cager exhaust question

[blitzcraig]

so i have a 2003 nissan xterra. recently i noticed a rattling, clinking sound. looked under the center of the truck and saw the attached pics. you'll see whatever that braided metal piece is, with the pipe on the right going into the engine, and the pipe on the left going to the muffler. the rattling sound i was hearing was those two rings you'll see dangling. i can't tell if they were holding a cover or something for that braided piece on (which if there was one, is obviously gone now), or if they were supposed to be affixed to either side of that part. i'm going to take it in for service this week, but i always like to get a second opinion in case they tell me its the end of the world and my car is going to explode if i don't give them $1,000 to fix it.

anyone know what we're looking at here please? :cheer:

 

[LERecords]

i have no idea, but i asume your missing the cover that goes around the 2 rings.. you might have to bit the bullet, but not for $1k.. maybe $100 to $200 at a muffler shop... wont be too expensive, but you do need to get it fixed cuz if it brakes further, you'll have one loud ass car ... good luck

 

[SovietRobot]

It's gotta be the catilytic converter, although I've never seen one that looked like that.
The rings are probably part of a cover for it that somehow(?) fell off.

Actually, looking at those welds, it looks like the original owner had it replaced with that thing, and either didn't cut those rings off or got lazy with the cover, if there was one.

 

[tmilheiser]

its your flex pipe, i had to have one replaced on my ford escort when i decided to go off roading, it was maybe $50 a few years ago.

 

[blitzcraig]

i guess i should have noted that i am the original owner :Flash:. what you sayin' bout my welds?!

truck is 6 years old and has 80k miles, and i've been lucky to have nothing go wrong with it so far. it would seem strange that if that thing had a cover, it would just fall off. i know it's not a spring chicken, but clearly something is wrong here. i might stick my head under another xterra when i can find one to see what i can see. just thought someone might know off the top of their head what the deal is here.

 

[gt89stang393]

Those rings were probably some sort of guard against corrosion of the flex pipe. As long as you don't have an exhaust leak just cut them off and keep on going. There us nothing you can do to replace those rings IMO unless you replace the whole pipe that is connected to.

 

[SovietRobot]

Flex pipe, yeah I didn't even think about that. My jeep doesn't even have one of those.

 

[sjk625]

I have an Nissan Altima and have the same problem with the flex pipe. Those rings really don't serve any purpose, and I plan on removing the one that's loose on mine. It won't cause any problems, and a new exhaust is not necessary. The rattling noise it creates is pretty annoying though.

 

[urbanj]

it will rust out and leak eventually. before you get a dealer to do it see if the aftermarket has a suitable replacement that fits. (i say fits because some aftermarket stuff fits like crap and is bent all wrong and whatnot). depending on the app it could include a whole bunch of pipe and/or the catalytic converter as well. if you had a muffler shop weld one up it may be cheaper but could also mess up the set up of the factory exhaust and nothing factory would fit again.

just cut them off for now and fix when it leaks.

 

[Botch]

Dude! Your ride's got Bling!!

Put it on eBay and I bet Snoop Puppy Poop will give you $1.3 million for it!

 

[reiobard]

cut the rings off and run it until the thing rusts out and then you will have to replace the whole downpipe. but you should have a couple years before it rusts out.

 

[wrightme43]

I see that almost everyday at Midas. We just cut them off with a torch for free, if the customer wants to give the tech a tip great, if not great. It costs about $80-100 here to have a whole new one installed depending on which one the car takes. I cant speak for what other shops will do, but thats about what you should expecdt.

 

[blitzcraig]

yep, that's exactly what nissan told me this morning. dude looked at the picture on my phone and said yeah those are the rings that are supposed to be on either side of the flex pipe. said he had the same thing happen to his xterra. said you just cut them off. i asked how much they would charge. $55. so i kindly said screw that. 6 years of me going to them for service and they can't even say 'well i see that you have been a loyal customer for some time, we'll just pop 'em off for you'. nope. ah well. looks like they have a date with the bolt cutter this weekend. :thumbup: