Exhaust weld failed, is car still safe to drive until I get it repaired?

poehitman · Jan 25, 2020

I was driving near home one night when I heard a bang and the car got a lot louder. After jacking my car up, I saw that the weld failed on the connecting pipe from the passenger side header to the catalytic converter. The car seems to run fine, it's just loud due to the open pipe from the engine. And no error codes are being displayed when I plug in the diagnostic scanner. Is it safe to drive as-is? Also, if I use the exhaust tape on it to temporarily quiet it until I get it fixed, will that damage the catalytic converter? I've attached a photo indicating where the weld break is.

Thanks!

Noobz347 · Jan 25, 2020

Exhaust tape and some carefully placed clamps could hold it together until you can get to it.

Don't let that be very long though. What's more is that you should be prepared to have to replace one or more sections of exhaust if it looks like it's rusted through.

If it's not rusted, it should be a quick and cheap fix at any Midas or Meineke.

poehitman · Jan 25, 2020

Looking at it when I jacked it up, it looks like just surface rust. I don't think I can clamp it because of where the break is. It's right up against the and of the cat. Also, is it safe to drive as is?

How much ballpark does something like that cost to re-weld at places like that?

Potomus Pete · Jan 25, 2020

Id at least look online for the price of that part. They may say they cant weld it.

Noobz347 · Jan 25, 2020

poehitman said:
Looking at it when I jacked it up, it looks like just surface rust. I don't think I can clamp it because of where the break is. It's right up against the and of the cat. Also, is it safe to drive as is?

How much ballpark does something like that cost to re-weld at places like that?

They will remove the broken piece from the cat, insert a new one, and clamp or weld to the rest of the exhaust.

The well placed clamp BTW, is just to give your tape something to grip to.

poehitman · Jan 25, 2020

Is it ok to take on short trips (under 3 miles)? Right now all I have is my bicycle.

kiddiccarus · Jan 31, 2020

Noobz347 said:
The well placed clamp BTW, is just to give your tape something to grip to.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ On the fly this is the best bet. Keeps you good until you can replace this part SOOOOON

Price will vary per shop. If it was me, I would do as suggested above to get by, but its only a patch and not meant to be a permanent fix.

No it is not good to run the car like this. It is important to get this fixed as soon as you can.

poehitman · Jan 31, 2020

Noobz347 said:
They will remove the broken piece from the cat, insert a new one, and clamp or weld to the rest of the exhaust.

The well placed clamp BTW, is just to give your tape something to grip to.

I'm going to jack it up this weekend and see if I can get the part off and weld it myself, as I have a flux core welder. if nothing else, just to tack it in place and wrap it until I can get it someone to be fully welded or replaced. The thing is, when I bought the car it had an aftermarket exhaust on it, so I'm not sure if what's on there is a stock part or an aftermarket part.

kiddiccarus · Jan 31, 2020

supply picture of actual part. One of us will know if that is what we removed from ours

poehitman · Feb 4, 2020

kiddiccarus said:
supply picture of actual part. One of us will know if that is what we removed from ours

Sorry it took so long. The first 2 days it was raining (I live in apartment complex) and the next 2 I wasn't feeling well. This is all of the same part, I took a bunch of pics in case the detail in 1 or 2 wasn't good.

poehitman · Feb 4, 2020

Here's the last 3

kiddiccarus · Feb 4, 2020

PB blaster on those bolts there and it looks like a break straight across. It is weldable if you can get it off.

Tack Weld it in place before you take it off if possible or make black lines where it needs to meet up. It would be a shame if you had to re-cut and weld because of the angle.

Noobz347 · Feb 4, 2020

Clean out the insides on both ends, jamb a a ring in there that's about an inch or so wide and weld all the way around.

You could also run a ring on the outside of those two pieces (come to think of it) and that patch should hold until you more prepared to address the entirety of your aging exhaust system.

poehitman · Feb 6, 2020

Noobz347 said:
Clean out the insides on both ends, jamb a a ring in there that's about an inch or so wide and weld all the way around.

You could also run a ring on the outside of those two pieces (come to think of it) and that patch should hold until you more prepared to address the entirety of your aging exhaust system.

Can you tell me if that part is stock or not? If it's stock I'll just replace it. If not, I'll try to repair it? I have someone who can do the work but they don't do welding apparently and I'm a novice at best with welding.

kiddiccarus · Feb 6, 2020

YEP that ugly ass thing is stock. I wish I still had mine laying around when I took it all off for a dual set up. A guy around here needed one and took all I removed. I believe that is actually a Y pipe isnt it

Here is a Link for what I believe the full piece looks like

Noobz347 · Feb 6, 2020

kiddiccarus said:
YEP that ugly ass thing is stock. I wish I still had mine laying around when I took it all off for a dual set up. A guy around here needed one and took all I removed. I believe that is actually a Y pipe isnt it

Here is a Link for what I believe the full piece looks like

That's a good price on that part. The only other one that I know of that can still be bought is [much] more money.

poehitman · Feb 6, 2020

kiddiccarus said:
YEP that ugly ass thing is stock. I wish I still had mine laying around when I took it all off for a dual set up. A guy around here needed one and took all I removed. I believe that is actually a Y pipe isnt it

Here is a Link for what I believe the full piece looks like

No, mine is actually an aftermarket dual exhaust setup by Flowmaster, I think. Like I said before, it was on the car when I purchased it in 2008. I didn't know if they put in an aftermarket setup from after the catalytic converters back, or from the headers back. It's why I was asking if the part was stock or not.

Exhaust weld failed, is car still safe to drive until I get it repaired?

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