Fatigue Failure JDL FP/OP Combo. Anyone else?
 

For the record, I have an email out to JDL as of this morning and they haven't had a chance to respond. Not in any way is this post a reflection against them.

With that being said - this past weekend at Mid-Ohio after I loaded my car on the trailer, I noticed an exhaust-leak sound coming from mid-body of the car.

Of course, after I got home, car cooled down upon start-up the exhaust definitely was leaking. Took a look and this is what I found:

At first I thought it was a curb hit or something, but based on the cracking and the extent of the cracking this isn't a 1 time thing, so it seems. The exhaust has had some time on the car. Since 2017 it's seen about 30k miles of various DDing, AutoX and Track Events

Anyone else have any issues with exhaust failing in similar fashion/form?

Pretty sure Jesse offers a lifetime warranty on his stuff anyway.
I don't have the exhaust connected to the transmission because I was curious if this would happen. Probably a fluke, you're covered in either case.

What motor mounts? Any flex section in the exhaust?

Damn... the pipe went down before the welds.

STi Motor Mounts, stock transmission mount.

The rear exhaust session is a 2.5” Perrin, after the bolted flange connection there is a flex gasket right there


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Seems like more of an issue with the metalurgy, maybe just a bad batch

Pretty sure @Tokay444 does metalurgy stuff

I figured that's what you had.

Just making sure!

The cat in my JDL ultra quiet front pipe exploded a couple years back before a Tour. I figure it's just the cost of doing business.

I am not a big fan of welding a bracket like that perpendicular to the direction of force. Especially one that small. It just increases the chance of a fatigue failure like what you see here and the crack continues to propagate. Even with a flat bracket, you can bend it and weld it along the same direction of force to give it more area to take the stress.

Kind of like this even though this is a round hanger. Or if you are going to do it like that anyway something larger to at least give it a chance. That is a pretty small bracket.

https://images34.fotki.com/v329/phot...tubes97-vi.jpg

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...t-jpg.4280452/

Had a similar failure a few months ago though this was just a fabricated fp/op. Just had another one made. https://scontent.fmnl17-4.fna.fbcdn....yw&oe=636114A0

^ this is exactly why it failed.

Brackets like that should be boxed with multiple attachment points, L-shaped, or have a reinforcing saddle on the tube.

Jesse has already replied to me, he's going to replace that section of the pipe with a new reinforced bracket.

JDL is amazing as always

If the weld isn’t the strongest part, it’s a bad weld.