photo (shown again here) are the two cat-to-frame mounts that both connect to the round rubber mount visible between the cats in your photo. If missing, could this have hastened your centre-muffler pipe failure?

The rear rubber mount on your centre-muffler looks like it is dealing with a lot of side-ways mis-alignment, IIRC the two metal hooks it connects should be closer to one above the other originally.

You may also want to see:

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho...hlight=hanging

CRAZY_RUSSIAN

also, if your transmittion mounts are shot, you will be getting more stress on the exhaust system (it will be pushing the exhaust toward the ground) and causing the hangers to rip... (ask me how i know all of this)

grillage

Well, I finally found an OEM center muffler through Shokan - wasn't cheap but I wanted to get it over with.

It looks like my cats are replacements from some point in the past. They are welded in and there doesn't seem to be anywhere to attach them to that rubber hanger. Also, they appear to have been welded slightly off kilter. The center pipe rides down the passenger side of the channel in the middle of the car. This is what makes the lateral force on that center muffler.

As for my center muffler, it was cracked on the top side where the pipe comes out to go to the rear muffler.

It sounds WAY better and the occasional pops I was feeling and hearing are gone.