'98 Intrepid donut leak fix?

[Directconnection]

I have a donut leak on the driver's side of my '98 Intrepid that has the 3.2 in it.

How the fawk do you fix this style? I see a big "band" collar that is about 3" diameter and 4" long... but there's no bolts pulling both sides together like on a traditional donut seal (2.2/2.5 and 3.0) I *think* the seal is actually made via tension of the 2 sides being pushed together via hangers preloading? I can't believe that's the answer.... but I don't see any clamps or adjustments other than that as I can literally separate the seal via hand by about 1/8th of an inch.

Any suggestions?

[RoadWarrior222]

crazy glue?

[Directconnection]

crazy glue?

I looked at CRAPA online and see they only sell the cat and pipe assembly.... for $244-300+

Ouch.... I am wondering if this collar is crimped from the factory and meant to "hold" tension w/out adjustability...

[RoadWarrior222]

You can buy split clamp flanges and sprung bolts to put around the pipes. Could run $30 worth of parts though.

---------- Post added at 10:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:38 PM ----------

I guess it could have had something resembling a kind of band clamp that fell off.

[Directconnection]

Hmmmm.... not sure if the "pipe" end of the connection is flanged at all to allow me to do that.... unless I weld something to it. But with my luck, I'd burn through the rusty pipe trying to make it happen....

[RoadWarrior222]

ahah, like these...
http://www.exhaustdirect.ca/SFlanges1.html

[Directconnection]

Hmmm... those might work! But... my donut seal might be fawked from slowly leaking for a year now. It got fairly bad after i was messing around with replacing the rotted muffler 2 feet downstream this past weekend...

But, I was hoping someone had an answer to how this "band collar" thing worked... or if it's crimped from the factory and you're SOL...

[135sohc]

Our Concorde is the same way. I had to drop the d-side converter/pipe section away from the engine (they were smart and used V-bands there atleast) to work on the water pipe assembly thats tucked in behind there and I did disturb that mystery joint your having trouble with. Near as I could tell its like a big ball-n-socket type joint that relies soley upon the front pipe/cat section and the pipe section behind it to press together. Looks like a one shot type deal, if its leaking your supposed to replace it... $$$$$ later

I didnt take it fully apart but I wonder if you could take it apart, clean up as best you can and take a big piece of some putty type epoxy. roll into a 'rope' and layer it inside and smoosh it all back together ? Take two saddle clamps and put on either side, and run some bailing wire back-n-forth to tie it together. I know its very tight and cozy in that area under those cars. not sure if the clamps/wire or anything external would fit though.

[Force Fed Mopar]

There is no donut there, it's just a flared pipe that fits onto the inverted cone of the manifold. Basically the same design as a V8 pipe, except it uses V-band clamps instead long bolts to tighten it. If it's leaking there, either the band has gotten weak and allowed it to come apart slightly and leak, or someone had it off before and didn't get it back on right, or something. How long has it been leaking?

[Directconnection]

There is no donut there, it's just a flared pipe that fits onto the inverted cone of the manifold. Basically the same design as a V8 pipe, except it uses V-band clamps instead long bolts to tighten it. If it's leaking there, either the band has gotten weak and allowed it to come apart slightly and leak, or someone had it off before and didn't get it back on right, or something. How long has it been leaking?

I'm talking after the cat..... there's about a foot of pipe after the cat with this joint, and from what I can see, it sure looks like a donut of sort as I can see a wee bit of it's material that appears to look a lot like the donuts we are used to.

It's been a slight leak for the past year, but this weekend it opened up some after messing with the exhaust some.

[Directconnection]

I got the car up high on a lift so I could actually see WTF is going on. It's not a donut, but a shield around what I think is a flex pipe. So now, I have to see if I can get one in that small of a diameter and replace, or simply go with a solid piece.....

[RoadWarrior222]

Ohhhhh.

You can get spherical joints to weld in instead.

[Directconnection]

Ohhhhh.

You can get spherical joints to weld in instead.

Can you elaborate? Spherical joint like the donut style?

[RoadWarrior222]

yup, like on the bottom of the page here...
http://www.exhaustdirect.ca/Accessories1.html

---------- Post added at 06:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:00 PM ----------

but they also have 4" flex pipe, so would assume that length is also available elsewhere...
http://www.exhaustdirect.ca/FlexNoNeck.html

[Directconnection]

hmmm... some cool products. That flex pipe would work! Too bad I can't get this stuff locally at NAPA, etc.... or can I?

[RoadWarrior222]

Maybe, I was just using that place for the pictures.

[Rampage16V]

this is a flex pipe with a heat shield over it. I welded it up solid a few times all you need is a good mig welder

[Directconnection]

this is a flex pipe with a heat shield over it. I welded it up solid a few times all you need is a good mig welder

You mean you cut out the flex pipe and installed a solid section and welded it in, right? No issues with engine movement at all I hope... I do see that the front of the cat looks like it has a traditional donut setup...

[Aries_Turbo]

advance autoparts carries the flex joints. i about crapped when i went in there and saw that they had a bunch of sizes on the shelf.

autozone used to carry the spherical ones but i havent checked in a while.

Brian

[Directconnection]

Thanx! I'll look into it tomorrow.

