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exhaust leaking where y and rear cat meet

A

Ares

Veteran CEG'er
Joined
Nov 24, 2004
Messages
645
Location
in the garage
So my exhaust started to sound like ass and I found a significant leak right where the y joins the rear cat (see pic). I unscrewed the flange nuts to get a better look and see if there was a hole or anything. Seemed odd to me that a leak would develop in this spot. Has anyone had this happen to them? Don't know if I should change out the y, the cat or try to tighten it down more. It was a :censored::censored::censored::censored::censored: to get it off so I don't know if trying to tighten would even be possible. Suggestions, comments, ideas?

picture.php
 
You might want to bolt the y-pipe to the manifold where they sit evenly.
Right now the left side looks closer then the right...that would create a slight opening allowing exhaust to escape.

Which means that might be your very problem :)
 
What kind of Y-pipe is this? I along with other CEGer's have a leak at the same spot with the sho-shop y-pipe. I just live with it.
 
I had a leak there as well. I thought it was the Y pipe. It turned out to be a crack in the exhaust manifold/cat. The mounting flange for the manifold to y pipe connection had cracked. It cracked completely off by the time I got around to thinking I was going to fix it by replacing the y-pipe.

I ended up having to remove the bank 1 exhaust manifold to weld the flange back on. It was welded on at the factory but not very well I can assume.
 
starjammir said:
What kind of Y-pipe is this? I along with other CEGer's have a leak at the same spot with the sho-shop y-pipe. I just live with it.
Click to expand...

This is a stocker (3 bolt) that was optimized. I noticed that it didn't line up perfectly with the cat. Don't think anything's cracked from what I can tell. I geuss I'll just try to tighten the one side down more than the other so they line up? I've got to correct this or it will drive me nuts knowing there's a leak. Wonder if a gasket of some kind would help.
 
Harrry said:
You might want to bolt the y-pipe to the manifold where they sit evenly.
Right now the left side looks closer then the right...that would create a slight opening allowing exhaust to escape.

Which means that might be your very problem :)
Click to expand...


todras said:
You just don't have everything lined up. Easy to get the y cocked. Keep adj. it.
Click to expand...

Well i'm glad i wasn't the only one seeing the flange positioned too much on one side.
 
jimbbski said:
I had a leak there as well. I thought it was the Y pipe. It turned out to be a crack in the exhaust manifold/cat. The mounting flange for the manifold to y pipe connection had cracked. It cracked completely off by the time I got around to thinking I was going to fix it by replacing the y-pipe.

I ended up having to remove the bank 1 exhaust manifold to weld the flange back on. It was welded on at the factory but not very well I can assume.
Click to expand...

Well, after getting the y to line up perfectly even as todd and harry suggested, I bolted it back up only to find that the leak was still there. It turns out that there's a crack exactly where jimbbski describes his. I hadn't been able to see it before but I continued to feel around blindly and finally found the crack ha ha. I got the telescope mirror and got a good look at it. Managed to take a small screwdriver and wedged it in a bit to confirm this was the problem. Sucks cause I'm not looking forward to swapping out the cat.
 
04marauder said:
Well, after getting the y to line up perfectly even as todd and harry suggested, I bolted it back up only to find that the leak was still there. It turns out that there's a crack exactly where jimbbski describes his. I hadn't been able to see it before but I continued to feel around blindly and finally found the crack ha ha. I got the telescope mirror and got a good look at it. Managed to take a small screwdriver and wedged it in a bit to confirm this was the problem. Sucks cause I'm not looking forward to swapping out the cat.
Click to expand...

Don't swap it out. Take it to an exhaust shop...pay the guy in back 30-40 dollars and have him weld it. :censored::censored::censored::censored: if you lived closer...i would have welded it up myself.
 
I wonder if JB Weld would seal it up. And do you really think you could weld that while its on the car. Seems like it would be a really tight spot to work in.
 
I thought about welding in while on the car but thought better of it. Since mine broke completely off I would need to weld it all the way around and access is not good enough to do that, plus my TIG welder is in the basement and I didn't want to have to call for help to carry it to the garage and then find out I can't do it on the car.

Funny I haven't read here of this happening before and now within a couple of months it's happen at least twice! Something to think about and look for, for anyone with the V6.
 
Had a similar issue on my zetec downpipe. Found exhaust puddy at the local auto parts store and it set just like a weld. Costs $5 and fixed the hairline crack nicely.
 
Has worked so far and its been a few weeks. I had to sand it off my hand. No solvents or any amount of scrubbing took it off. Needless to say, that felt just dandy.
 
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