There was a clearance problem on mine. First let me say I don't know if it's HKS's fault or maybe a mount got bent in shipping but it didn't appear that there was any damage. My best guess is the pipe was mis-bent by HKS.

The Down & Dirty:
Basically the passenger side of the mid-pipe was hitting the body-mount bolt which is directly over the rear sway-bar. I had to remove the mid-pipe and dent it a little, with a hammer, to clear the head of the bolt.

Details:
Last friday I installed my HKS exhaust. Did a leak test while the car was still on the jackstands and it was fine. Well after driving around over the weekend I noticed that there was a weird groaning/rattle coming from the back end. I only heard it when pulling away from a stop and the engine rpms are holding at or moving through the 1500rpm range under load. Just revving in park/neutral didn't make the noise.

Today I had enough of the noise so I jacked the car up, put it back on jackstands and the sound went away. It only makes the sound when the rear tires are on the ground.

Upon close inspection I saw that there was zero clearance at that body mount bolt. The head of the bolt was actually digging into the top of the pipe. I should've noticed there was a problem Friday when the exhaust wouldn't move at all when i tried to shake it. I now realize there was a lot of pressure on the pipe/bolt rub area. Now that there is some clearance the exhaust can flex and move some like it should.

So anyone doing the hks needs to check the clearance here. Hopefully mine was an isolated problem, but check it out just in case.

 

When I installed mine I had no clearence problems but it seem that the exhaust pipes was to long. After about a week of driving one of the canisters came off of its hanger
so I just zip tied it on. the tips are adjusted all the way back and they still stick out about 2 1/2 inches out to far.

 

I didn't have any issues after installing mine, but thanks for the heads up. BTW, maybe i'm getting old, but I much prefer this "stealth" quiet exhaust after having a very agressive/loud one for a while.

 

I'm glad you guys didn't have the problem.

I too always had LOUD exhausts on my cars/trucks. I must be getting more mellow in my old age also since I really like the lower key nature of the HKS. The best part is the HKS is low key till I really drop the hammer, then it comes to life.

 

I have also installed one and there were zero clearance issues. I would loosen everything up and then make sure you have clearance and hold the pipe while you tighten the bolts from the front back.

 

I would have to agree with all of you. I've gotten mine installed with no problems and I love the deep quieter tone of the exhaust till high rpms!

 

Hey I had the same problem... I just blow torched a spot and bent it so it worked better... took only a slight bend... im sure your way would work also!

 

I tried adjusting several times and the only solution for me was a hammer. It was no big deal really and would have been NO problem at all if had I caught it and fixed it before dropping the car the first time. Anyway, I still absolutely love the exhaust.

 

I fear that i have the same issues as well. I noticed it right off the bat. I have headers and straight pipes on my car so i attributed the issue to that, thinking that the pipes were misaligned from stock due to the other mods. But now i'm not so sure. I'll have to take it down and figure something out.

 

Tony,

Sorry to hear that. If you try to shake the exhaust and it doesn't move at all then you likely have a rubbing issue like I did. The whole exhaust should move a little when you shake it. Again mine was rubbing the body mount bolt right over the sway bar on passenger side. It's easy to find the bolt cause it goes through the large black rubber body mounting isolators/dampers.

Good luck.

 

Mine actually rubbed against the rear sway bar.. my shop wrapped a little something around the sways just on the passenger side and now there is no noise issue.