Thanks guys, it sounds like the Mongoose is the best one for me!

From what I remember from the OC thread, the guy had a different downpipe etc and the exhaust wasn't lining up on the hangers etc properly, causing it to knock badly etc, general poor fitment. I believe he pictured the exhaust and sent it to Mongoose, but all the other stock looked the same. Thankfully mine is standard downpipe/cat etc, so hopefully it'd be OK.

Presumably the Mongoose is fabricated from some form of stainless? I guess it will soon be the only part of your 185 that hasn't dissolved into a pile of ferrous oxide on your driveway

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Don
GT4DC Chairman
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four ST205WRC JDM 269bhp @ 0.9bar
1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four Special GT 590bhp @ 1.8bar
1989 Van Diemen RF88/89 Formula Ford 1600
2008 Nissan Patrol GU 3.0L ZD30DDTi 154bhp

When I was looking for an exhaust system a few years back for my ST185, looked around and ended up buying, and was extremely happy with, a Blueflame exhaust system.

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Vice Chairman
1990 White UK Celica ST185 - Project DTM
1997 Cream BMW R1200C (as seen in James Bond "Tomorrow Never Dies")
2005 Jaguar X-type 3.0 Sovereign AWD Automatic
Blood Bikes - https://www.freewheelers.org.uk/

Fact is that the mongoose is made to fit a stock cat, not a downpipe so in theory the mongoose could be 100% fine and the down pipe is crap.

Its a common fact that 95% of downpipes made for the gtfour are total toss purchased off ebay.

Eitherway if the system is made to fit the stock cat then its never gauranteed to fit an aftermarket section.

Go for it I say.

cheeky git

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JP
GT4DC Treasurer

Grey St185 RC
Silver BMW E46 M3
Multicolour yawn Honda VFR400
Silver Honda Civic Type-R

Here are some pictures of the mongoose exhaust and I think a blitz and a japspeed, these were taken by James over on the Owners Club, the mongoose is the misshapen one:







I think he was fitting it with a downpipe but it seems the majority of problems were related to the rear of the car. He sourced a replacement from Mongoose which was the same.

Hope this helps.

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GT4DC Events Co-ordinator
1996 ST205 UK

^^
That just shows how badly out that Mongoose one is :O... Wow. I'm not going to be getting on for a little yet, but I'm hoping I don't have similar issues!



That's good to hear this as it makes it a lot easier for me as mines all stock bar the current backbox. Thanks

however that picture is an interesting one, I personally have never heard or seen of a mongoose that bad, they are usually very good for their price.

Japspeed stuff I wouldn't touch with a barge pole but having fitted multiple parts on a friends skyline they are cheap toss.... oh wait I will rephrase that, "Trying to fit" as to fit their fmic which was claimed to be designed for the r32 I had to angle grind out parts of the bodywork and the core..... well to say it was a true first class ebay special would be extremely generous. haha

But yes, back to the point of downpipes and cats, there isn't exactly too much choice on the fours but people do seem to like to buy cheap rubbish half the time for the simple reason of it being cheap, my motto... Buy cheap, buy twice.

Usually seems to be the case

Wise words.

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GT4DC Events Co-ordinator
1996 ST205 UK

To be fair to the above, you would need to compare entire exhaust systems side by side. They all have joints in different places and different angles in my experience. It is possible the centre section has a longer uphill bit and overall gives more clearance to the driveshaft.

Even if there were a problem, a single cut & weld on the above would sort it, and would cost far less than custom building an entire exhaust.

My cheap ebay stainless downpipe which required a cut & weld when I bought it has outlasted 2 aussie downpipes which were being hailed as the mutts nuts back then.

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If at first you don't suck seed, try drier grain.

true words, aussie in my eyes had horrendous quality check issues.

My aussie pipe has been on for 4 years now and no problems.

The mid pipe didnt even last 4 years yet the downpipe was meant to be the weak point.

The mid / flexi pipe rotted itself away from the inside and looked like it had been made extremely poorly when we disected it.

As above though personally I have never seen anything to say mongoose where poor, I never buy anything from fensport but they sell mongoose I believe and can't imagine them selling poor quality fitting parts

But, I am serious when I say I personally, would not touch anything JapSpeed related.... but thats from previous experience on Nissan cars

I do assume james was fitting a full exhaust and not trying to mate a mongoose back box to a different mid pipe?

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JP
GT4DC Treasurer

Grey St185 RC
Silver BMW E46 M3
Multicolour yawn Honda VFR400
Silver Honda Civic Type-R

Yep full exhaust.

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GT4DC Events Co-ordinator
1996 ST205 UK

James even tried to just fit the back box alone; the hangers were under strain and the exhaust was fouling the heat shield. Def faulty mongoose; believe fensport gave full refund in the end

I have had 3 mongooses on my gt4's and in my experience they fit like a glove

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Karl
white 205 jdm 1996