Exhaust Leak Question

[GIMME SNOW]

So here is my question. Last winter on my dads 03' RX-1 he had a pretty load exhaust leak. Since it was mid-season he took it to the dealer and they replaced the exhaust gaskets and a manifold pipe. Well after running the sled for about 500 miles, there was another exhaust leak. That was right at the end of the season and I'm now going to try to locate the problem myself instead of taking it in.

So does anyone have any ideas????? The rest of the manifold pipes look in good shape...... I'm wondering if the dealer didn't change the manifold gasket???? Should I change all the exhaust gaskets again??

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[2008FxNytro]

can you run the sled with the exhaust in tact and feel where the leak is coming from?

 

[bull]

Sound like the exhaust donut

 

[bull]

Sound like the exhaust donut

 

[Vectornut]

Block off the duel exhaust with rags or something like that. If the engine continues to run, you have an exhaust leak.

 

[Groomerdriver]

I'd bet on exhaust donuts again. The dealer dinged one when it was installed. Those things are pretty fragile IMO.

 

[LJ 452]

Donuts, Y-Pipe, or Flex/Header pipes. There is a 99.0% chance that is were you issues are. Just because the dealer replace some parts on it doesn't mean it won't need more the next year. I have had to replace exhaust components every year on both my 4 strokes. The problem is that they will only be authorized to repair what has failed, not what is surely going to fail after 500 miles. So its possible that another failure point has reared it's ugly head.

 

[Picksoo]

Check where the two pipes join together and then separate to the muffler. This is a weak spot . I had to have both joint rewelded on my 04 Wrrior

 

[GIMME SNOW]

Thanks everyone.... So here is what I did, I wanted to take everything apart and temp rig the gas tank so i could run the sled.... but when I got that far I figured I'd just remove the flex pipes and check everything. So right when I removed the first flex pipe, there it was...Cracked right on a seam of the flex pipe. (I checked them with a mirror first, good thing I decided to remove them.) Anyways I'm going to now replace all the flex pipes, manifold gasket, and donuts.

 

[LJ 452]

Don't stop there, keep checking the whole system. I had several failure points on year. But that certainly is a good start and hopefully the end of the leaks. I always tell people on here to remove the flex joints, just for this reason. If you don't get a good inspection of them it's easy to miss a crack. You need to remove and flex them while rotating and inpect a light or light the interior or the pipe.