Hi, Ive noticed my exhaust is blowing a little bit and I got underneath and it has cracked where the 'cat' pipe joins to the mid pipe, just before the joining clamp. (I'll up load a picture)

 

The car is a work horse so don't really want to be buying whole exhaust components so wondering what 'ghetto' fixes might be an option on this?

 

Could I loosen off the clamp, slide it over an inch or 2 and tighten it up? or is there a slightly longer clamp on the market I could buy to cover the weak area?

 

I've seen replacement pipes on ebay that are cheap, the cheapest are all 'decat' which wouldn't bother me, but that would be an MOT fail wouldn't it?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Skoda-Octavia-1-9TDi-1-9-TDi-96-04-De-Cat-Bypass-Pipe-Exhaust-Decat/352288859716?hash=item52060d6644:g:R8YAAOSwPedaj87d

 

 

Welding a new piece in is another option but I think disturbing it too much might be the end of the whole section, it doesn't look too clever.

 

What do people think?

 

Thanks

Rob

Not sure how much of the clamp bands you'll have left after you get the nuts off the bolts, maybe buy a spare in case it just results in a pile of rust. But sliding the clamp sleeve thing over the hole should work OK I'd've thought; looks like it only needs to move 15mm or something like that?

Just now, Wino said:

Not sure how much of the clamp bands you'll have left after you get the nuts off the bolts, maybe buy a spare in case it just results in a pile of rust. But sliding the clamp sleeve thing over the hole should work OK I'd've thought; looks like it only needs to move 15mm or something like that?

Yeah that one will disintegrate when I undo it I would imagine.

 

Yeah Im hoping a new one will over lap enough the just slide over the bad bit of pipe.

I have in mind that the sleeve is about 100mm long, and the pipe ends pretty much butt up to each other somewhere in the middle, so there ought to be plenty of scope for a bit of deliberate non-centralising.

6 minutes ago, Wino said:

I have in mind that the sleeve is about 100mm long, and the pipe ends pretty much butt up to each other somewhere in the middle, so there ought to be plenty of scope for a bit of deliberate non-centralising.

sounds good to me, i'll give that a go at the weekend.

 

This car is a strange one, its 2004 model, low miles and excellent condition throughout but almost every bit of exposed mild steel is very badly corroded. I'm having to replace the whole front subframe as well. I wonder if its lived near the seaside at some point in it's life.

@RobDav99 - Alternatively a friendly local garage might puddle weld the leak(s) for you.