Sold my rx8 years ago, regretted it, just drove over 800 miles to buy another, overly excited.

Going into the deal, I knew the previous owner had installed an aftermarket exhaust, what I didnt know was how shitty of a job he did modifying the cutouts to permit the wider diameter pipes from melting against the plastic bumper...

I see two options;

1. Buy another set of those exhaust covers, cut them and sand carefully for a clean cut look. (as i cannot appear to find custom inserts) OR
2. Take out the plastic piece, and trim the excess plastic and connectors off of the bumper, to expose a larger hole now.

I have attached a few pictures for perspective. Any opinions on how I can clean this up?

 

Almost 200 views, and not one opinion? Ouch..

I am torn, as if I decide to cut into the bumper, if I ever wanted to go back, I would have to purchase a new bumper. If i go with the plastic insets, and cut those, I could always buy new ones if for some reason something does not turn out right.

 

I think the problem here is he used a S1 exhaust on an S2. Or something completely custom but equally wrong. So none of this is good. I would format/reinstall with a properly fitting exhaust and stock bumper parts.

 

It does look like that is an exhaust that fits an S I. I had a custom made race exhaust on my S I and wanted to put it on my S II, but it also hung high on the shroud of the S II. I purchased a generic, longer exhaust hanger donut and the exhaust now sits centered nicely and doesn't melt the S II shroud. If that would work for yours, then you could replace your shrouds without worry.

 

It's not custom, just cheap. All of the shitty exhausts (Agency Power, Megan, etc) that use single wall sheet metal tips will do this. Get a new bumper and have some reverse cooled or quality dual walled tips welded on.

 

So these exhaust hanger donuts, these are just used for spacing? I guess I would have to jack the car up to see how it is currently mounted, to then try and determine where this would best fit. I would have to look into these some more as this is the first time I have heard of these.

Per some other suggestions, as I paid cash for the vehicle, I do not have the funds currently to replace the entire exhaust, but I could look into just the tip(s)

 

The exhaust hangers (donuts) hold the exhaust system up in place, otherwise, the weight of the system will just make it hang low. If you look under your car, you will see these hangers probably in two places on each side of the rear of the exhaust and in several locations all the way back to the cat. Take off the rear ones first (use some WD 40 or similar to help them slide off of their mounting posts) and see how the exhaust hangs.

My race exhaust needed to come down about an inch to clear the shrouds and I was able to easily find some rubber hangers that allowed the exhaust to hang a little lower by replacing just the rear ones and that got it off of the shroud. If removing the rear hangers does not drop your exhaust enough, you may need to replace some further back that are holding the exhaust too high.

 

There are different exhausts for S1 and S2? I thought only the hangars are different. Never knew the angle of the piping is different.