Can anyone recommend somebody in the Swindon or Newbury area who can fit a downpipe to my MY97WRX?

 

Dont worry, I fitted it myself yesterday.

 

bruce,
how easy was it to do? don't take this the wrong way, but how handy are you with this kind of thing? was wondering about fitting mine myself, but I'm a left handed computer geek, and as such I'm not that clever about this mechanical stuff ,though I can fit a set of morette quad headlamps!

 

Markus,it took me 4 hours to fit and to my mind it was quite easy. That said the turbo bolts came off really easily. The heat shield is a pain to get off and back on (it fitted the origianl mount points without cutting). I think it was Pete Croney in an earlier thread that recommended ratchet spanners,10mm, 12mm and 14mm the job would have been impossible without them. Oh and make sure you have proper axle stands to get the car safley in the air as you will be spending quite a time underneath it. Here is the link that inspired me to do it myself http://www.steve.ukmail.org/car/twindump.html
hope this helps.

 

Steve's documentation of the down pipe fitting is excellent but, one thing is missing. There is no mention of the electronic sender unit removal/refitting. I intend to fit a stainless down pipe on over the Christmas holiday so, can anyone advise on the sender unit. Are they prone to breakage when removed from the original down pipe due to the heat. What does the sender do? Is it linked to the ECU in some way?

Chris

 

Mine came out very easily after a good soaking with WD40. But when putting it back into the new down pipe I could feel some resistance on the threads. So I wound it in 3/4 of a turn and then all the way back out again, clean swarf from d/p thread and then start again until it was all the way in. The sensor at the bottom of the d/p detects fires in the cat convertor, I believe that this can be disconnected and forgotten about.