09-06-2009, 02:55 AM
I've posted about this car before.
It's a 1987 Toyota Camry that my grandfather passed down to me before he died. It's really old, but it only has 150,000 kilometers on it and runs like a champ. I have a new car, but the wife uses that one for work and I use the old Camry to drive the ~5km trip to work each day. Clearly the Camry is not worth a whole lot of money at this point, so I don't want to invest large sums of dollars on keeping it on the road.
A few days ago, my exhaust snapped. Most of the exhaust was replaced a few years ago, but not all of it. The part that broke is called the flex pipe, and connects the engine to the rest of the exhaust.
Hey look a pretty picture!
![[Image: exhaustr.jpg]](http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/8295/exhaustr.jpg)
The pipe sheared off right at the flange due to rust, but the rest of it looks to be in okay shape. The problem is that the rear section of the exhaust is supported by a hangar forward of the break, so if I attempted to drive it the rear pipe would dig into the road and either shoot out the back of my car and kill whoever was driving behind me at the time, or it would pole vault my car onto the hood and kill whoever was driving it at the time (me!). Option 1 is expensive, but option 2 is less appealing.
I priced a new pipe, and it will cost me about $250. That does not include the labour to install it, and I don't have the necessary tools or know-how to install it myself. If I had a repair shop fix it with a new pipe, it would cost me more than the car is worth, so I won't go that route.
I found a product at a hardware store called Muffler Tape. It's basically some heat resistant material that you dip in a heat resistant epoxy and you can use it to patch up breaks in exhausts. It's really cheap. I'm hoping that a liberal use of this stuff might get me another 6 months or a year for this car. Does anyone have any experience with this stuff?
The other option as I see it is to call up a custom exhaust shop and have them weld the thing back together. I am not a welder, so I have no idea if it is at all possible. The area has some rusted out pipe, but it's not more than 1/2" from the break at the most. The rest of the exhaust is fairly rust-free. I just don't know what the wonders of modern welding science can do these days.
Here is another picture of my old car. Help me save this car!
![[Image: dsc00005ni7.jpg]](http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/6029/dsc00005ni7.jpg)
It's a 1987 Toyota Camry that my grandfather passed down to me before he died. It's really old, but it only has 150,000 kilometers on it and runs like a champ. I have a new car, but the wife uses that one for work and I use the old Camry to drive the ~5km trip to work each day. Clearly the Camry is not worth a whole lot of money at this point, so I don't want to invest large sums of dollars on keeping it on the road.
A few days ago, my exhaust snapped. Most of the exhaust was replaced a few years ago, but not all of it. The part that broke is called the flex pipe, and connects the engine to the rest of the exhaust.
Hey look a pretty picture!
The pipe sheared off right at the flange due to rust, but the rest of it looks to be in okay shape. The problem is that the rear section of the exhaust is supported by a hangar forward of the break, so if I attempted to drive it the rear pipe would dig into the road and either shoot out the back of my car and kill whoever was driving behind me at the time, or it would pole vault my car onto the hood and kill whoever was driving it at the time (me!). Option 1 is expensive, but option 2 is less appealing.
I priced a new pipe, and it will cost me about $250. That does not include the labour to install it, and I don't have the necessary tools or know-how to install it myself. If I had a repair shop fix it with a new pipe, it would cost me more than the car is worth, so I won't go that route.
I found a product at a hardware store called Muffler Tape. It's basically some heat resistant material that you dip in a heat resistant epoxy and you can use it to patch up breaks in exhausts. It's really cheap. I'm hoping that a liberal use of this stuff might get me another 6 months or a year for this car. Does anyone have any experience with this stuff?
The other option as I see it is to call up a custom exhaust shop and have them weld the thing back together. I am not a welder, so I have no idea if it is at all possible. The area has some rusted out pipe, but it's not more than 1/2" from the break at the most. The rest of the exhaust is fairly rust-free. I just don't know what the wonders of modern welding science can do these days.
Here is another picture of my old car. Help me save this car!