OK, First you have to purchase the new Flexipipe. I bought the stainless steel one from Autobits with the 'Fitting Kit' to save me any hassle with missing bits. Total cost was around £65.00 delivered. The exhaust looked good and there were plenty of bits in the fitting kit..........BUT.........the nuts and bolts in the kit were the WRONG size!.....not good, so you may need to have some new nuts to hand.
Here's a list of things I needed:
Exhaust
Exhaust Kit
7 new nuts (not in kit)
15mm Socket
17mm socket (new nuts)
8 inch extension bar
Pry bar
Hammer
15mm combination spanner
17mm combination spanner
Lead light.
1: Jack up the car chock the front wheels and put axles stands under the subframe. Try and get the car as high as possible to give you enough room to work. Basically there are 7 nuts to undo on the F (9 on the TF I think) and one rubber exhaust bush. The first picture is undoing the exhaust to catalyst nuts (3). These can be tough so a good soaking with Duck Oil or WD40 will help.
2: Next is to undo the 4 nuts on the exhaust to manifold section, Now this is not easy! The two lower nuts will come off using a socket but the two upper ones are real Bas***ds and I ending up using a ring spanner and turning one flat at a time because there is no room for a socket.
3: Once these 4 bolts are undone the exhaust will be supported by the exhaust rubber. slide this off (with force). Then at the catalyst end you may have to undo the nut for the 'strappy thingy' thats wrapped around the rear silencer, then wiggle the exhaust back box away from the catalyst. The flexi-section should then wiggle out, make sure you remove the old gaskets as well.
4: Compare the old and new.
5: Now to fit the new exhaust. First throw away the bloody useless nuts they give you in the kit because THEY DONT FIT! Position the exhaust loosely in place. The exhaust is a really, really, tight fit.I put the manifold section in place first and bolted it in place. DONT FORGET YOUR GASKET!. The catalyst section was about 1/2 inch out on the catalyst holes and I needed the pry bay to get the holes to line up.
6: Eventually I managed to get all the holes to line up. I undid the 'strappy thingy' so I could get the bracket to go on and DONT FORGET YOUR GASKET! I did all the bolts up and then attempted to put the exhaust rubber back on.
7: Another problem. The position of the hanger bracket was about 1/2 inch or so out from the original. This made putting the rubber back on almost impossible, so I had to 'adjust' the subframe hanger bracket with a pry bar and hammer to get it to fit well.
8: I also had a lot of problem with the 'strappy thingy' going back on but after much struggling and hammering I got it to fit.
9: The fitted exhaust
10: Started the car and tested all OK. I would say your looking at about 2-3 hours if you have a few problems, less if all goes easy (so budget on 2-3 hours!!)
My overall impression of the new flexipipe was it's good quality, crap fitting kit (but still worth it for the gaskets) and its a very tight fit but it did go together and the exhaust note is good.