so after a battle with my rusted bolts holding on my midpipe, i finally was able to get the midpipe off. I really muscled the nuts off and the threads are pretty much shot. I used a cutoff wheel to cut the bolts as close to the flange as i could on the the Ypipe and muffler. I thought I could use a punch to punch the remaining stub out the back side, since nothing is really holding it on. I tried just hammering the remaining stub but nothing happened.

Any recommendations? I guess maybe the next thing would be to try to drill it out with a 3/8 bit?

The joys of living in the northeast... salt on the roads and rusted out exhausts...

 

when I did this, one of my bolts snapped off on the stock exhaust (before I had the HKS). All I did was take a grinder and grind down the rest of the bolt and then drilled it out, bought a good bolt/washer/nut, and I was good to go.

For future, spray a CRAP load of wd-40 or rust remover on the bolts and let sit for a good 20 minutes (at least). It will make it much easier to remove.

 

+1 on drilling out, then use bolt/washer/nut. although i had no problem (i did use a ton of elbow grease) you really only have one option.

good luck and enjoy the finished product. hopefully it's worth it, since you have an 06 anyways...

 

i sprayed the joints and bolts down about 3 times over the course of the day before i began working. At the very least I will lose some weight underneath

 

Same exact thing happened to me. Just to spare time i drove my car to a muffler breaks place and they charged me 20 bucks to blast them off with the torch. It was fun to take her out with no pipes.

 

I'm about to buy a midpipe and that's exactly what im worried about. I just replaced my muffler and the bolts broke. I think this time around I'm going to let WD40 soak the nuts/bolts prior to replacement.

 

Use PB Blaster. Works better than WD40

 

^+1 http://autorepair.about.com/od/tools/fr/PB-REVIEW.htm

 

Torch....the acetelene type.


I've had this happen many times. Either heat it up cherry red with the torche and twist it out with vise grips..or blast through the flange with the torch and use a nut and bolt to hold it on.

Seems like every car in the NE has this prob...even a couple years old. PB blaster is a good idea, but i've still snapped plenty of rusty bolts.

 

PB Blaster worked for me when installing my '05 sedan midpipe. My '03.5 sedan was originally from the NE, and the stock midpipe was rusted up in some spots including the bolts. Sprayed the PB on the bolts and left them for overnight. The next day for the install, the bolts came off fine. No point in keeping the '03 midpipe so I promptly trashed it

 

Havn't done my midpipe yet (hopefully soon when I get one)
But did on my Maxima few years ago and the PB blaster works great... trick is to spray the night before / few hours before / then like 20 mins before and really let it get in there... bolts/nuts will come out pretty easy