As I test drove a used car at the dealership, I noticed that the exhaust was a little bit loud. When I got it up on the lift I found that it was leaking from the join where one pipe slips over another and has a clamp around the two. I could tell I would have to replace the exhaust, but there was one problem that would make that harder. These joints are meant to not be welded, but this one had, and very badly.

The pipe forward of this joint was actually part of the second catalytic converter, and as such was very expensive and not part of the standard cat-back kit. That meant that I had to figure out how to remove the pipe that had been welded on.

Fortunately, as I carefully cut section of pipe off, I discovered just how bad the welding was. With just a very short pry bar, I was able to peel the welds right off the pipe. Good welds are stronger than the surrounding metal, but this was clearly so poorly done that it hadn’t bonded the exhaust at all.

When I got all of the old pipe off, I discovered why it had been welded. Right where the end of the larger pipe ends, there was a crack in the inner pipe almost all the way around. I ended up having to cut the pipe off there and weld on a short section of pipe to connect the rear exhaust.

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-Dan