38 replies to this topic

[bcjames]

I'd imagine lots of Minis gain an LCB because the owners wants to 'stage 1' it, rather than there being something wrong with the original. That said, the MPI one is quite good from the factory.

Do you have a heatshield on the top of the exhaust manifold, under the inlet? If not, can you see a join where the manifold bolts to the downpipes back down the engine? If its an aftermarket LCB it's probably not got either of these.


James

Edited by bcjames, 27 July 2011 - 09:38 AM.

[greg.harvey]

Any photos of what you've got Greg?

Mine is still hanging low. Chopping and rewelding the manifold looks the only way to sort it. It's been up on the ramps a few times and we can't get it to sit any higher using only adjustment from the knuckle and rear-of-cat ball.

-James

I would upload photos..... but my wife has left the camera cable in Italy!!!
*sigh*

I've taken photos, but I have no means to get them on to the computer. Damn you, Olympus, with your non-standard cables and weird SD card format that no computers can read! I'll see if I can dig out the old Sony. At least with that one the card reader works...

Edited by greg.harvey, 27 July 2011 - 04:44 PM.

[greg.harvey]

So, old Sony charged up (and Olympus charger in the post from Italy... that'll only take a few months to arrive)... photos!

Downpipe sticks way out the bottom of the car:





Hand in there for context - it's really *very* low!







Look how much room there is!!!

[Sprocket]

I wouldnt be surprised if all these low hanging exhausts are genuine factory items, since the youngest of these are 11 years old and the oldest are 20 years old. When was the last time you saw a car that is that old thats done a few miles, with the factory exhaust?

I am sure that the factory down pipes flexi joint was also never that 'fat' and a little longer, making me suspect that its not a genuine part.

[greg.harvey]

I wouldnt be surprised if all these low hanging exhausts are genuine factory items, since the youngest of these are 11 years old and the oldest are 20 years old. When was the last time you saw a car that is that old thats done a few miles, with the factory exhaust?

I am sure that the factory down pipes flexi joint was also never that 'fat' and a little longer, making me suspect that its not a genuine part.

Now that you mention it, look at the weld joint I had ignored until you said that:



That looks well dodgy! Looks like a thinner piece has been welded to the end of the downpipe to make it fit the flexi-joint... I'm inclined to agree with you. That said, I'm surprised an 11 year old car needed a new downpipe - more rearward bits of the exhaust, I'd grant you, but something that close to the engine I'd normally expect to last a lot longer. But then I don't really know Minis yet. =)


Greg

[Joethechippy]

I'd imagine lots of Minis gain an LCB because the owners wants to 'stage 1' it, rather than there being something wrong with the original. That said, the MPI one is quite good from the factory.

Do you have a heatshield on the top of the exhaust manifold, under the inlet? If not, can you see a join where the manifold bolts to the downpipes back down the engine? If its an aftermarket LCB it's probably not got either of these.


James

I do have what looks like a heat shelid at the top of my manifold, under the air box inlet.
I took some pictures, i can post if need be. My exhaust looks very much like Greg.Harveys exhaust...it even has a welded join in front of the flexy joint like Gregs (although mine is pretty straight, not steped down in size) ...maybe its normal i know nothing about exhausts to be honest. ..although i did have a clio once, when i got a new exhaust fitted one time, the new exhaust did hang lower (didnt scrape tho)

apologes to Itguy, we seem to of hijacked his thread a bit...But this sounds like a common issue with MPI's

[the_r_sole]

from the pics it doesn't look like the downpipe that bad, it looks like it slopes down towards the cat then slopes even further down - the middle is the bit to worry about as it's right in between the two sets of wheels, so if it's low there that's where it will scrape - i almost lost mine getting on to a ferry!

[greg.harvey]

from the pics it doesn't look like the downpipe that bad, it looks like it slopes down towards the cat then slopes even further down - the middle is the bit to worry about as it's right in between the two sets of wheels, so if it's low there that's where it will scrape - i almost lost mine getting on to a ferry!

Yup, I'll find out soon enough how much (if anything) hammering the cat on our dog-sitter's gate bolt (set in concrete) will cost me! It was quite a bang and it's left an enormous dent! I just hope the internals didn't get irreparably mangled. I'm heartened that no odd rattle has developed... yet!

[bcjames]

My original exhaust looked like the above ones too.


Leaky Bits by bcjamesmini, on Flickr

r_sole, you are correct, for my case at least. The area at the bottom of the downpipes needs to turn sharper back underneath the car.

I scraped mine nicely on the speedbumps on an industrial estate earlier!

Edited by bcjames, 01 August 2011 - 02:05 PM.

[dmdangermouse]

doesnt look like the standard flexi joint.
Never had a problem with my cat. Still got the standard manifold though.
Was thinking of going lcb but maybe not if you guys keep hitting them on things.

[dmdangermouse]

[greg.harvey]

Two bricks-worth of clearance?? Luxury!!

If you look at my photo you can see I can't even get a fist between my cat and the floor. I don't think it's been concluded that LDBs are the issue - just bad downpipes that are too long/of the wrong bendyness. Maybe an LCB is fine? Maybe it isn't, but if you get someone to 'shape' it a bit it will be? I don't know if I've got an LCB - the more I look at it, the more I think it was any old pipe that was lying around!

[Ryan L]

I had a standard manifold and downpipe on mine when I bought it four years ago, it had 28,000 on the clock at that stage. Within two weeks the flexi, which was badly corroded, split so I decided to go down the LCB route. This was a big mistake as the knuckle joint and y piece rode extremely close to the road and as my car's an everyday driver speed bumps would constantly scrape and even pull the y piece off of the LCB. I then fitted a straight thru link pipe which massively improved clearance albeit with the removal of the cat and an increase in noise level. Don't know how this would go down at MOT centres on the mainland though, I got mine through MOT twice and a friend who has run with no cat for years still has no bother with his MPI.

I'm now back to the standard manifold, flexi downpipe combo as the noise with the straight thru was doing my head in, especially on motorways. I avoided the cheapo downpipes on E-bay, bought a decent flexi, and have no bother with clearance now.

[greg.harvey]

Sound advice! Thank you! Will probably do exactly that then. I guess Mini Spares is a safe place to get a standard MPi downpipe that fits? Got a local mechanic looking at ours on Thursday PM. I'll get him to do a full service while he's at it, since the car is new (to me at least)...

[Ryan L]

No problem. I use Mini Spares most of the time, never had any problems with their products and their postage costs are decent to N.I.

If you're looking to go completely standard this is the downpipe to go for

http://www.minispare...=...2952&title=