Jetex Exhaust fitting.

Just thought Id share my experience of fitting one of these exhausts to my Mk1.

I bought the system from DCPerformance, gave me a good price and arrived next day so all good there.

It took me a couple of days of rain avoidance and I eventually got the car high up on stands.
The cars been off road for 24 years and had no exhaust so all I had to do was fit the new item.
In the kit is a bag of parts, rubbers, reducers and clamps etc so pretty comprehensive.
The systems well made.

However, my first issue arose as the over axle section wouldnt actually go over axle as the double hanger bracket kept snagging on the cars bracketry and in order to fit it the axle had to be dropped.
With the axle dropped it was a simple matter to attach the hangar rubbers and find that the bend is hard up against the bottom of the fuel tank, with the front section still pointing at the road.
An email to jetex yielded nothing particularly helpful, just some indications that theyd check a few things and statements that theyd never had a fitting problem before, and maybe I should send it back to the supplier, although thatd not help me.
They also supposedly couldnt supply me a modified hangar  barcket as they dont have facilities to do it….

Ive found a post on here regarding fitting issues in 2009 I believe so its not unheard of unlike what they were saying.

Anyways after a few more days of to-ing and fro-ing emails theyve effectively washed their hands of the issue, leaving me to identify the problem, that being either the rubbers theyve supplied are too short or the hangars are too short.
After temporarily repositioning the axle I found I had around 30mm between the bottom of the bend and the top of the axle so clearly the bends sitting way to high.
I removed the tank and applied a little extra depth to the pressing which gained me approx 1/2 an inch of leeway so at least the pipe wasnt so acutely directed downwards, but still touching the tank.

With numerous axle stands under the car to support the exhaust which was now off its rubbers I found the exhaust could be lined up largely correctly so I made the decision to remove the stock jetex double hangar and fabricated my own.
After tig welding it on the exhaust now sits on the rubbers correctly, it hangs where it should, its clear of all obstructions.

In my opinion theyve still got the front pipe with the swaged section on at the wrong angle also as it tends to direct the pipe off to the right side of the tunnel, meaning the centre box is closer one side of the tunnel than the other, plus there was no hangar on the pipe at that location despite there being one on the body- theres a bracket in the kit but its gash.
They do however have one welded to the over axle pipe at the bend by the handbrake "tubes? that exit the floor pan, right where there is no body bracket to hang it from!
They did say theyve always welded one there but they dont know why…..I shouldnt have had to modify a supposedly proper fit system from the maker although theyve stated the warranty wont be affected unless it fails where ive welded it (fat chance), luckily I have the skills and equipment to produce my own solution, others would be stuck with the problem.

Theres no downpipe on the car currently as the turbo requires me to be a bit inventive, luckily ive got a fair bit of leeway to get it all in, I could have done without all the extra BS however.

So, jetex exhaust. Good build quality, poor fitment, not much in the way of support (no pun) in my case.


 

Well that has put me right off fitting one of those then!