About 1 month ago, the rear portion of my exhaust resonator pipe assembly broke completely off at the weld that connects it directly to the back part of the muffler (see attached muffler diagram. The part that broke is in BLUE). I think that it was a welding failure since the rest of the entire exhaust was still in great shape with no rust or damage anywhere. So I decided to see if I could find someone to weld the assembly back on. Someone recommended Lou's Custom Exhaust. So I went there and asked if they could weld it back together. The owner said that it would cost about 140 to weld it back together but it wouldn't last very long and asked if I planned on keeping the vehicle for a long time. I told him that I planned on keeping it until I run it into the ground. So he recommended that rather than re-weld, to replace the muffler and intermediate pipe that connects to the pipe that goes to the two catalytic converters with full stainless steel 14ga exhaust that they custom make. He said that the resonator/tailpipe assembly was still in great shape and that he would just replace the downpipe piece where the break occurred. All of this in 14ga stainless steel. So muffler, intermediate pipe, intermediate pipe clamp with springs and the rear muffler downpipe for a total of $500 installed with a 5 year warranty. The guy seemed pretty honest and I figured I'd take the hit and just get something that will last at least 5 years. He said he could get it done in 45 minutes and I told him ok. When I got home, I went underneath to take a look. That is when I noticed that there was a section missing from the left side catalytic converter pipe where the clamp used to be (see diagram RED arrow). It appears that he cut a 4-5" section out from this pipe for no reason other than maybe he wanted to get rid of the clamp? In either case, this pipe was further up from what he was replacing so why cut this out? Now I'm wondering what this guy was up to and frankly, I'm kind of pissed that he cut the left side catalytic converter pipe. I'm not sure what to make of this because he basically ruined the flange on BOTH the right and left catalytic converters by doing this. AND, it looks like a complete hack job at that! Am I overreacting to this or should I do something about this? I tried taking a couple pictures with my phone at night so they are not the best quality.

Attached Images

     

Looks good to me.

Flanges are usually the first thing to rust out so maybe he was trying to save you some trouble by cutting out the rusty flanges and welding a pipe in place.

Yeah, I agree. I think he was probably trying to replace a potential future leak point by removing the flanges and welding in a pipe... It just looked weird to me in that he decided to use an inner pipe rather than go over it with a larger diameter pipe for a cleaner look.. Seems that by doing it the way he did that it will be prone to collect dirt and debris in there and possibly rot it out if the welds are not perfect... Anyway, I'm not a welder so it's probably the right thing to do and I'm probably just overreacting here... Thanks for the responses.

Looks fine to me, yeah he coulda gone with bigger pipe but that may be tougher to weld plus this is only half the cylinders so not really a restriction. I think he saved you a future headache as that joint is one of the worst ones on these cars for leaking. Do you have a picture of the rest of the exhaust? This exhaust guy is local to me so curious how good the rest looks.

BTW, you could replace the back two bold on units yourself with aftermarket for less but I can tell you the aftermarket ones last 3 years at best. Just plain thin junk.

One final thought to make you feel better, it's metal so easily manipulated with a welder so really not a big deal to change or work on it if needed in the future.

Hi Mike. Thanks for the response. I'll try and take some pictures soon and post them. As far as the pipes from the back of the muffler (ie. the resonator pipe and the downpipe which was actually part of the muffler and broke off), he reused the pipe with the resonator as it was in great shape with the exception of the flange that connects to the downpipe. He cut the flange off the resonator pipe and welded it directly to a new downpipe piece. I'm sure that the work is good and all but for $500, I was kind of expecting a nice seamless piece of stainless exhaust from the cat all the way back to the resonator pipe. But it kind of looks like a patchwork of piping that is part black and part stainless color... Anyway, time will tell if this holds up as he claims it will.

Also, just to note here, the black pieces should be stainless steel just like the muffler is, but he coated them with a high temperature coating after welding. So maybe when that coating wears off, they will look similar to the muffler... it's easier to see this from pictures (which I will post soon).

i had something similar done there (in chelmsford, right?). went with stainless. finished product looks similar. just save that receipt! they don't keep computer records.

I've welded my exhaust at least a half dozen times. New flanges at the y pipe where he put that patch plus patches I put in different places including behind the muffler near the rear axle. I've contemplated replacing some of it with new OEM as the non-OEM resonator I replaced 3 years or so ago also needed to be welded recently. Starting to see that my time is probably worth the extra cost of replacing it only once.

prior to having that forward y-pipe repaired, i had a disintegrating aftermarket cat back situation. got lucky and snagged a recent OE low miles 5th gen cat back take off that essentially fit perfect (only v6 need apply). really nice to get back into high quality exhaust.