Exhaust hanger bolts

[Ninjakris]

I have had my 06 for about a year now. The passenger side exhaust tip was always too low and rested on the opening of the side sill. I have today off and decided to try and fix it. I was a little surprised at what I found. If your familiar with the gen III/IV, you know there are two bolts right by the tip that hold the rubber hanger in place. Well my upper bolt hole is clogged up with some sort of metal. I have a couple options on how to fix it, so wish me luck.

Plan one is to drill out all the metal (it appears to go all the way through the hole) and tap the hole bigger and buy a new bolt.

Plan 2 is to drill a completely new hole above the existing crappy hole and run a new bolt. The only problem there is I don have much real estate on the hanger for new holes.

Plan 3 is my last choice. Grind off the u shaped u shaped piece of metal and replace the sliding piece that the holes are in. Then I would have to re-weld the u shaped piece back. I don't have a welder and this is a little out of my comfort zone.

If anyone has encountered this before, please chime in on how you fixed it.

[venomous08]

Someone broke a tap in the hole!!! All of the cars that I have done the exhaust on, I have never had to move those mounts. Someone took it off and and had an UHOH! You will have hell trying to drill that one out.

[Ninjakris]

Wow. I can't believe I didn't notice that, this changes things. I might have to rethink my strategies. I have been drilling on this for about 30 min and getting nowhere.

[ViperSmith]

oh main that is a pain in the ass spot!

[venomous08]

Hardened Steel usually doesn't like being drilled on..

[Ninjakris]

Well I ended up epoxying the **** out of the rubber hanger and only having the lower bolt in place. It's holding great for now and everything is lined up, but the real test will be seeing how it holds after a couple heat cycles. I'm not going to drive it for at least a day to make sure all the epoxy is dry. Wish me luck.

[C.J]

Hey Kris, I was thinking "JB Weld" when I saw that.

[venomous08]

I doubt that epoxy will hang on with the heats that you will see. Good luck I hope it does, because it will be a nightmare to get the old tap out.

[Steve M]

Taps, while hard, are also very brittle. A punch and a hammer might be able to crack or chip it, granted you might screw up the threads in the process (like they aren't already).

[Ninjakris]

Thanks for all the ideas. I think the most frustrating part is the previous owner spent good $$ for corsa exhaust and probably paid someone to install it and that's how they left it.

I hope it holds. I'll take more drastic measures if needed.

On the bright side, I can take off a side sill in about 10 minutes flat.

[ViperGeorge]

Any chance you could put narrow needle nose pliers in those holes and attempt to back the tap out? It may have bottomed out and the guy kept turning ultimately breaking the tap. And you might try heating surrounding metal first.

[IndyRon]

I agree, penetrating oil, lots of heat, and a hammer to loosen the rust then try backing it out. Other option is to cut a slot in it with a dremel for a very large flathead screwdriver to fit and try it that way as well