Over the past few days I've learned a lot about exhaust manifolds. I've learned what they're for, and I've also learned that the Honda Civics manufactured in the late 1990s had design problems that caused many of the manifolds to crack. Honda even replaced a lot of them free if they cracked during the first 100,000 miles or so. Unfortunately, our car has passed the magic milestone for free repairs, so we had to ask around for a price quote. No matter who you speak to, it's expensive because the cracked part come attached to a really expensive part -- the catalytic converter -- so you have to replace the whole works. The repair costs about $1000 if you use new parts and about $500 if you use salvaged parts. Either way, it's an expensive proposition for a car worth less than $5000.
...unless you know somebody who knows how to weld.
I had a friend from church help me replace the brakes on the car tonight, and when he found out about the cracked exhaust manifold he was chomping at the bit to try welding it. I'd heard
stories about other Honda Civics where they'd tried welding and it had worked for several years, so it seemed worth a try.
We'll find out tomorrow if the car passes the emissions tests. If so, this was a very valuable weld.
4 comments:
NICE! You better buy that guy dinner if it passes. :)
I had a friend come over once with a an exhaust that was very loud and was rattling like crazy. Turns out several of the exhaust mounts had actually broken and the whole thing was flopping around under there. That's not to mention several holes in the pipes where the breaks were... and other spots that were just rusted open. We broke out the welder and went crazy. We welded up and down on that thing for an hour... even added a chunk of metal to plug a big hole in one spot... it looked like such a mess. But no more rattling and it actually sounded like a normal car afterwards. Never heard how long it all lasted... but he was a very happy camper when he drove off. :)
Well, it passed the emissions test this morning, so it looks like the weld did the trick.
That means that we got the car up to spec for a total of $200 (brakes, tires and welding), instead of the quoted price of $2000. What a great day.
Odd, but all this welding talk has me thinking that I need to get on that ship and learn me some welding.
You did very well. We had to fix the catalytic converter on our van and our price this last week was $650.00 Same thing happens with these vans as with your honda civic. He does a van once a month that has been bought within the same time frame of ours. The good news is that the rest of the car is doing well. helen
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