Thread: D3 Exhaust crossover pipe

I got the crossover pipe back in, with some new heat shield tape. It's a really tight fit. All the bits and pieces I had to take off are back on, by comparison, getting them off was easy. All I have left to do is re-fit the jigsaw puzzle of heat shield in the LH wheel arch area, fit the gearbox cross member, refit the battery box and battery etc and then start if up. I have a few photos, and will post the later. All up the repair cost me $350, but it will take a while for the numerous scrapes and cuts to heal

How long has it taken you in total Iain?

Not really sure, I have lots of other distraction and would walk away when I got frustrated but I'm guessing about 6 hours getting the pipe off. 3 hours getting it to fit (cutting and rewelding) and another 6 putting it back together. A lot of the time is taken by trying to find a way to get to the various bolts, trying all sorts of thing until I eventually figure out how to do it.

For example, when getting to the three bolts on the passenger side, the write up on the D3 site says you can get them without removing the exhaust. I tried for an hour to get to them, but then gave up and removed the exhaust for the turbo back and that makes it easy. It took me a while to figure out how to get the crossover pipe back over the gearbox, and I got it stuck for over an hour, until I figured out you need to raise the transmission a bit to open up the space behind the engine. Similarly you need to move the fuel filter to get to the ones on the drivers side to be able to twist the crossover pipe the right way to get it over the transmission.

If you bought a new pipe, then a lot of the problems I had would go away, the new flex joints on mine are a stiffer, but now that I know how to do it, I'd guess around 8 hours all up.

I'd start with removing the exhaust, that makes it a lot easier to get to some of the heat shields and the EGR valve/cooler. I would also get a plate made up to blank off the EGR cooler on the back of the exhaust manifold so that when it is off, I would not have to put it back on, as that is very hard to do.

One more thing I would do is wash the underside of the car, especially around the back of the engine, the black soot is everywhere and you get covered in it.

In hindsight, would it have not been easier to undo the body bolts and raise the body a couple of inches?

I did think about it when the pipe got stuck, was just going to raise it about 20mm to get it free. Never raised the body before, seemed like quite a bit of work to do it and at the time my big jack stands were holding up my Unimog

To make a difference the body would need to go up about 200-300mm to get access to the all the bolts.

Everything is back together, and I took the opportunity to fit the silicone turbo hose, the GOE height adjusters and painted our 18" wheels and fitted them. The car is a lot quieter now, at least the exhaust noise has gone, the Goodyear Duratrac tyres are a bit nosier than the Cooper HT we had on the 20" wheels, but they are a much more aggressive, closer to an MT than an AT.

The heat shields are quiet a jigsaw puzzle, but with the help of the photos I took before I managed to get them all to fit. Good news is that apart from the various nuts and bolts I replaced, there are no spare parts

Here are a few photos of the more difficult things.

These one you can get after removing the fuel filter. The hard one if the nut on the inside of the flange, flex head ratchet ring spanner is the only way to get it.

2016-09-29 15.20.19.jpg

The EGR cooler needs to come off the EGR valve in order to get it out. The bolts at the back of the EGR cooler are pretty difficult to get to.

2016-09-29 15.46.28.jpg

These two bolts are only possible to get to after removing the exhaust from the turbo. The top one is accessible from the wheel arch, once you have taken off the heat shield on top of it. To do that you need to remove the pipe from the back of the EGR cooler and the EGR cooler itself.

2016-09-29 15.20.53.jpg

You're brave from attempting this Iain! I was reading another thread on Disco3 yesterday and it's a mission of a job!

Does anyone have an idea of where I need to look for bolts missing from when the transmission is rebuilt?

I remember getting a message after mentioning it being done, which was deleted in the site changeover.

The most common cause for this crossover pipe was bolts being left out when the trans is dropped out.

I can drop the protection plate and have a look as someone advised me to do months ago, but without knowing where to look for missing bolts it's probably a waste of time.


Cheers