[MrSeabass]

Very long story short I may be replacing the rear driveshaft soon - lots of vibrations around 35mph and 70mph. I replaced the worn carrier bearing with an aftermarket option and the vibrations did not go away. I was able to service the carrier with the exhaust hanging off the downpipe, but the heatshield was still awkwardly in the way and made the work an arm-slicing mess. For any future DIY work, I'd need to get the exhaust completely off as it just makes life easier under the car.

I unhooked the four hanging points along the exhaust (two at the muffler, one near the rear diff, and one near the front of the car) but the band clamp attaching the lower exhaust to the cat unit seemes stuck on (did not bang on it with a hammer or anything... yet). So wanted to see if anyone else has experience with dropping the exhaust out or knows of an easier way to attempt this. Thanks!

[MrSeabass]

Asking one more time before I simply give up.

[Opie55]

In my nearly 5 years on the forum I don't think I've seen a post about anyone remove the exhaust. It can surely be hard to separate exhaust parts - even stainless steel parts.

[Opie55]

I just looked at the instructions. The only odd thing is the clamp that holds the exhaust pipe to the cat. There is a metal sealing ring that goes inside it which looks like a metal shim with a bunch of metal tabs you have to bend flat with the exception of four. You surely would need a new one of those before you reinstall the system.

[Dekero]

Get a pair of chain vise grips that you can lock on to the exhaust pipe with after unbolting the clamp use that vise grip as a spot to use a dead blow hammer to knock the exhaust towards the back of the car the catalytic converter is not going to move it's bolted in place by both the turbo Mount as well as two additional mounts on the way down towards where the clamp is I had to do this when I upgraded the turbo on my X5 as mine was stuck as well.