Does anyone know where to get those rubber things that hold your exhaust hanger to the hook on the car? On a similar note, how well do you think a thick chain would be at doing the same task? My cans are way too low right now (scrapes on practically everything), so I've been thinking about just replacing them with a short chain from a hardware store to pull the cans up toward the body.

 

All of the auto chain stores carry versions of the hangers.

I got mine at PepBoys...they had a few different sizes of the two types that we use.

I think chain would be a bad idea.

 

Just get them at a auto parts store. Tell them you need the exhaust donut hangers ant they "should" know what you mean.

A chain will put ALOT of vibration into the car body

 

+1 to all of that.

 

A chain would be bad, but at least you wouldn't scrape the ground. Rubber acts like springs and shocks to suspend your exhaust. With a chain it'll shake & bounce all over the place.

For a temporary fix, I'd think 1,000 rubber bands of the proper size would do the job. Make sure it ends up fairly stiff like the stock donuts and thick enough so it won't snap. Or just go hunting for rubber donuts at different stores...

 

http://mazdatrix.com/e7.htm

 

Does anyone know what the stock size for those donut hangers are?

 

i just grabbed some off a shelf at work. any small doughnut hangar should work.

 

i will get a generic walker part number foryou tomorrow that will work

 

It's ok, I was just wondering how big the normal ones are. I'm guessing I need smaller ones to help pull the exhaust up, since I have well under 3" of clearance under both mufflers.

 

Zipties!

 

I read about that while looking through the forum, but I couldn't tell if it was a sarcastic answer or if people seriously were using zipties.

So, my question now is, are people seriously using zipties? And if so, how well/long do they last?

 

I had zipties on my exhaust for a while... IIRC they never melted or anything, but try not to get them directly on the pipes...

OTOH, the muffler needs to be on flexible mounts, so get some proper rubber donuts.

 

mazdatrix... junkyard... on some spots when i didn't want to make a run to mazdatrix i used some steel wire for a quick fix... anything would work if you wanted it to but yeah ... do it right

 

Would I be putting too much stress onto the y-pipe and cats by pulling up on the exhaust? There seems to be only a little bit of give, but it seems I'd be tilting the cans upwards a little rather than moving the whole piping+mufflers up towards the body.

 

no joke, i really use zipties, pretty much everything after presilencer (ypipe and 2 mufflers) on my car is held on by zipties. Just use heavy duty ones. I think mine are rated up too 75lbs and 80*c? im not sure ill take a look tomorrow. I get them from OSH, they ones i got from homedepot failed on me. the ones from osh lasted forever. the ones from homedepot a few days before they gave out. I just double up

they hold really well also, with the rubber hangers my mufflers moved around, with zipties they dont

 

there's got to be a reason why exhaust isn't bolted to frame. And if Mazda could save $2 by using wire instead of donuts they would. Heck, look at the hose clamps. Rubber dampens movement & vibrations. Dunno why that's necessary, maybe it's a sound issue. Plus donuts are cheap, just use them. If you need a quick fix in the meantime, try wire, zipties, etc.

I'll measure mine for you tomorrow. But size shouldn't matter too much. I can tell you that the stock ones are hard to put on; they just barely fit. So if the one you buy goes on quick, go down a size.

 

Yea, that's one problem with the donuts, is that if I do use them, since I'll be using smaller-than-stock-ones, it'll be really really hard to put on and still keep the mufflers as high up as possible. I'd need to pull them up, and then some to account for the extra slack I'll need to fit the donuts on. With zipties, I could just loop it around the hangers w/out having to deal with pull them around the hooks.

I'll probably head over to my local Ace tomorrow to get some. Hopefully, they'll hold (and hopefully I'll finally be able to clear my driveway).

 

I did the steel cable thing on my 323. It works decent, but transfers more noise into the body and can eventually scrape/damage the pipe.

 

If you're worried about how high the pieces sit, couldn't you just bend the hangers? It's hard enough getting the stock hangers on with their size, any smaller and it'd be nearly impossible...