MINI workshop - 'S' exhaust hanger
An annoying rattle from the rear of our 2002 MINI Cooper S turned out to be a failure in the support for the nearside rear silencer (muffler). The silencer is supported by a band that clamps around the box, this band then hooks into 2 rubber mountings.
Surprisingly for a three and a half year old car, the top half of the band had rusted through meaning that the weight of the box was being supported by the similar shaped unit on the other side of the car.
First of all we need some height, the webbing straps attached to the ramps make it much easier to drive up without the ramps slipping.
There is very little room to get at the inner mounting, so the aluminium shield attached to the bottom of the battery box is removed by undoing the 4 plastic nuts.
Even with the shield removed, space is limited and removing the old strap is the only really tricky part of the job, those prone to expletives are advised to use a sound-proof garage. The hook has a barbed end making it difficult to pull out of the red mounting. In the end I applied a squirt of WD40 (Duck oil) and inserted two small screw drivers between the hook and the mounting so that the edge of the mounting hole 'rode' over the edge of the barb.
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With the old band off, the rest was pretty straight forward, the top part was first hung off the mountings and then the lower half bolted in place.
The lower part of the band is the same for both sides, but the top half is handed.