[Rampage16V]

No just weld the cover to the pipe leak fixed didn't notice any more vibration in my 300

[Directconnection]

Ah.... but this is totally separated now.... not sure if that fix will work as it might rip the cover off in short order.

I did go to a parts store and found a flex pipe... real ss flex not the aluminum extruded dryer vent type.... I'm going out now to cut off the old one and bolt this into place.

[RoadWarrior222]

Hope it goes smooth.

[Directconnection]

Hope it goes smooth.

Nope it didn't.... with my limited access to tooling, I was able to cut it out with an offset cutting tool and was forced to finish the rest off by hand using a frikkin' hacksaw blade.

Now that it's off, I can see that if I was to borrow my friend's wire flux 110 mig, I might have been able to weld it up like Dean suggested... but not sure as I suck with that welder.

What sux right now is the OD of the car's pipe measured 2.220-ish, so I assumed it was a 2-1/4" OD pipe with a 2-1/8" ID, so the flex pipe I got was a 2" ID which meant the OD is 2-1/8"... but the ID of the stock pipe was actually 2.060 (didn't know until I cut it off) So now, tomorrow morning I have to have the GF drive me to my shop and get some 2-1/4" ID pipe and weld it to each end of the flex pipe (after cutting off the ends) so I can then bring it back home and bolt it on with clamps. Yay.

I also noticed the damn oil pressure sensor is leaking badly externally. I just replaced it 1-1/2 years ago.... thought it should have lasted longer than that. And those things suck to get to with 2 wrenches as the oil filter, trans lines, etc... are right in the way. Someday I'll have a car lift...


BTW: that "cab forward" shat sux..... it makes it nearly impossible to do routine/basic work and makes turbo mopars seriously a piece of cake and nice and spacious. (did the heads on my '96 3.5 years back...) Have to remove the complete airbox, passenger wheel, etc.... just to replace the battery, for example. Cab forward does nothing but make the dash bigger, it seems. It should have been called: "Firewall Forward"

[RoadWarrior222]

I practically always do exhaust work with a regular hacksaw, just go buy a nice clean fresh blade first though, put it in the frame upside down over the pipe and I'm through it in less time than it takes to untangle the extension cord to use a sawzall (Which half the time just rattles it all over the place instead of cutting and it's hard to hold still)

yeah, I had an oil sensor leak after not very long ago replacement, I THINK the nasty one was a "standard" brand part, I just put a "Wells" brand part on that had substantially different construction than all the ones I've taken off lately (Done 3 or 4 on various family cars in last few years) so I'm crossing my fingers on that.

[Aries_Turbo]

autozone carries wells around here

ive done those sensors on neons. not bad but still a pain.

[Directconnection]

No room for a typical hacksaw.... when I said I used a hacksaw blade to finish it off, I really meant I used JUST the blade by itself... hehehe

[Force Fed Mopar]

That sensor isn't too bad to do w/ the right socket and extension.

And for something real strange, did you know that those sending units can send a faulty reading due to the connector being too airtight? Chrysler actually made a "vent wire" kit to fix this :)

[Directconnection]

That sensor isn't too bad to do w/ the right socket and extension.

And for something real strange, did you know that those sending units can send a faulty reading due to the connector being too airtight? Chrysler actually made a "vent wire" kit to fix this :)

No, I didn't know that....

I struggled today with the sensor using box end wrenches as that's how I got the original oem one off 2 years ago.... but this time there wasn't enough swing/leverage to do so, so I went to Sears and got a 1-1/16 deep socket to get the job done. Piece of cake with the right tool...

Modified the flex pipe this morning, welded on new ends at the shop, and slipped it on and bolted it snug. No leaks.... but now the other side has cracked and leaks a tad, so I'll take Stillie's advice and weld it up. The passenger one is real easy to get to, so should not be an issue even if I decide to replace it totally.

[RoadWarrior222]

And for something real strange, did you know that those sending units can send a faulty reading due to the connector being too airtight? Chrysler actually made a "vent wire" kit to fix this :)

Are you sure you're not thinking of the O2 sensor?

[Force Fed Mopar]

Are you sure you're not thinking of the O2 sensor?

Positive, I just fought this issue like 2 weeks ago on a friend's '04 Intrepid w/ a 3.5. The oil light would flicker below 1600 rpm when it was hot, but the engine obviously had good oil pressure as it didn't tick or knock, ran perfectly quiet. We changed oil to 10w40, new filter, cleaned the connector out completely of oil w/ brake cleaner and air (as this is another thing that will give a faulty reading), new sensor, still did it. Did a search on the net about it and discovered that it is a common problem and Chrysler had a TSB about it w/ a 18-dollar "vent wire" kit to fix it. It is a one-wire plug but there is 2 terminal slots, one just has a sealing pin in it. W/ the kit, you pull the pin out, slide the terminal end of the wire in till it locks in, then tap the end of the wire to the harness (it's about 12" long I think), it does not connect to anything. This apparently let air pressure out of the connection w/o allowing the elements in. I just pulled the pin out this one as they are selling the car, no more oil light flicker.

[Directconnection]

I did as did suggested and welded up the other flex pipe. This one was an easy fix, minus my flux core "grape" style welds.... but the other was leaking out the opposite side in which it doesn't look like it's meant to be sealed up totally as it flexes there, whereas that other one broke right around the weld 360degrees.