My 01 Tiburon has a big exhaust leak on the flex pipe (pipe that connects the exhaust manifold/cat to the rest of the exhaust. It's right by the oil pan, about a 2ft long section of pipe. It's not the gaskets, I checked those, it's the actual wire mesh/flex section. Is this normal? It's super embarassing when I hit the gas and get a massive air spurting sound from underneath the car. Do these pipes leak a lot? Should I replace it with a solid pipe without that wire mesh stuff?



What do people do to fix it, just replace the whole pipe with a new oem part? I also need to keep the car california smog compliant, so no aftermarket exhaust parts if possible.



I also saw that my exhaust manifold is cracked between the far right and center right runners. But it doesn't seem to be leaking from there...that sucks.

 

just replace the manifold and flex pipe



bet the manifold is leaking more than the flex pipe though, and dont just remove the flexpipe, it has to be there or the vibrations of the motor will cause it to crack some more

 

Yeah, I've had flex pipes go before. sh*t sucks man, most exhaust boos can be fixed with header goo but not this one. I'd probably just get a local exhaust shop to replace it with a generic piece instead of selling kidneys for an OEM flex pipe.

 

Generic flex pipe welded in place should run you around $100 installed at a shop. It sucks, but I've probably done it on my Tib 5 times (ten years of ownership), but my car is lowered so I scrape mine to death. The car will run much quieter once its done.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'll just go for a generic direct fit replacement. You can get them on rockauto for $70 or so. Hopefully this fixes it...if not I'll replace the manifold next. Thanks guys!



I still don't understand how the flex pipe could not leak to begin with. That stainless mesh seems like it would leak all the time, even brand new. Never had a flex pipe on any of my cars before.

 

the stainless mesh is just to limit travel, there is like a thin metal accordin style pipe inside!

 

For the manifold https://www.hyundaiaftermarket.org/f...gn/page__p__57

 

Yeah I saw that, but I thought it would only be replaced if the car still had warranty on it? Mine is 11 years old and 138k miles, so definitely no warranty left. Is it still worth a shot to call the dealer service department? That would be nice to get a new manifold and cat at the same time!

 

some people have had it replaced out of warranty the local dealer told me 8 years just give them a call and see what they tell you

 

So I got my new front/flex pipe put in and thank goodness no more exhaust leak! What worried me was when I took the flex pipe off there was ALOT of broken up metallic/honocomb looking material in the flex pipe and in the cat that's behind the flex pipe. This is probably how the flex pipe cracked a leak to begin with. I pulled the cat off too and dumped it all out and blew it out with compressed air. The forward and back screens were still in place on the cat, so I'm assuming the cat is still good; would still pass smog?



What was all the broken material from? There was so much that the flex pipe was nearly totally blocked...I imagine my backpressure was out the roof!