This in depth DIY was done on my 2000 Jetta 1.8t with a Magnaflow GLI catback and an ebay 3 inch downpipe. This DIY can be used on any mk4 golf, gti, or jetta with any engine type. The only difference between the models will be the length of the exhaust tips and diameter of the exhaust piping that you choose for your catback. Sizes will range from 2.25" up to 3" for the 1.8t owners. Most VR6 guys go with 2.5" systems for the best compromise of sound and power. 2.25" systems still work very well on vr6 cars too. All magnaflow catback exhausts are made to connect to any stock downpipe or headers using the stock exhaust clamp.
I chose to make this DIY because most DIYers don't have access to a lift and are therefore forced to do this project on jackstands like I did which can be difficult if doing it alone. I think that even a novice could complete this DIY alone with minimal tools as shown. I hate to see enthusiasts waste a hundred bucks paying an exhaust shop to do something so simple. That money could be better spent on gas testing out your new exhaust.

As with any other DIY I take no responsibility for any harm that you incur to yourself or your vehicle while performing this install.

In my case I already had an aftermarket 3 inch downpipe which reduced to a 2.5" section before the center exhaust hanger. Therefore I purchased a 2.5" stainless steel exhaust sleeve coupler that is exactly like the OEM clamp, just for a larger pipe. The exhaust sleeve clamp was purchased from an ebay seller. The name of the company was Verocious Motorsports. The sleeve clamp cost me a total of $33.26 shipped. It was a very high quality piece and I was thoroughly impressed with the quality when I first received it. I chose this clamp over the Audi TT 2.5" sleeve clamp solely based on price. The Audi TT unit would have been close to $50 for the exact same item.

Here are the tools that I used in completing this DIY:
Dewalt Sawzall
3/8" Craftsman Digitork Torque Wrench
3/8" Craftsman Ratchet
Assorted Metric Sockets-13mm most common in this DIY
Adjustable crescent wrench
PB Blaster Penetrating Lubricant
Standard Hammer
Leather Work Gloves
Tin Snips
Flathead Screwdriver always handy
Magnaflow Instruction Sheet

Step 1:
Get your car up onto jackstands or a lift if you happen to have one in your garage. Follow the instructions for jacking up a mkiv found here: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2951609 .
Obviously the higher you are able to get the car on the jackstands, the easier your work will be while under the car.

Step 2:
Locate your post-cat 02 sensor and use an adjustable crescent wrench or appropriately sized metric crescent wrench to loosen and then remove the 02 sensor from the downpipe. Lay it aside carefully and out of the way.

Step 3:
Locate your stock exhaust sleeve clamp and grab the can of PB Blaster. Spray the nuts on your stock sleeve clamp with the PB Blaster and let it soak in for a few minutes. In my case I was no longer using a stock sleeve clamp due to my aftermarket downpipe. I was using a different style exhaust clamp but the concept is the same. Spray the PB Blaster on liberally and wait a few minutes.
Then proceed to remove the nuts on the stock sleeve clamp to loosen the connection between the downpipe and stock catback. I believe the size for the nuts on the stock sleeve clamp is 16mm.

Step 4:
Using a 13mm socket, remove the 8 nuts holding the center exhaust hanger bracket to the underside of the car. The nuts are not torqued very tightly at all so they should be easy to remove. Once the 8 nuts are removed the hanger should drop from the chassis.

Step 5:
I had to remove the 6 bolts holding my aftermarket cat from the forward portion of my ebay downpipe. Using a 9/16" socket and crescent wrench I removed the 6 bolts and the rear half of my downpipe lowered to the ground. In my case I had flared my downpipe over the stock catback when I installed it a long time ago. Therefore it would not slide off the stock catback without later cutting it loose. If you are running a stock downpipe, you will be able to separate the downpipe and catback before dropping the center exhaust hanger.

Step 6:
The next step is cutting the stock catback so that it can be removed from the car. You can use a sawzall or a hacksaw to do this. I recommend a sawzall because you will save 30 minutes at least trying to cut the stock catback by hand. Proceed to cut the stock catback right before it goes over the rear beam. There is a small portion of straight pipe just before the rear beam that can be used to reconnect the catback if you ever decided to reinstall it.

I made a mistake when doing this the first time by making my cut too close to the stock resonator. I had to cut the catback in 2 places as you can see because of this. Once again, make the cut just before the rear beam or you won't be able to remove the muffler section from the car.

Step 7:
At this point your j-pipe section of the stock catback should be on the ground. Slide it out from under the car and grab your 13mm ratchet. Remove one side of the center exhaust hanger so that you can slide the j-pipe out of the hanger. Notice that I cut the rear section of my ebay downpipe from the catback once it was out from under the car.

Step 8:
Again using the 13mm ratchet, remove the 2 bolts holding the rear muffler hanger from the chassis. Save the 2 bolts for later use.
Remove another 2 13mm bolts from the middle exhaust hanger just aft of the rear beam. Save these 2 bolts as well.
Slide the muffler section out from the rear of the car. Remove the 2 rubber exhaust hangers from the muffler section and save them for later use.

I decided to remove these 2 rear exhaust hangers because it was extremely difficult to try and slide the muffler section out of the hangers and off of the car with the hangers still attached to the chassis. It is possible to skip this step and leave the hangers on the car, but I advise against it because you can slide the hangers on to the new exhaust while it is on the ground.









Step 9:
Now it is time to open your new exhaust for the first time. The magnaflow directions refer to the straight pipe section of their catback as the inlet pipe. I will do the same here. Do not cut the inlet pipe if you are mating your magnaflow catback to a stock downpipe. If you are using any larger downpipe than stock, then you will need to cut the inlet pipe to avoid a bottleneck in the exhaust.

