Good to see you putting that lathe to use.
Measured the height of the front coilovers and compared them side-to-side. Turns out they were only a couple of mms different. That got me to thinking and after I hoisted her ass into the air I checked the recommended spring length on the installation instructions against actual. Turned out both sides were off by 5-7 mm. I made those adjustments to bring them into the correct length. All of the nuts were tight so I don't think anything moved, I must have just done them wrong the last time I messed with them. I double-checked the length of the rear springs but both were correct.
Then it was on to the main event. I took a good look at the muffler the other day and found the driver's side was hanging lower than the passenger side, which allowed it to contact the lower diffuser. Note that NB1s have four hangers for the muffler, while NB2s only have three. The FM muffler I have only has three mounting points. I used urethane hangers thinking that would provide enough support, but with the extra piping of the dual outlet muffler the weight overcomes the lone hanger on the driver's side. I found that the piping had been resting on the 949 subframe brace I have in the rear (this is the piece I had previously relieved for some clearance). You can see the height difference here:
After some research I found this lovely little number:
Since I don't have access to a welder, this seemed like it would do what I needed. This is where it needed to go:
For easier access I removed the lower diffuser. Figured I would be able to get it cleaner while it was off, and it was a good thing I did as I was carrying some extra weight around from MATG:
After some playing with the hanger and removing the excess material, here is what I ended up with:
Final comparison shot to see how the muffler is even side-to-side now:
Test drive showed I am no longer rubbing on the front driver's side fender liner, and I have less vibration being transmitted into the car. I had noticed what I thought was more vibration when I first got her all back together in May, but thought maybe because it had been so long since I last drove her I had forgotten the normal level of vibration. I'm now pretty sure that was due to the exhaust sitting on the subframe brace.
Measured the height of the front coilovers and compared them side-to-side. Turns out they were only a couple of mms different. That got me to thinking and after I hoisted her ass into the air I checked the recommended spring length on the installation instructions against actual. Turned out both sides were off by 5-7 mm. I made those adjustments to bring them into the correct length. All of the nuts were tight so I don't think anything moved, I must have just done them wrong the last time I messed with them. I double-checked the length of the rear springs but both were correct.
Then it was on to the main event. I took a good look at the muffler the other day and found the driver's side was hanging lower than the passenger side, which allowed it to contact the lower diffuser. Note that NB1s have four hangers for the muffler, while NB2s only have three. The FM muffler I have only has three mounting points. I used urethane hangers thinking that would provide enough support, but with the extra piping of the dual outlet muffler the weight overcomes the lone hanger on the driver's side. I found that the piping had been resting on the 949 subframe brace I have in the rear (this is the piece I had previously relieved for some clearance). You can see the height difference here:
After some research I found this lovely little number:
Since I don't have access to a welder, this seemed like it would do what I needed. This is where it needed to go:
For easier access I removed the lower diffuser. Figured I would be able to get it cleaner while it was off, and it was a good thing I did as I was carrying some extra weight around from MATG:
After some playing with the hanger and removing the excess material, here is what I ended up with:
Final comparison shot to see how the muffler is even side-to-side now:
Test drive showed I am no longer rubbing on the front driver's side fender liner, and I have less vibration being transmitted into the car. I had noticed what I thought was more vibration when I first got her all back together in May, but thought maybe because it had been so long since I last drove her I had forgotten the normal level of vibration. I'm now pretty sure that was due to the exhaust sitting on the subframe brace.