[bhiesta]

I just installed tha Maperformance TBE on my '16 WRX. The install was a little painful with a bunch of little snags along the way. Mostly dealing with removing the stock j pipe.
The Maperformance exhaust seems well made and fitment is good, except I can't get the bracket that bolts onto the 2 upper j pipe studs to line up with the bolt hole behind the water pump. See pic. Any ideas?

 

[Sasquatch]

First post? Welcome to the Club! :wave:

Try loosening all of the bolts / nuts then recheck fitment at that point. Exhaust parts are best installed by tightening fasteners a little at a time until they all line up.

 

[bhiesta]

Yes, this is my first post. Thanks for the welcome.
I did try loosening the nuts But I still wasn't able to get it to line up. As you can see in the picture, the bracket is pretty far off from being in alignment with the hole.
Any thoughts on what might happen if I drive it without that Bolt?

 

[Sasquatch]

Probably OK, but I'd still bet you had something out of alignment during the install. There is a lot of R & D done during parts development. I cannot imagine in my many years of my personal positive dealing with maperformance they would leave poor fitment like that on the table. I normally don't publicly praise maperformance as I'd rather save that for our paid sponsors. maperformance has been nothing but good to me over the years.

A mal-fitting eBay no name POS bit of piping? Could easily happen. maperformance, I'd not think possible. Contact them if this persists.

As long as all of your exhaust gaskets are sealed you are OK short term. You still need to work the fitment issue out.

 

[bhiesta]

I went with the MAP TBE and their intake. The quality of the materials and workmanship seems very high.

That said, I measured the flange on the MAP j pipe and it is about 2 sixteenths of an inch thicker then the stock flange. Combine that with a slightly thicker gasket and I think that is the reason why the bracket is not lining up. I'll call them tomorrow to get their opinion. I would not call myself a skilled mechanic so it definitely could be something that I did wrong.

 

[why2kmax]

no option to bend the bracket I guess? could be factory tollerances in the way your car was built that has it sitting a bit differently. As suggested Id call and see what they say. Its also possible they had a bad run of brackets where something went slightly askew