Just venting. Turned a 1 hour job into 4. Left bumper on but did follow utkinpol's advice about removing air box to let down sensors off of clips. They would have been way too short. I thought getting them off was tough, but dang they are hard to thread back in if you dont have the perfect angle. My big blooper was trying to do it all with the mufflers on...mistake, no room to work. But I got it done, ECU reset, but too late to drive. Will take a spin this afternoon.

 

If you took off muflers it would be easier to take off cats too and then unscrew sensors. but there is danger to brake off cats bolts when undoing nuts between cats/headers plus you need to replace copper gasket too after that, so, it is difficult to say what is the best path there - extra hours or potential to brake more stuff.

on my '06 car i could not apply enough force at all to undo those sensors while cats were still bolted on - even when I took them off it required an extender for wrench to start sensors moving.

 

I actually was able to get the O2 sensors off w/ the cats attached, but the x-pipe wouldnt fit aroung the mufflers to get it into place so I did end up taking the mufflers off. Should of done that first to give myself more room. Once the cats were in, I followed your advice on the airbox b/c the O2 sensors were WAY too short to reach where fabspeed put the holes. they barely reached even when I let the slack out. I did the headers at the same time (x51) and did a good presoak w/ PB blaster. Did not have any nut/bolt problems thank goodness.

 

proper preparation is the key, glad to hear you had no issues.

 

You should try doing almost ANYTHING on a VW New Beetle... it really was designed by masochist bastards that should be found and flogged. In the engine bay, everything is so packed in there you cannot get to anything other than the dipstick, oil refill and washer refill without some agony. Replacing the battery - pain in the butt. Topping of the brake fluid - pain in the butt. Removing inside paneling ... requires removing 5 other panels. Everytime I need to do something on that car, its a case of removing/moving 3-4 other things to just get to where I need to be.