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Life of stock exhaust on '98 Subaru


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How long does teh group think the stock coated exhaust system on a '98 Legacy L wagon driven in New England would be? It has the Cali. emisions so two cats. It is geting pretty rusty at the connections but no holes YET!! For how many of these things are used in the rust belt you woul think SOA would start puting SS

 

exhausts on them!!

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Well, I/ve just had to make some "repairs" to the exhaust on my 98 Legacy. First the gasket between the front pipe and the cat pipe gave out. Replacing the gasket didn't stop the leak as the flange is also badly deteriorated. Ingenuity and working with what I had around, I discovered a Corvair exhaust manifold donut fit between the two flanges perfectly. Issue # 2 was the flange on the end of the cat had rusted and collapsed. An aftermarket replacement flange from NAPA took care of that. Car has 128,000 miles, and I live Near Buffalo which uses more salt than anywhere else.............

 

 

swi66

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Well, I/ve just had to make some "repairs" to the exhaust on my 98 Legacy. First the gasket between the front pipe and the cat pipe gave out. Replacing the gasket didn't stop the leak as the flange is also badly deteriorated. Ingenuity and working with what I had around, I discovered a Corvair exhaust manifold donut fit between the two flanges perfectly. Issue # 2 was the flange on the end of the cat had rusted and collapsed. An aftermarket replacement flange from NAPA took care of that. Car has 128,000 miles, and I live Near Buffalo which uses more salt than anywhere else.............

swi66

 

Of what flange are you talking about? Rear first cat to second our second to pipe going to the muffler?

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Of what flange are you talking about? Rear first cat to second our second to pipe going to the muffler?

 

The rear of the first cat to the front of the second cat., it was the built in "ears" which the bolts go through on the back of the first cat which kind of disintegrated..........the actual bolts were pretty much gone, but for the most part the actual exhaust still seems pretty solid...........All the aluminum heat shielding has fallen off though as well................rust never sleeps

 

swi66

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I had to replace the entire one-piece exhaust system on my Brat when it was just over 2 years old (I was the second owner so it didn't fall under warranty). After that, every 5-6 years it would fail. It was always covered under warranty by Speedy Muffler. They told me it was porcelain coated and a very cheap stainless steel... it always rusted from the inside out.

 

My GL-10 failed after 3 years, muffler fell of coming off a sharply curved highway exit ramp... went end-over-end under the car lifting the rear wheels right off the ground... scary stuff. I'm not sure if they changed the composition of them, but in the rust belt, I wouldn't expect too much. I've learned since to get frequent undercarriage washes :)

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How do you drive? A lot of short trips will allow condensate to eat it out from the inside. No best answer to your question.

 

 

That's true! Short runs don't dry the water out. A 3.5 mile city commute is probably why mine never lasted very long... so if you do long runs it'll help a lot.

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