Hello, i am new to the forum and joined on behalf of my wife who owns a 2002 Civic EX Auto. I realize how helpful forums and the participants can be as i am a long time member over at Turbobricks, the Volvo forum.

So hello, my name is Sean.

My wife's car has had an exhaust leak for some time now only recently have i got around to putting the car up on ramps and checking it out. Turns out the leak in between the catalytic converter and the tail-pipe going towards the back of the car. When i start the car i can of course hear the leak but since its colder now i can also see exactly where its leaking from.

My initial thought was great! It just needs a new gasket in between and the leak/noise would be fixed but after looking at im kind of stumped. I don't see any bolts connecting the cat to the tail pipe. I only see small "bullet" shaped nubs that are holding it on. If i pull at the cat or tail pipe i can almost pry it apart. If i got the rear of the exhaust off the hangers, im assuming i could just pull straight back and would be able to separate the tail pipe and the cat.

So my question is this. How does the cat and tail pipe connect? Are there bolts that have just rusted away (we do live in NY and near the beach)? Or does the cat come with these three "nubs" and just sit snug connected to the tail pipe, with a new gasket of course.

Here is a photo of the problem;



She has owned the car since new so its getting up there in age. Has about 70K and the cat is original.

Can i just replace the gasket or is a whole new cat in order? Also, any photos i have looked at of cats don't show nubs on the end. Would i have to bang these three nub things out to reveal the bolt holes?

Im a bit lost as i have never worked on Hondas before and im not sure if this is normal. Thanks for any help or tips.

-sean

 

Those nubs are the remains of nuts that have severely rusted, which is entirely normal on a 10 year old exhaust system. There are 3 of them, one on the side where you took the photo and two on the other side. You will have to grind them off on the rear side (the pipe side) which will disconnect the flanges, then pound or drill the remains of the bolts out of the converter flange and install new ones. Should be possible to re-use the converter.

 

Thanks for the insight! Guess this will be my next project. There are no error codes etc so the cat should be fine. Ill unhook the rear of the exhaust and it should just "slide" right off, then i can really work on knocking those very rusted remains of bolts off. Ill keep you updated. Thanks again!

 

I will be giving this a shot on Sunday I hope. I know I need a new gasket but I am unsure about the bolt type. Any bolt or are there specific bolts that go from the cat flange to the rear pipe flange?