I was that guy, now I remember why I choose DIY over paid services for stuff. While changing my oil for the first time since the repair (overdue, I felt for my lapse) I found an extra bolt in the access panel covering the oil stuff. I pulled the rest of the service panel down, nothing matched. Upon some investigation, it's the o2 housing bolt, one of the five (tough little forged piece) -- so now I have to return to the shop and have them waste a few hours of mine to do that. In the long run, my cost of my time isn't saved and with one of these under-torqued things, how many more do I have lurking and waiting? My confidence in pushing my car is lower because I didn't do the work myself. The irony is not lost on me. Just a matter of time and money to re-learn a lesson -- $325 and a few hours shuttling back and forth (with my wife following me) and the gas to get there....

 

Sorry, my server was down, but is fixed. Back up.

Lou

 

awesome write up man... i ended up doing it without the pics, but used this as the guide... took 9hrs but also took our time, spraying bolts as we went.. ended with sucess, glad its done, hope not to ever do a dp on the X ever again

 

sick parts good write up!!

 

I just finished my o2 elim install yesterday. As other posters have mentioned, huge PITA but very doable. Having the right tools makes all of the difference. I could not have finished this installation without that 14MM flex wrench.

I started the install last Monday night and spent about an hour on it M-Th, 3hrs on Friday, 4hrs Saturday and another 1.5hrs on Sunday. So 12.5hrs total. I installed upper and lower I/C piping at the same time, so I had a lot of extra steps like removing the bumper. I also ended up spending a couple of hours fixing a blown coupler on the lower I/C pipe after a test drive. Id say the DP job alone would have been about 9hrs.

The nut on the o2 housing was the hardest part. The o2 heat shield was blocking it, so pulling that shield off is what allowed me to remove that one.

Thanks to the OP for the write-up and the tool suggestions.

 

Remove the WGA and it should take you 5 min tops to remove the nut, just use a flexhead ratcheting wrench.

 

do you hav to disconnect the o2 from dp?

 

Might as well, they both have to come out and the dp is taking up space.

 

This thread was a Huge help! Finished installing mine today. Along with AMS HFC and CNT exhaust topping it off with an AEM wideband

 

thanks

 

hey when you dropped your subframe for your sway bar how hard was it cus i need to do that for my car and also i cant get the driver side bolt of my dp do you have any inpput in this manner that you can help me with

 

oh god its been an absolute disaster. its hard to get that one bolt off on the driver side whats the best tool i can use to get that piece of crap off anyone with any input. im so close to calling it quits and sending it to a shop on a tow. lol. also i snapped off a bolt up top so what do i use to chase that one out please help

 

Just got my downpipe yesterday, and got it installed last night. before the dp got delivered i had the strut bar and firewall heatshields off, as well as broke the torque on 4 out the 6 bolts. it was worth doing it myself but was a huge pain in the ***. i'm glad i did knowing it was done right and all the brackets and shields went back on and no bolts or loose ends left, that being said if it weren't my car i'd really want no part of it.

 

I just want to say a couple of things. First of all this is a beautiful down pipe. And second why did AMS put the logo on the bottom side of the pipe? I think it would look even better if you can see the logo when it's installed.

 

Do you have to put the heat shield back on the ams widemouth ? and also will it bolt up to the remaining stock exhaust pieces? just curious because i am buying a used one and wondering if i could bolt this up with the remaining stock exhaust