Prepare the inlet pipe for cutting and cut off the reducing section with a sawzall, hacksaw, or preferably a band saw for the cleanest cut possible.

Step 10:
Take the modified inlet pipe and slide it back into the middle exhaust hanger as seen below. Use your 13mm ratchet and reattach the side of the hanger that you removed previously. Slide the hanger with the inlet pipe back under the car in position to be reattached to the chassis.

Step 11:
Lift the middle hanger up to the chassis and retighten the 8 nuts with a 13mm ratchet. Do not overtighten the nuts. Hand tight with the ratchet is fine. The inlet pipe will sag to the ground when the hanger has been reattached as shown.

Step 12:
Remove the new midpipe from the box and slide the appropriate exhaust hanger on to it. It is the hanger that you previosuly removed from just aft of the rear beam. Take the midpipe and slide it over the rear beam from the center of the car. Use the 13mm ratchet and retighten the 2 bolts holding the exhaust hanger to the chassis.

Step 13:
Take one of the Accu-Seal Exhaust Clamps Provided in the magnaflow kit and slide it over the midpipe. Then take the midpipe and the inlet pipe and slide the midpipe over the inlet pipe. Very loosely tighten the Accu-Seal Clamp over the connection between the pipes.

Step 14:
Take the new muffler section out of the box and leave the styrofoam on the muffler and tip to protect it during install. Slide the rubber exhaust hanger over the steel hanger on the muffler section. Move the muffler section up towards the chassis and into place. The muffler section should slide over the rear end of the midpipe. Use the 13mm ratchet and tighten the 2 bolts holding the rear muffler hanger to the chassis. Use the other Accu-Seal clamp and loosely tighten it over the connection between the muffler section anf the midpipe.

Step 15:
I took the second portion of my downpipe, the race pipe, that I removed previously to a local exhaust shop. I had them weld an extension of 2.5" stainless to the pipe so that it would be long enough to couple with my catback. I had to do this because I will no longer be using my catalytic converter. This step will not be necessary for most people. I had to have about a foot of pipe welded on as an extension to the race pipe.

I took my extended race pipe and rebolted it to the forward part of my downpipe.

Step 16:
Take your 2.5" stainless exhaust coupler and slide it over the race pipe. Butt the race pipe up to the inlet pipe and clamp the 2 pipes together. 50 ft/lbs should be sufficient to prevent leaks. The magnaflow directions specify 65 ft/lbs for their accuseal clamps, but I talked on the phone with a magnaflow rep and he said that 40-50 ft/lbs is plenty to seal the exhaust.

Step 17:
Reinstall the post-cat 02 sensor into the race pipe. Torque it hand tight with a crescent wrench. I am not using a cat anymore because I have the APR Race Pipe file flashed onto my ECU. If you do not run a cat you will get a CEL if you do not use an 02 sensor spacer or a software bypass from a chip tuner.

Step 18:
Work your way towards the rear of the car aligning the catback so that your tips sit nicely in the valence. Tighten the midpipe clamp before the rear muffler clamp. It may take some time to get the tip to sit perfectly, but extra time spent here is worth the result. I love the way my tip sits in the valence. It sits nice and high without burning the valence and fills the cutout perfectly!

Step 19:
After everyhting is aligned and torqued to your liking. Crank the car while still on the jackstands. Get under the car and check for leaks. Realign and retighten any piping if necessary. Turn the car off and lower it from the jackstands. Take it out for a test drive and enjoy your hard work knowing all the money you saved by DIY.

For overall fit and finish I would give this catback a 10/10. It really could not have been better designed. I have zero rattles and for $380 shipped I could not beat it for the price. I tried to make it drone on the highway, but I just could not. The exhaust note at idle is noticeably different than stock. I can only hear it when I want to hear it while driving. I have to punch the gas to get it to really growl while driving. I would compare it to a milltek 2.5" system as far as driving characteristics. Milltek might be slightly quieter, but not much. People riding in the car wouldn't notice that you had an exhaust unless you want them to. I purchased this catback from hottexhaust.com 2 weeks ago, but I think they just bumped the price 200 dollars even after the coupon code. Magnaflow customer service is awesome. It is still a truly quality piece from a great company and I would recommend it to anyone.

Modified by formerly silveratljetta at 10:11 PM 5-31-2007

Modified by formerly silveratljetta at 10:14 PM 5-31-2007

Modified by formerly silveratljetta at 12:18 AM 6-12-2007

GJ buddy! very detailed and nice.

...Damn flood protection...

grant.

interested in upgrading your brakes to 10.1" without having to change spindles or find rocco stuff??? <--- click here --->

awesome writeup too

"When nobody's got your back, you gotta move your back" -unknown

looks good, too

If you think the Subaru Impreza hatch is ugly in pictures, see it in real life. I thought it was disgusting, then I sat in one and played with the bells and whistles. Loved it.

thanks for the nice comments guys

Warren

also, judging from your plate, you go to emory?

Flickr™
03 Jetta Wolfsburg
Gengstout

Very Very Nice Work!

Quote, originally posted by abawp »

Go FAQ yourself

interested in upgrading your brakes to 10.1" without having to change spindles or find rocco stuff??? <--- click here --->

Quote, originally posted by tomhinmo »

are you guys twins - or dating?

(Feb. 05, 2010)

Quote, originally posted by Blonde Guy »

I tried to google for their Sept. 2010 race results, but nothing came up.