Downpipe has split clean off from mount

[olioli2345]

Hi there,

Not been a good day today! Was driving perfectly fine, then pulled into a car park and all of a sudden my lovely little GTI became a John Deeres tractor!! Never heard a car so loud before. So went to look and see what the problem is and....

https://instagram.com/p/BRWRFy7gJpl/ <-- picture

The downpipe and come clean off of it's mounting plate!!!!

So my question is, seen one on ebay and just wanted to make sure the parts numbers match up...

1K0 131 701 AT
1K0 178 HA

Thanks for your time!

[pudding]

I'm sure someone else had this happen recently as well!

Those numbers appear to be too generic or incorrect, so probably superceded with different part numbers now.  You will need the whole downpipe assembly, which is both cats included.   Not cheap!   A good reason / excuse to uprate it to something better flowing.

It seems metal fatigue is starting to slowly kills OEM DPs off.  What engine mounts have you got on it?

[olioli2345]

I asked the guy and he said it was pulled off a MK5 GTI with less than 500 miles (looks really quite new) and only wants £70 for it. Shall hopefully be shipping it next day. Stock mounts as far as I'm aware, however been remapped to Stage 1. Maybe the extra heat has finally killed it?

[pudding]

At minimum you will need dogbone upgrade to reduce engine movement.  Stage 1 causes a lot of strain and wheel hopping, which appears to kill off the standard DPs!

[Craigh1983]

I'm sure someone else had this happen recently as well!

Yep it was me! I was driving and I accelerated and heard a loud Pop. I continued driving thinking the car at the back of me sounds very loud!! When I come to the junction and accelerated again I realised it was my car. It sounded like a Harley Davidson motorbike!

I had mine welded in the end as I couldn't find or wait for a part to become available near Leicester. Paid £93 for the welding. Couple of days later I could smell fumes coming into the car when the car was idle and I took it back and the guy said there is a small leak in the flexible bit of the exhaust and would need replacing at some point. Thing is its the same section of exhaust that I just had welded so that was a complete waste of money now!!

[pudding]

You can get an APR downpipe for less than a new OEM one, and it's a seriously nice and robust bit of kit!

The OEM catalyst carcass is kind of thin compared to the rest of it's the pipework and the flange, so I can see why it happens.  If you bash out the cat's innards like a lot of people, that thinness becomes apparent with a horrible blowing / tinkling noise under load.

[olioli2345]

@Pudding Where can I find the APR exhausts? Getting desperate now!

[AJP]

There's a BCS group buy on by the way.

[Tazocin]

A +1 for BCS, absolutely stunning exhausts

[pudding]

@Pudding Where can I find the APR exhausts? Getting desperate now!

On Awesome's website mate.  I started off with the downpipe + sports cat as I wanted to keep the factory cat back, but you'd probably be better off going turbo back in the BCS group buy