Exhaust wrap

[rdefabri]

Back in my motorcycle days, companies used to hawk exhaust wrap for heat dissipation and other supposed benefits (I thought it looked cool, but didn't think much of it otherwise).

I now have a Lexus GS400 that is due for NJ inspection, and I must have an exhaust leak because the car rumbles much louder than normal. I had a similar issue with the car 2-3 years ago and had a muffler shop weld a piece in.

I'm wondering now if the exhaust wrap could mask the leak enough to pass inspection without having to get a new piece welded in. Anyone have experience using this stuff?

http://www.designengineering.com/cat...-lr-technology

[sindo308qv]

I did the same thing with an epoxy, you just spread on over the hole, let dry and it'll hold up a few months.

[DanS*]

If you can get at the leaky spot, I think you can make that work.
If you place a light piece of sheet metal around the leak and then wrap the whole thing it will (at least temporarily) fix the issue. The reason for the sheet metal is that the heat wrap cloth is porous.

[rdefabri]

So I went with the exhaust putty - I put the putty in the open seam, used a putty knife much like spackling a hole in the wall. Then I used some light screen with more putty and formed it around the entire pipe seam.

Lastly, I used aluminum exhaust repair tape to wrap the entire repair. Voila! Works like a charm!

So for about $8.00 I fixed it long enough to get the car inspected. I nearly spent $500 to have it fixed at a local Midas. If I had Lexus repair it, forget about it - it would have been over $1,000.

Somewhere McGyver is smilin'

[FTA]

That aluminum exhaust repair tape is great stuff. The kind I bought (at Lowe's) is very sticky. I used it to repair my central air in my house recently. I noticed a huge puddle of water under my air handler two weeks ago and upon inspection found that my condenser coils were very dirty/clogged (due to poor air filter maint. history by prior owners [i just moved here recently]). The condensate tray under the coils is plastic. This is great because it won't rust. This is not so great because if your coils get really dirty/clogged, frost can form on them (since the cold air is not getting wicked away by air flow). The extreme cold can cause the plastic to get brittle. This can also cause it to crack, which in turn will cause the condensate to leak out. I turned off the unit and used several towels to absorb water from (and clean) the tray. Let it dry overnight. Next day I used purple primer (for PVC pipes) to soften/prime the plastic around the crack. Let that dry like a half hour, then used a litle PVC cement, let that dry, then three pieces of alum tape, each one bigger than the last. The first was just barely big enough to cover the crack, the next bigger than that, etc. Its been two weeks and no leaks! I probably didn't even need to prime it -- that tape is so sticky.

Hope your repair holds up for you as well.

[don_xvi]

Originally Posted by rdefabri

Somewhere McGyver is smilin'

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