Ok, so the brackets on my rear cat have snapped off so the rear pipe is now left dangling (much to the very annoying addition of excessive exhaust noise).

 

I looked up the part on 1stsubaruparts.... $480 - wow.

 

What do people usually do? New cat? Junkyard cat? have a shop rig up a new longer pipe and remove the cat alltogether? I'm in Louisiana that doesn't have an emissions test so that shouldn't be a problem...

 

Steve

Just weld in a straight pipe.

 

GD

The sale of used cats is illegal. Doesn't matter whether the car would end up meeting emissions or not.

 

And they say money spent on lobbying is wasted!

 

Make SURE is isn't the flex joint before you stress abotu a cat.

 

A local INDEPENDENT muffler shop can fix the flex joint (or do most other work) usually real reasonably.

$40-$60 to have a small piece of pipe welded in place at any honest mechanic, you just have to find one of those.

 

i'm not sure if there are various levels of quality you can ask for or get but cheap pipe rusts out quick, or at least up here it does. exhaust shops should have decent pipe though.

 

you can try to piece it together yourself with pipe, clamps, etc, it's just annoying messing with cutting the pipe, fitting it, getting the right size OD/ID, etc. it can be done but a bit of a learning curve first time around and tools are an issue for some folks.

Thanks for the reply folks.... Just to clarify

 

This is the bracket who's ears have broken off (at the end of part 15)..

 

I guess I will take it to a shop and have them suggest the fix (either welding on new brackets or simply putting in a new piece that replaces the cat).

 

Steve

If you have a local NAPA... their split-flange repair kit (part # 31884) is a nice fix actually.

 

Beats welding it in the driveway

Just took it to a local muffler shop...

 

They cut the old joint off and welded one of these in its place...

 

 

$79.99 fitted. Not tooooooo bad.

 

Cheers,

 

Steve

Beats a new cat!

 

I just have them cut out that flex joint and put a sleeve of pipe in and weld it.

 

My local guy does it for me for 40.00 - but I used to have him do a lot of these.

 

So you saved 400+ bucks.

 

That makes it a good day.

That makes it a good day.

 

Indeed it does :grin:

 

And my car is QUIET again

Indeed it does :grin:

 

And my car is QUIET again

 

Glad to read that your car is quiet again. I had a similar problem on both my 98 and 99 OB Wagons. In my case, both pipes broke on both cars at the resonator. I went to my friendly neighborhood cut/bend/weld family owned muffler shop. What my shop welded in, was pretty much what you had installed. They bent a piece of pipe to fit, where as your is a flex pipe. The fix works great. Noise level without the resonator is no Lauder, then with the resonator. My guess is that the resonator pipe is a weak point in the exhaust system. Your fix should last a good long time.

Those braided flex pipes leak over a short time...In fact, mine looked good, but with the car running, could feel air escaping all about the flex portion. I took it to a shop, they cut out the flex part and put solid pipe in place of it.