I don't think this is normal. Anyone got an idea of what happened here?




The old one is on the top in the first pic. It is an XTC (Cobalt Addiction) 3" catless DP, I bought it in thier group buy over a year ago, I think May/June of '06. It started leaking a little about 3-4 months ago, and has been getting worse ever since. It actually was able to set the insulation behind it on fire when the car was on the dyno two weeks ago.

On a side note, the car is much quieter now with a ZZP 2.5" DP with a cat, but there is a very noticable decrease in top end pull. I will be fixing the old one and putting it back in soon, along with a few little improvements and one secret trick that I've been dying to try.

 

Heat.

 

I had a XTC 2.5" w/ Cat. The Cat disintegrated and it basically became a straight pipe. And then it started leaking like crazy. I am now rocking a stocker again. Big waste of money for me.

 

yea it looks like the metal got melted and it got so brittle the exhaust blew it out.. IMO

 

It is VERY common for the cheaper flex joints to not last too long , the OEM flex joint does the same thing . The heat just degrades them . My ZZP pipe had 40K miles on it , and showed no sign of degredation in the flex joint when I sold it .

 

^ i just got the zpp header and dp. cant to install it. i heard they make some good dp's. maybe you should pick one up. a 3" one cause you said you were losing pull at higher speeds.

 

I am using a ZZP one right now. I'm going to replace the flex with a better quality one and do a few other mods to the DP and throw it back in the car. Right now, I'm still getting used to the car being so quiet again. I catch myself driving faster because its so quiet compared to what it used to be, especially with the leak.

Thats what worries me, the stainless steel was melting?? That can't be a good thing.

 

**** I"ve had the c/a dp on my car since well they started making em (I got the 1st lol) never had an issue with em. They even made the new one for the turbo. No problems

 

Wish I could say the same. As far as i'm concerned, nothing good has ever come out of that place. I've seen far too many problems with simple things like this to trust them. I know you have a lot of parts made by them, and I'm sure they work for you, but your one positive story, which is a lot of custom stuff anyway, doesn't reflect in the crappy quality of thier mass production pieces.

 

whew! airing um out joe, expect a warning and a locked thread soon

err, deleted thread accually

 

ZZP 3" is awesome with a highflow cat. I love mine.

 

lol thanx joe now i know where not to go..lol

 

I didn't come in to bash the vendor, I am just showing what happened. It did last for over a year, its not like it went bad in 3 months or anything like that. I just don't have a great opinion of thier products, I questiond them when I bought it and got kind of a nasty reply, so I just choose not to deal with them personally. I know many people have dealt sucessfully with them, I just happen to not be one of those people.

 

The bellows joint ( flex section )did not have enougn range of movement to acomadate engine movement causing part of it to stretch out and fail. When it is instaled it needs to be in a nuetural position with no preload bend or axial in any direction.

Pierre


No melting there just a fatigue failure.

Pierre

 

ZZP all the way! The quallity is great for a great price!

 

extreme exhaust gas temperatures.

 

Whats the melting point of stainless anyway?

 

the reason they put that in there where they do is because when u shift ur car hard ur motor moves and when ur motor moves so does ur exhaust i work with flex everyday at work and we put heat in them to about 300 d. the heat didnt do that the motor moving back and forth did that trust me thats some tuff stuff

 

2500-2800 F depending on the grade.

Pierre

 

I had an INTENSE DP on my car for about 2 months and it did the same thing and the flange actually broke off from the pipe leaving me without a car for about a week. I had to order a new 3" catless one from ZZP because INTENSE also no longer makes their header or DP's for the Cobalts. I had a local exhaust shop check it out and they told me it was definately a cheap flex joint.

 

The cat is bad on the used one u sold me late last year and I only put it in on febuary of this year

 

better keep an eye on mine...

 

I'm suprised though, I have all polyurethane mounts in the car as well, motor movement is minimal.

 

no problems at all with hahn

 

I doubt the cat is bad, the problem with high flow cats is the sensitivity of our emissions system. They will through the p0420 code because of that