My sister is the only one in the family who doesn’t own a Honda, currently she has a 2003 Subaru Outback. One day she tells me that her car is sounding a lot louder. I started it and instantly diagnosed it, and a quick look underneath confirmed it.

The joint in the exhaust pipe right after the catalytic converter had failed, the flange on one side rusting away. The bolts were still there, but pretty much just chunks of rust.

The answer to the problem was a split flange. It comes in two halves so it can be put around one pipe, hold against what is left of the flange on the one pipe, and then bolt through the remaining flange to hold it all together. The bolts were exactly parallel because of the hole spacing, but it worked. I had to get a new gasket for between the pipes because the old one had vanished.

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-Dan