Exhaust Leak: At ball joint

[AJ850glt]

I'm experiencing the same issue. Going to try the sleeve and U-clamp method. Quick question, though: how can you tell if, as JimBee observed, you have a leaking exhaust manifold gasket?

[renns]

I put my car up on jackstands, started it up, and slid underneath. The noise location was pretty obvious, and was pinpointed by carefully working my hand around the exhaust pipe until I felt the leak. Careful - those exhaust components will be hot! And do ensure the vehicle is properly supported.

[as400jockey]

I have struggled with that #@$^%#@$%@!#$#$^% ball clamp thing for.... EVER! Whoever designed that is a dumb-a__.

I've tried Volvo clamps.... aftermarket clamps... high temp rtv... muffler putty.... I tried cutting a gasket to go in between using muffler repair high temp fabric.... I can't imagine how many hours I've spent laying in the driveway...

I replaced two complete muffler systems over the years (cat and muffler) assuming "woo hoo! all new! should clamp right up nice!".

Uh... NO.

BUT I FOUND THE ANSWER!!! Without welding, and without cutting things off and installing sleeves and clamps.

THIS... my frustrated friends... is what you need. It's called a split flange clamp. For my 1998 S70 non-turbo I used a 1 3/4 inch. I think my S70 GLT might need a larger size due to the turbo and larger exhaust... be sure to measure yours first - you want the OD of the pipes before the ball or socket...

I found mine on ebay here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-3-4-1-75-Exha ... 1574348377

175 split clamp.jpg (19.97 KiB) Viewed 1773 times

You'll also need a pair of 3/8 x 2 1/2 inch bolts, maybe some lock washers...

or you can google Bear River Converters. These guys are AWESOME! Lots of great parts for exhaust systems.

My new clamps arrived yesterday. Today I removed the latest clamp-and-muffler-putty attempt. Cleaned up the dregs of the putty, installed a pair of these clamps, and WOOHOO! Blissful quiet!!!!

Well THAT only took TWENTY YEARS to figure out. And now look!!!

Nobody but the people reading this message will understand how cool this is.

But I still want to find the guy that designed this nonsensical union...

[giovannibianco]

Hello Everyone,

I second the post above about the hopeless exhaust clamp trying to keep the ball and socket together in the exhaust... I have replaced the catalytic convertor and rear exhaust section with parts from the same manufacturer (Walker) in the vain hope that it should all stay together and even seal. No such luck. I had the same hack with paste/silicone etc etc...

So I bought these:

Search for "Auspuff Flansch Reparatur Rohr 50mm" on ebay.de

https://www.ebay.de/itm/122298155728

A 45mm (1 7/8") ID set would have been more appropriate, but the 50mm worked just fine.

Clamped them together and relative silence descended. I took the Volvo back for the road safety re-test (failed
first time around due to this and couple of other problems) and passed perfectly.

I realise that the 1 7/8" ID clamps would be better but could not find anywhere on European web sites... the cost in the US is good but the shipping and possible long delays at French customs make them not worth the bother for me.

[cxf]

I had the same problem with my 850t in the spring. I used a muffler/ tailpipe wrap ( i think tiger wrap). I removed the old clamp, wrapped the pipe and let the stuff harden and seal with the car running then I put a u shaped muffler clamp in front of the joint and in back of the joint and put a piece of scrap aluminum bar under the u clamps and tightened them up to support the joint. Haven't had a problem since.

[FireFox31]

The connection between the catalytic converter pipe and center muffler is a terrible design. The Volvo clamps are hard to align and tighten so they make a perfect seal. One solution, especially if part of that connection rusts out, is to have a muffler shop weld the cat and muffler pipes together. But then you can't remove the muffler if, for example, you need to repair/replace the heat shield when it rusts or its clips fail. Every time you need to remove the muffler, you'll have to cut and weld the joint, making it harder to work with.

The best solution is to replace this connection with the Bear River Converters BRC8175SS flange kit. It's got new flange ends for both the cat and muffler pipes, a metal gasket between them, and spring loaded bolts to hold them together. It's T409 stainless steel and warrantied for life. It's for 1 3/4" pipe which is exactly what my 2000 V70 used.

My muffler pipe rusted right at the joint. I really wanted to preserve the cat ball flange so any new muffler could easily mount to it. My local muffler shop could have welded a 2" pipe to the muffler and flared it, but it surely would have fit even worse than the original.

Instead, I had my local muffler shop weld in the BRC flange kit. $32 for the kit, $70 for the weld, 15 minutes at the shop. My car sounds perfect and I can easily remove the muffler to finish fixing my heat shield. When my muffler fails, I'll carefully cut off the flange and see if the muffler shop can weld it to the new muffler. If not, I buy another $32 kit and use one of its two flanges.

As an alternative to welding, a reviewer on the BRC site used band clamps. See the picture posted to the review. I've had band clamps rust out, if even because their screws failed, so went with welding to reduce the chance of future problems.

Thanks to giovannibianco for leading me to replacement flange kits and as400jockey for referring Bear River Converters.

Before trying this kit, I tried the split flange clamps which as400jockey recommended; the Bear River Converters FX35. Unfortunately, the company which makes those clamps, FX Exhaust, went out of business in December 2021. I tried to buy similar clamps from eBay from a Canadian seller (I believe FX Exhaust was Canadian and other exhaust flanges I've bought were made in Canada). Though they said they were for 1 3/4" pipe, they were too large to grab the original Volvo flared pipe ends. They're a good solution for keeping your original flange if you can find ones that fit.

[abscate]

Awesome!