Exhaust hanger failure?
 

I dropped my exhaust coming through the Watkins Glen Bus stop. Three aftermarket PU hangers of unknown provenance had gotten hot, stretched, cracked, then failed completely. Thereafter the two remaining (autozone) hangers failed. Mechanics wire got me through the rest of the event, and the drive home.

Trying to decide whether OEM hangers will be enough or if I should take this opportunity to reinforce. Anyone else have issues to report or recommendations?

Thanks.

Maybe try an aftermarket one from a big name? The Cusco 12mm ones fit really nice and snug on my Greddy catback. MUCH tighter than the oem ones.

I use the Subaru JDM hangers which I got from Blackhawkjapan

https://i.postimg.cc/L89v1fLx/D40-DF...3-E1712-A8.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/KvrJjQkK/DB7913...76-E522382.jpg

Haven't heard much about the Perrin hangers but they're also available

Stay away from the urethane hangers, they get hot and fail. I had this happen on my track Miata and it caused my header to crack as the entire weight of the exhaust was hanging on the header. That drive home SUCKED! It was basically an open header and I had to drive from Sebring home to Ft. Lauderdale (2.5 hours). I had to stop and get ear plugs.

https://forum.miata.net/vb/attachmen...2&d=1276517856

I haven't heard of this. So weird. Is all the tension on one hanger even though the others are all engaged? That could do it.


...or yeah, urethane

My problem with the Greddy catback on the stock hangers was that the little bumps at the ends of the hanger rods were way too small to not slip through the OEM hangers in turns. I ended up putting some hose clamps on the rod ends until the Cusco mounts came in.

https://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72867

Never happened to me, but I hope it won't.

I'm still on factory exhaust hangers at 56k miles and buncha track days.

Weren't your hangers a somewhat misaligned with the exhaust? That could be the root cause...

I think at some point, possibly between 2013 and 2015, relative positions of hangers may have changed a bit so possibly related to 2015 engine swap? Guessing here...

You should post up pics of drive axle boot repair if you have em!

Great that we both made the TT and drive home despite "issues" :D

Yeah I saw that post too. The E-clips aren't a terrible idea, but my problem wasn't the hangers falling off; they actually tore.

Thanks.

Yeah, a little more excitement than I'd like. For the confused readers out there, what I didn't mention in the original post was that the exhaust ripped a hole in the CV boot on it's way down/drag back to the pits. Turns out I have spare axels from the rebuild so that shouldn't be an expensive fix.

I do need a section of exhaust pipe welded in to replace the flat-spotted part and I figure that can just be made a little longer to fix the hanger alignment. Collecting quotes...

It was the polyurethane ones that failed first.

Those look beefy. I'm intrigued...

they feel just as beefy as the stock ones, but the thing in the middle does a good job of absorbing vibrations and reducing drone being telegraphed to the cabin. Noticeable difference. I replaced all 5

I'll be doing a full boot replacement and repack video next week.

Oh no, this was a fairly sketchy "just get the car back out there" kind of repair. It did what it needed to--I finished the time trial and made it ~400 miles home--but it's not what I'd call a long-term solution. As I've got spare axels, rather than replace the boot I'll just replace the axel.

Can replace boots and repack the grease multiple times as long as the CVJ & DOJ are fine...and a lot cheaper than buying axles.

Fair enough. But the spares I have are from my rebuild (I have the whole rear subframe of the "bent" car, minus the diff), so these are essentially 'free'. The new boot would be ~$30, plus grease, plus the time to repack once I've already got the axle off. I'm still interested to watch your video on how to do it incase I ever have to, but I imagine the first and last several steps are basically "take the axle out" and "put the axle back in" I figure _this time_ I'll leave out the middle bit.

Thanks,

Don't recall where I saw it (may have even been Opie) but somebody was having trouble with their axles and found the oem grease had basically turned to water in the spares he had. It may be worth it to re pack your replacement ones anyway as a precaution.

Alright I'll check it out. @Opie, where's the video?!

Estimate to replace a section of exhaust pipe is $250. Ordered those beefier JDM hangers (plus spares) that @StraightOuttaCanadaEh mentioned. Fingers crossed the grease in my old axles is still greasy, and if so I should come out of this without too much hassle. Thanks all for the input.

EDIT: flattened pipe, torn boot, and sketchy repair that got me home.

10/10 git er home

Got 'er done. Made the last event of the year at nhms. Slew dragons. Great way to end the year.

Thanks all. Now for offseason planning...

I will add a datapoint. Been running oem hangers only. 2 of the original ones torn after like 50 days, so replaced all with new ones, it's been 50 plus days, they look fine still. As for the Glen, something always breaks whenever I go there... regardless of car...lol.

Haven't heard much about the Perrin hangers but they're also available[/QUOTE]

Sorry to see this so late!

Avoid the Perrin ones at all costs. They are crap and they cut loose on me between turns 15 an 16 at OR Raceway Park CCW.

For those that don't know, ORP is in the middle of nowhere. Hose clamps got me through the next two track days of that three day event.

OEM style rubber ones have worked well for me ever since.

Sometimes it seems that half of the aftermarket parts are worse than the originals.

That's because they are. Caveat emptor, my friends.

Almost always. OEM parts have tons more experience, development, and testing behind them, and then millions of "beta test" miles by customers in the real world. I never replace OEM parts with custom aftermarket unless I really need to.

well yeah, precision of material 'dosing' and molding doesn't come cheap. the oem stuff isn't just expensive so they can rake in money.

there are no markets in the world where one can purchase the same product at a reduced rate from a different supplier without some corner being cut. if someone can make the same thing for cheaper without cutting corners, they're already the supplier...