How to fix broken exhaust pipe?

Question

I was driving down the highway and I heard a bang, a beep, and then constant scraping. I pulled to the side of a road under a bridge and looked under my car, to see this:

From what I can understand, the exhaust pipe snapped right at the location circled in this diagram:

For now I am running a cable around the pipe and into the interior of my car to suspend the pipe in the air, but this is obviously a temporary fix.

Is this something that can be fixed with a simple welding job? I don't have the money for a brand new exhaust system.

Answer 1

That exhaust looks well beyond the point of welding, even internally sleeving it would leave nothing around the outside to weld to.. I mean you could try gas welding it but to be honest I can't see any weld job lasting more then a day or so, theres just not enough good material left unfortunately... Especially towards that box section in the picture.

Answer 2

It is always possible to repair something like this no matter how bad it is, it is just a matter of whether the work needed is worth the cost. If you need to pay someone to do the welding for you, then you will be wasting money on an exhaust that will probably fail somewhere else soon. If you have a friend who can do the welding they should be able to wrap some steel around the area to rejoin the pipes as a temporary fix.

Answer 3

If you are in a country where cars get mandatory safety inspections, don't even think about it - any "non-standard-looking" repair will only attract the attention of the inspector, not just to the exhaust but to everything else on the car that might have been "repaired" to the same standard.

Just get the failed section(s) of the exhaust system replaced with new parts. Judging from the photo, you might be better off in the long run replacing more than just the failed section of the complete system, if another failure looks imminent.

Answer 4

It looks like the exhaust split at the flange right behind the catalytic converter - if my eyeballs are correct this can be an expensive fix (300-500 just for the part in my area), as the rot seems to be on the flange of the converter. Not something you can get away with yourself if you are in an emission controlled area.

Answer 5

I agree that this appears too rusted for welding. I will share what I have done when I needed just a little more service from an exhaust similarly broken. -ground the rust off, at least as much as was possible. -if the resultant surface was heavily pitted, used wire brush to preserve remaining steel -used a sleeve, if both sections were the same diameter -cut a piece of angle iron to "splint" the break -brazed the assembly together

The braze is not as strong as mild steel, but it will adhere to materials used in exhaust systems, and does not need the amount of material that would be required to weld. The angle iron adds strength and provides a large surface area to tie into.