Tweeksr20

Alright i have a leaky flex pipe and a shop quoted me a $160 parts and labor to fix it...but I was wondering how bad it would be to run that car without that flex pipe and just a the shop weld in a piece of pipe in its place? How hard would this be on the car??? If at all
Thanks guys I would like to get this fixed before I go to my first auto X this Saturday, so any info as soon as possible would be great thanks.

robchaos19

unless you have 4 solid motor mounts, I would not recommend running no form of flex pipe.

Just go buy an SSAC or pacesetter header off ebay

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swiss

It really depends. Keep in mind the main purpose of the flexpipe- to absorb movement in the drivetrain and exhaust.

Let's say you have prothane mounts and stiff exhaust hangers, you might never run into an issue because there would be little movement in the first place.

On the other hand, let's say you have stock mounts and worn suspension hangers, eventually something is going to fail, likely a flange weld somewhere on the header or exhaust. You wouldn't do any serious damage, but you'd break something eventually.

If you're autocrossing, you're obviously driving the car hard. Suck it up and fix the flexpipe. $160 seems pretty high though. Screw that place! Here's a 2.5" flex for under $30 shipped:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-5-x...spagenameZWDVW

A good exhaust shop shouldn't charge more than $40 or $50 bucks to weld that in place (the shop I go to would probably charge me $25).