Flexi exhaust leak on TDI

Birchall

Birchall

Dick Chown Award 2016
Hi,

Our Daughter's car (the dolphin grey TDI) has a small leak on the flexi pipe. MEGA expensive, around £300 to replace it because they say you have to replace the cat as well at the same time.

So I had a quick look on eBay and found what I thought was a possible solution. The fact that it was just £25 meant that it was worth a try.
Using the old "if it is too good to be true, it isn't" approach, I didn't hold out much hope. Unfortunately I was right. The mechanic just rang to say that it won't fit, the existing steel pipe is basically a 90 degree bend and therefore this repair section simply won't fit, he informed me.

Anyone tried this type of repair?

This is the part I bought (it stated that it was for the tdi and would fit

1517426838477.png


Steve B
 
Hi Steve,

I've done this job before, and I agree that it's difficult with the ebay part, but not impossible. There's more info here. I think Tufty has also done a similar repair?

Regards,

Matt. :)
 
Hi Matt

Thank you.

I am planning to take it to a proper exhaust repair company (not anything like the standard “Qwack Fat” ones.) they would insist on fitting a new exhaust and Cat £350.

Steve B
 
Hello Steve, It worked for me, brazed ( not clever enough to weld ) the assy off the car, took a few attempts to align everything and has been 'fixed' for about two years. Robert.
 
Robert97R said:
Hello Steve, It worked for me, brazed ( not clever enough to weld ) the assy off the car, took a few attempts to align everything and has been 'fixed' for about two years. Robert.
Click to expand...
Cheers, that helps, I will find someone local (Kleynie has suggested someone)

Steve B
 
I had a similar repair carried out on my TDI flexi a couple of years back Steve. Old section removed and new good quality flexi welded in place.

It stills remains good.
 
I have just replaced my flexi at a reputable exhaust garage, and while I was there I asked them to remove the cat and fit a straight pipe in its place. Wow what a difference, Drives like a different car and now with Paul’s remap it’s a little 3 pot ?.
Cost with a new flexi and de cat was £150 which was money well spent. Hope you get your daughters car sorted
 
Steve,
I have to strongly disagree with your mechanic. This is EXACTLY the flexi pipe that I used to replace the flexi on my Silver TDI around June last year. I posted some pictures of the repair on A2OC If you can't find them then drop me a email and I will post them to you
I chose to mig weld the pipe in as against using the clamps provided

The basic steps are cut the pipe about 6" after the CAT
unbolt from the turbo
remove the front pipe/cat
I used and angle grinder and cutting disk to cut off the old flexi pipe
The new flexi needs some trimming, it took about 4 trial fits to the car before I as happy, once I was I drilled a 3mm hole to lock the flexi to the main pipe and used a panel clamp in the 3mm hole.
Then removed from car again and mig welded it all together, remove the panel clamp and mig the hole up
Couple of coats of heat proof aluminium paint and then refitted to the car.
I also bought a 50mm joiner to joiner the pipe that you cut after the cat back together (I had to remove about 30 mm of pipe to get the joiner in place) I think the joiner was £8 including the two clamps

The repair has been spot on and the flexi feels like a quality bit of kit, braided inside and out

Cheers,
Paul
 
depronman said:
Steve,
I have to strongly disagree with your mechanic. This is EXACTLY the flexi pipe that I used to replace the flexi on my Silver TDI around June last year. I posted some pictures of the repair on A2OC If you can't find them then drop me a email and I will post them to you
I chose to mig weld the pipe in as against using the clamps provided

The basic steps are cut the pipe about 6" after the CAT
unbolt from the turbo
remove the front pipe/cat
I used and angle grinder and cutting disk to cut off the old flexi pipe
The new flexi needs some trimming, it took about 4 trial fits to the car before I as happy, once I was I drilled a 3mm hole to lock the flexi to the main pipe and used a panel clamp in the 3mm hole.
Then removed from car again and mig welded it all together, remove the panel clamp and mig the hole up
Couple of coats of heat proof aluminium paint and then refitted to the car.
I also bought a 50mm joiner to joiner the pipe that you cut after the cat back together (I had to remove about 30 mm of pipe to get the joiner in place) I think the joiner was £8 including the two clamps

The repair has been spot on and the flexi feels like a quality bit of kit, braided inside and out

Cheers,
Paul
Click to expand...

And I suspect that was EXACTLY the problem - you had to make it fit and the mechanic expected it to be a straight bolt-on with no thought and minimal effort required !
 
AndyP said:
And I suspect that was EXACTLY the problem - you had to make it fit and the mechanic expected it to be a straight bolt-on with no thought and minimal effort required !
Click to expand...
Humm, I think Steve's mechanical is better than that. However, this sound labour intensive and if paying labour may make a very expensive job. Maybe that's why the mechanic shied away.
 
Try Mr Exhaust in Reigate.
They advertise flexible replacements, they do nothing but exhausts and their service is second to none.
I've had a few exhaust jobs done there, attention to detail is fantastic, and they take you to look at what needs doing, then they show you the finished job.
 
Kleynie said:
Humm, I think Steve's mechanical is better than that. However, this sound labour intensive and if paying labour may make a very expensive job. Maybe that's why the mechanic shied away.
Click to expand...
Yes. He will not just take whatever tone it takes and charge me. If it is very labour intensive he will tell it as it is.
Even though he said it won’t fit, he is right. It is sold with clamps and so you get the impression that it is a replacement. So it doesn’t fit. But we all know that anything is possible if you try hard enough. But he didn’t think that £150 of unplanned labour to get it to fit was what I expected. Plus our Daughter wants the car back today and so couldn’t wait for the mods to be done to make it fit.

Steve B
 
..well Steve...probably not your daughters favourite solution but since this flex does not last for ever... there is a risk that you will face the issue again.... on another car :)
When I face 1.4 TDI AMF downpipe or flex-piece problems my solution is:
( since both downpipe flange and nuts on turbo outlet are in an area with limited space I do more than necessary when ''working in that area'' )

1. Cut off the turbo-flange of a downpipe from a 1Z scrapped car (90hpTDI are cheapest as donor in my area) Or make a new one from SS 10MM plate.
2. Cut stud-bolts at the front of the nuts if bolts are corroded. (then you avoid to twist them off when trying to loosen them...)
3. Buy 2-3x 90deg bends AISI304 or even better AISI316 OD60x2mm or 1,5mm, 1x SS Flex OD60mm x 380mm (15'') and a piece of 60x1,5 or 2mm tubing. (5+5+14+8=32£ ish from ebay or aliexpress + a bottle of vine for the friend with the TIG gear :)
4 TIG, MIG or MAG the parts together. i recommend to use 316 as filler. (this is the funny part) Tack-weld from turboside peace-by-piece...
Include or exclude the cat as you like. (or one of each) it is also possible to let the 60mm pipe go straight through the CAT.
My favourite is TIG but that is also slowest method (if speed counts...) It takes 3-6 h depending of solution....

Benefits ?
  • Response improvements is positive with the 2.5'' up-sized downpipe.
  • Turbo outlet flange nuts will be easy to remove ''next time''
  • 3% ish improvement wrt consumption on re-mapped AMF
  • Satisfaction of ''I managed to make it my selves... (not understood by all probably.... though for me; priceless)
;) - dieselfan
 
Thank you to all of the people that have posted information and advice on this. I will definitely give this a try before I resort to a full exhaust.

Thank you all

Steve B
 
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