Malibu exhaust leak

Manifolds to tailpipes, this can be quite exhausting
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kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Malibu exhaust leak

Post by kevm14 »

Regular people would definitely ditch this car at this point if they haven't already. It's "falling apart." Here's the latest.
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I actually replaced the muffler a few years ago and had to cut off the back of the exhaust to mate it (rather than buy a whole cat-back). I guess the aluminized pipe I used to mate to the factory pipe has rusted out. I hate aluminized pipe. In fairness, a lot of the in-town driving probably exacerbated this issue, as well.

I'll probably cut it off on either end and hack some other pipe in between.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Malibu exhaust leak

Post by kevm14 »

Tackled this today. Remember, this job is basically a reprise of my own work whenever I did the muffler on this car (not that long ago). The muffler is still fine.

With a little flexing, the gap opened even more.
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Clamps off. I used my angle grinder to cut through then kind of hammer them off. Not too bad. There are two distinct pipes on either side, with a 4" section of pipe connecting them. Looks like one rusty conglomeration of pipe at the moment.
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This part took a little effort. I used a wire wheel on my angle grinder and kind of chipped away at the bits that were stuck. Looking halfway decent. Notice the factory intermediate pipe on the left which is stainless, and the MUCH younger aluminized pipe on the right. The intermediate pipe has been on the car since new, and it's fine. Because stainless.
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After more wire wheeling.
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I couldn't use another 4" section of 2" ID-ID pipe because I had to cut off too much of the aluminized muffler pipe. So I had to make this longer piece out of two different pieces. I used my vice to cut the longer pipe down, using my reciprocating saw.
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Joined together.
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Have to use 3 clamps. Two on the ends and one in the middle on my coupler.
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Another angle.
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And a third.
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That's it. Really not too bad. Total cost: $23. Didn't take too long, either. So on the one hand, this exhaust leak could send someone to a car dealer. But why? We want to replace it, but this is not why you replace a car.

THIS is why you replace a car.
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I don't know how much this contributes to crash safety but it must contribute some. It looks like it would absorb some energy in a rear impact. And the bottom is basically completely rusted. The resultant U channel is significantly weaker.

But, the point of this post is that the exhaust is once again fixed. And it sounds totally stock again. I really hope to replace the car long before this fix rusts out again. It needs an inspection in October, so after that would probably be a good time. New 2 year stickers (and Michelin tires) on $1000 cars are always crowd pleasers.
Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Re: Malibu exhaust leak

Post by Adam »

You could hit your adaptor/clamp thing with some high temp exhaust paint to make it take slightly longer to start rusting through again.
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