Getting the Stock Exhaust Home

[RS4-AL]

Okay so I'm finally going ahead and about to start scratching my itch, initialy about to book in for a cat-back exhaust and remap....

Sorry in advance if this is a daft question - I'd obviously like to keep hold of the old OEM exhaust for refitting if/when i come to sell the car if the new owner doesn't want the sports exhaust, does the original stock system unbolt / break down into sections (so it will fit in my boot with the back seats down), or is it pretty much one piece front to back, in which case how have others managed to get their stock exhaust back from the fitting Shop?!

Cheers,

Al

[pDkALO]

Al

The OE system comes in one piece - it will just about go on an avant with roof bars (gets some odd looks on the road I can tell you!) but you might struggle on a saloon.

Thing is though that the replacement for the OE system that Audi supply from parts comes as 3 sections that link with 2 sleeve clamps, so what you could do is get the fitter to cut your OE system in the same place and all you'd need to do if you wanted to put it back on is buy 2 clamps from Audi for £30.

I can post a parts diagram if it would help?

[RS4-AL]

Hey Dalo,

Yes if you do have a parts diagram showing where the cut needs to be made that would be a great help.

Thanks a lot

[henryhale2704]

I used http://www.wheelcourier.com to get my stock exhaust home from MRC.

[pDkALO]

Yes if you do have a parts diagram showing where the cut needs to be made that would be a great help.

Here you go....

Audi parts diagram showing 3 sections

here's the OEM system off the car - I'd suggest cutting halfway between back boxes and centre resonator box, as the pipes are straight at this point - would be a good idea to draw a straight line on the pipe with a marker pen before cutting so you can make sure you can align them correctly when re-fitting

OEM system

you'd then need a pair of these clamps to re-connect the sections - Audi part number 1K0 253 141 H

'dual clip' 60mm exhaust clamps

and for a laugh - here's the unique quad exhaust quad valved Avant that I created for an afternoon!....

roof mounted exhaust anyone?....

Looking at the wheelcourier site, they'd charge £35 to get your OE system back to you (it's just under 3m long) - so not much difference in cost in cutting it into 3 and buying 2 more clamps to put it back together again later. I reckon without a car lift it would be much easier to get the system back onto the car if it was in 3 sections. All aftermarket systems are done in multiple sections, so no different

Hope this helps - good luck

[Timster]

That looks awesome... I'd be tempted to tack-weld them up there.

Ps. after paying a courier to retrieve mine from the fitters, I had to cut them anyway as didn't have sufficient room.
As others have said, they're easy to saw and put a few alignment marks should you want to re-fit.

[RS4-AL]

Ha, that looks like something out of starwars, epic! No wonder you got some funny looks, hehe.

I think after some deliberation I might go for the wheelcourier option and get them to collect it in one piece. I can easily store it in the rafters so no bother there. How did you guys (who had it collected rather than chopped) manage to get the exhaust packed suitably to prevent any damage by the courier - did you somehow get it boxed up or just use loads of bubble wrap?

[pDkALO]

Ha, that looks like something out of starwars, epic!

hadn't thought if that - but now you mention it, it was a kind of RS X-Wing! as Timster says, should have left it on...

[Dom81]

Any prospective buyer is likely to want the exhaust - it's a tasteful mod, and the only issue might be if you (rightly!) go for a non valved, non res one

Your other option is to just ditch the exhaust like I did. In the unlikely event that you'll need to revert, you'll find that regular Milltek (or other) fitters - MRC / Revolution / Unit 20 / AMD etc. normally have a few lying around

They're practically worthless on the open market, so you could easily take one off their hands for less than the cost of transporting yours

[scottie1979]

You think they are worthless? Interesting, i will be putting mine up for sale, it has only done about 23k miles

[Dom81]

Put it this way - they're unlikely to be beating a path to your door...

Obviously you could get lucky (i.e. find someone who doesn't know they're easy to come by) but otherwise they seem not to shift at all, or go for around the £60 mark - bizarre I know, but that's supply and demand

Maybe things have changed recently, but this was certainly the case a year or so ago

[sonny]

That does not look like a RS 4 Exhaust in that ETKA diagram

**edit, take it you was using that as a example of where to cut the oem exhaust?

[pDkALO]

That does not look like a RS 4 Exhaust in that ETKA diagram

**edit, take it you was using that as a example of where to cut the oem exhaust?

It's actually the dealer's ETKA print out from my car's details, and agreed it's not exactly right (no valves, wrong outlets etc) - the parts guys told me that it's a generic diagram that comes up against a number of cars.

But otherwise, yes, I put it up as useful for showing the approx cut locations.

[sonny]

[pDkALO]

Any prospective buyer is likely to want the exhaust - it's a tasteful mod, and the only issue might be if you (rightly!) go for a non valved, non res one

Your other option is to just ditch the exhaust like I did. In the unlikely event that you'll need to revert, you'll find that regular Milltek (or other) fitters - MRC / Revolution / Unit 20 / AMD etc. normally have a few lying around

They're practically worthless on the open market, so you could easily take one off their hands for less than the cost of transporting yours

The OE exhaust is far from worthless, but agreed, on the open market as a stand alone item it's not worth much (even though it's about £2k from Audi!) - their real value is when they're put back on the car when it comes to sell. Anything that's non standard is always going to be subjective, and there will be just as many potential RS4 owners who want their cars totally standard as there are those who want to mod.

If you spend circa £2k on a Millteck etc then you'll never get anywhere near much that back if you sell it on the car, but you'd get a fair bit for it 2nd hand - if you've kept the OE system then at least you've got the option.

Anything I change on my cars or bikes I've always kept the original bits in a box in the shed, then removed the mods when it comes to sell, and get at least 50% of my money back.