How would you handle this?
 

I got my 2010 Cayenne a little over 2 years ago. A common problem with these is the flex pipes connecting the cats rust out. One went bad soon after so I took it to a local custom exhaust shop and had them do both. I remember asking them if I could get the cats first and shoot them with high temp (1800ºF) Cerakote. They said not necessary, they are stainless steel. (of course only the mesh is)

2 years and 2 months later, both are gone. Very mild winters with no snow so no salt on the roads.

I'm bringing it back this Thursday to have them replace both again. I sent them pics and we talked about will this cost me anything. They were nice about it but non-committal which I understand.

Cost was $500+ each for the flex pipes and $450 to weld them in.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1690635175.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1690634997.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1690634997.jpg

You paid them enough to replace those for ten lifetimes. They are 30 bucks at autozone and shops get a discount!

That’s absurd.

You can buy stainless steel marine exhaust flexes for way less that that and the nice thing is that they come with a heavy wall pipe end on either side already welded in.

Here are some in my dad’s accumulation of stuff from back when we were commercial fishing. These have been sitting outside for ~30 years.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1690636006.jpg

This is not the supplier dad used to get it from but you get the idea…

https://www.sbmar.com/product/marine-dry-exhaust-flexible-wrinklebelly/

I hate to jump to conclusions but the word fraud seems accurate here.

If I buy stainless, I’m thinking 304 or similar - which would NOT look like the rusty crap you have.

Unless I am missing something, I would politely return. Tell them that they made an error two years ago. And please replace with the correct stainless. And, let you Cerakote the cats as requested. Also casually drop that you are an internationally recognized Porsche restoration business and understand how this error could happen easily.

Good luck.

Doesn't look stainless to me. Especially from porsche.

But you also have a lot of corrosion on that drive shaft and hardware.

You were a commercial fisherman too?

He is an international man of mystery

Wait one, that is supposed to be SS?

Sounds high to me.

I’m amazed what the underside of cars look like from the north east.

A) That's some hideous rust. My Minnesota cars don't look that bad and they are a 2007 Toyota Rav4 and a 2001 Honda Odyssey!

B) As others have pointed out, that's not stainless. :(

It spent all of it's life in Canada as a Canadian vehicle, came to the U.S. 3 years ago. Dial speedo is in kmh, digital in mph at least. Someday I'll put a U.S. Turbo gauge cluster in it, apparently pretty easy and they are beautiful.

Thanks, I'm going to send them the link on Monday.

On the cost, my total cost was the same or less than many I found on Rennlist. My expectation was anywhere north of 5 years for these to last and really 10.

My 2007 BMW's exhaust is well over 10 years old and car was driven in New England winters and is fine.

All good advice, thanks. The owner of the shop is a 996 guy and enjoyed talking with him before and after the work done.

Receipt states stainless steel. I'd ask for and expect a free replacement.

I'm not usually like that, however you did your due-diligence and have it on the receipt.

If that's stainless, it's the cheapest 400 series stainless available...like a barbecue burner.

Sheesh. I have plans to move back to New England in a couple years, and posts like yours give me agita. Living in SoCal, I--my parents, my friends, my acquaintances--have never had to replace exhaust components due to rust. But in New England (when I lived there before), every couple years I had to do so. Best of luck with a favorable resolution to this headache.

I love the rubber Fernco fitting

The pics indicate there is enough OEM material to weld to.
And that the replacement went bad.
And it could be a potentially hazardous situation.
And you specifically requested anti-rust measures at time of purchase.

The 996 I bought and have since sold after roughly 5 years of ownership came originally from Chicago. Never again. The exhaust components and some other engine hardware were badly rusted. Changing out the coil packs and fitting new cats and mufflers was a huge pain. Even some of the rear brake hard lines were rusted.

Yup. From 88 - 97 or so, my family had a commercial salmon and shrimp fishing boat. I ran it for a couple years in the summers after high school and into university. At the time I was the youngest skipper on the BC west coast. My dad had a back injury and couldn’t handle the constant movement of the boat so I got promoted pretty young.

I think I was fortunate to have got in in the last few good years of the industry before the Canadian Federal Government screwed it up. We eventually sold our salmon license back to the Federal Government in a license buy back program. We shrimped for a couple more years until the price fell on that and I started to work as an engineering intern. To put ‘good years’ into perspective, in the summer between Grade 11 and Grade 12, working as a deckhand I made enough money that summer to buy a 8 year old Corvette for cash.

Lots of memories, lots of interesting times, I posted recently about the time I nearly lost the boat 5 miles off Tofino on July 1, 1995…

Brought the truck to the shop this morning, we talked about the pipes and options.

$325 later they cut the secondary cats and flex pipes out and fabricated 304 cat bypass pipes like Fabspeed and others offer.

Much throatier exhaust sound with the pedal down. No noticeable acceleration increase.

I'm happy.

Will take some pics when I can get under it.

I use stainless pool ladder tubing for exhausts it works great and usually free.