Exhaust Leak

[DodgeaWrench]

Hello.

My 2014 DJ 3.6 FWD has developed a minor exhaust leak due to a broken/rust out bolt on a flange.  Anyone been through this?  What was done?  Cost?  Thoughts?

See pictures.

(In the world in my head) I'm hoping an exhaust shop can extract the bolts somehow and replace them without having to dismantle either the manifold or pipe.  Hopefully I can get it to a shop next week to have someone take a look and give a price.

Weld on a bolt head and extract, replace both bolts, couple hours labor???  Im guessing an exhaust shop would be more experienced in this area than my usual big box tire service center.

 

The longer story is that for the past month or two I've noticed larger than normal puddles of water under the front of the car, such as when running errands and returning to the car from a store.  I was thinking maybe the AC was working hard and dripping a bit more, or the puddle was there previously.  In hindsight, I now know it was water leaking from the exhaust.  Only this past week did I notice the DJ sounded ever so slightly different when at a drive thru (got to have my morning coffee).  Today I crawled under and confirmed my suspicion of the exhaust sounding slightly different.

Assuming the repair price would be reasonable (bwaaaahahaha when is it ever reasonable), I'm not looking to tackle this one myself.

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

 

[2late4u]

5 hours ago, DodgeaWrench said:

Hello.

My 2014 DJ 3.6 FWD has developed a minor exhaust leak due to a broken/rust out bolt on a flange.  Anyone been through this?  What was done?  Cost?  Thoughts?

See pictures.

(In the world in my head) I'm hoping an exhaust shop can extract the bolts somehow and replace them without having to dismantle either the manifold or pipe.  Hopefully I can get it to a shop next week to have someone take a look and give a price.

Weld on a bolt head and extract, replace both bolts, couple hours labor???  Im guessing an exhaust shop would be more experienced in this area than my usual big box tire service center.

 

The longer story is that for the past month or two I've noticed larger than normal puddles of water under the front of the car, such as when running errands and returning to the car from a store.  I was thinking maybe the AC was working hard and dripping a bit more, or the puddle was there previously.  In hindsight, I now know it was water leaking from the exhaust.  Only this past week did I notice the DJ sounded ever so slightly different when at a drive thru (got to have my morning coffee).  Today I crawled under and confirmed my suspicion of the exhaust sounding slightly different.

Assuming the repair price would be reasonable (bwaaaahahaha when is it ever reasonable), I'm not looking to tackle this one myself.

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

 

YES definitely go to a muffler shop, simple repair they will just cut or use a cutting torch to remove the nut on the other side of the flange and then do their fix and re-bolt  it back together probally with a gasket in between the flange,,shouldn't be to much  

[DodgeaWrench]

The weather was nice yesterday.  I crawled under and did the work myself.

The remaining bolt was extremely rusted down in diameter.  Easily cut out with my trusty Dremel tool.  The backside flange has the nuts welded to it.  For one I was able to remove the piece of bolt in it.  For the other I could not.  It was drilled out and the "nut" ground off the flange.  So, one bolt and one nut and bolt was used for the repair.  This fixed the exhaust leak and all is quite.

 

This connection is where the exhaust manifold from the front cylinders connect to the 'Y' pipe.  Most likely the bolts from the rear cylinders exhaust manifold to the 'Y' pipe will eventually need replacing too.  I'll wait until the dead of winter when its freezing, snowing, and dark, to do those.  LOL.

 

I'll follow up in a week or two to confirm all remained good, with a pic or two.

 

 

[John/Horace]

Nice work. Even if the flanges are rotten, there are split two piece flanges you can use. Walker etc make them. A sawzall can  be used to saw nuts off when flanges are flat design. Exhaust on V6 engines are crappy to work on.

[DodgeaWrench]

To follow up, its been a week and all is good.

Did an oil and filter change yesterday on the DJ, and snapped a few pics of the exhaust work.

 

Enjoy your weekend.

 

 

 

This 'nut' is welded to the flange.

 

Was unable to remove the remaining bolt piece on this one.  Drilled it out, ground down what was left of the welded nut and replaced.  

 

 

 

This is the the other connection, from the rear cylinders to the 'Y' pipe (that I am not dealing with at this time).  Its slightly different than from the front to "Y", and includes some type of gasket between them.

[2late4u]

1 hour ago, DodgeaWrench said:

To follow up, its been a week and all is good.

Did an oil and filter change yesterday on the DJ, and snapped a few pics of the exhaust work.

 

Enjoy your weekend.

 

 

 

This 'nut' is welded to the flange.

 

Was unable to remove the remaining bolt piece on this one.  Drilled it out, ground down what was left of the welded nut and replaced.  

 

 

 

This is the the other connection, from the rear cylinders to the 'Y' pipe (that I am not dealing with at this time).  Its slightly different than from the front to "Y", and includes some type of gasket between them.

that bolt could have been a bit longer, hopefully the rust will bond it on there....LOL

[DodgeaWrench]

Yep.  Agreed.  I figured someone would call me out on that. 

I bought M8-1.25 x 30mm.  Should have got 40 or 50mm.  Maybe next trip.

 

[John/Horace]

Between the flanges looks like a standard flat flange exhaust gasket.

 

https://www.rockauto.com/en/tools/exhaust+&+emission,pipe+flange,pipe+flange+gasket+/+seal,5836