Hi all,
I just replaced the mid and tail sections of the exhaust on my 05 Jazz. having read this thread I was a bit daunted before starting (I'm just a tinkerer rather than super experienced), but wanted to save money by not taking it to a garage. I brought the new sections on ebay
The nuts between the cat and mid sections were pretty rusted on so I started a few days before the main event giving them a good dose of WD40 everyday to try and help ease them off.
I borrowed a couple of car ramps from a friend and got the front end of the car up - had to drive up fast as trying to go slow I could smell the clutch
I first gave the nuts and thread a good clean up with a wire brush, but spanner and sockets weren't budging them at all. I as a bit worried that I would either have to cut and drill out (as suggested earlier in this thread) or take the a garage for them to do, but my savior was at hand!
Impact driver!!
My brother has one and it really makes light work of tough jobs. Not the average piece of kit most people would have in a home garage but worth considering if you play lots, or see if a friend has one to borrow.
Once the nuts came off, I cleaned the captive studs up (attached to the cat end) with a die from a tap and die set and fitting the new mid and rear sections was super easy - I even reused the rubber mounts as they were in good condition, just used a flat bladed screwdriver to ease them off and some silicon spray to slide them back on (not sure in necessary but I read it somewhere and had some to hand)
I put new nuts on the studs - they are M10x1.25 which are also know as M10 fine (standard nuts are M10X1.5)
I hope this helps someone