Original exhaust....
 

Had to replace the entire original exhaust system, including the cat, on my xB today because of just a tiny hole in the pipe. It has 58,000 on it.

What happened is that I got a hole near the clamp that hold the stainless TRD muffler on. I patched that hole but the other day it grew into a bigger one. After a trip to all the local muffler places, no one wanted to do anything for me, so I decided to take on the job myself.

The dealer wanted over $1,000 for the factory one piece system and I found a few online for around half of that. I decided to go for the split system from Walker, and was $300 out the door from Advance. All for a little hole in the pipe after the resonator, and because it was a one piece system, I had to replace the whole thing.

The job was really easier than I thought and the hardest part was keeping the crap out of my eyes and getting those rubber hangers to come loose.

One piece systems are a joke.

those rubber hangers are impossible to deal with. i dont know how you did it by yourself. trying to replace the muffler on my box was not possible so i had to take it in to a shop.

When I did my exhaust, I just slit them open and got a replacement from the parts store. Its not a application-specific piece. Any rubber hanger with the holes approximately the same distance apart and same size holes should work. Not worth dealing with trying to muscle them off.

Muscle them off I did.

What I did was open up a little hole with my smallest screwdriver and sprayed some LPS1 in the little opening around the hole. I kept working around the hole with the little screwdriver and spraying until I could get a bigger one in there. Then the muscling came in.

I didn't know they weren't a specific part. Thanks for the tip. Next time I'll cut them.

The same thing happened to my XB, I still haven't replaced it although I am finally breaking down and doing it. I don't think it's a job I want to do myself though! Glad to know that mine isn't the only one that's popping up with issues!