Hi Guys,

I may as well be a new user as I've not been on here since 2004 - I know, I'm not dedicated enough - but I'm hoping you guys can help a desperate man.

Having wrestled under the car on the driveway for over 6 hours yesterday in what must have looked like (from the neighbours viewpoint) a titanic struggle of a man's survival from being slowly devoured by machine, I've now lost the will to live.

I'm suffering from the common ST170 corroded sump, which now acts as a sieve for the oil. I've bought a replacement sump and sealer but trying to get the sump off has been a nightmare. I'm trying to drop the exhaust to get access to the sump bolts, but the problem is trying to remove the cat. The bolts connecting cat to exhaust are completely rusted, and so are the connecting brackets in general, so trying to undo those are pointless (for me anyway). I just wanted to check with you guys to see if anyone has ever figured out an alternative way of doing this without removing JUST the cat, is there a way of dropping the exhaust from anywhere else to get around it?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated...