Leaking Exhaust - Plugged

In one of the visits to the mechanic, when Rhino was in for its rear axle inspection, a leak was detected on the exhaust.

We are in a lock-down and exhaust shops were mostly closed as they were not permitted to operate, hence this leak took some time to be fixed.

I got a contact of an exhaust shop that has been around for decades and was managed by two senior guys. The reviews were good and they operate on a repair what is needed basis, which I like.

I Made an appointment and took Rhino in for an assessment, to determine what was wrong besides the leak that I am aware of and how much the repair would cost. I had planned to replace the entire pipe from the downpipe after the manifold, all the way to the back initially, to resolve the issue once and for all but was saved from doing that since the exhaust system was fine with just a leak to be fixed.

Rhino was hoisted and a full exhaust check was done. The way these guys did was different from what I have seen, once the car was hoisted, one of them took a ladder and climbed up the hoisted car to start the car.

The center box and silencer are good while a leak was found on a pipe that connects the center box to the silencer.

They started by torching the faulty part with a plasma cutter to cut it apart and then traced the pipe pattern using a wire. Using the wire as a template, they bend a fresh cut off the carbonized metal pipe using a bending machine to shape.

The newly shaped pipe is now attached to the silencer where the old pipe was shaved off and the other end into the pipe comes out from the center box that has been enlarged to accept the new pipe. In the process, the exhaust hangers were replaced as the old one was not the correct hanger.

Some welds later, the exhaust is ready, the weld joint was sprayed on using an aerosol spray to reduce corrosion.

All in all, it is a 45 mins job and 10% of the amount that it would have cost me if the entire pipe was done. And Rhino will not fart loud now that the exhaust is fixed. The one noticeable difference is when I drive in between two structures, Rhino is not as noisy as it used to be. Next will be to monitor how the fuel consumption will be after the repair.

No pictures this time.