Fixin' yer Subaru exhaust

This is just a quick one but I wanted to write it up somewhere before I forgot.

If you own a Subaru and know the undeserved feeling of superiority that comes with driving around a monster truck that looks like a dumb station wagon, you probably have had or will have your blissful driving experience ruined by a noisy exhaust. Most old cars in general are riddled with exhaust problems (it takes a beating down there piping out highly corrosive mixtures of acidic vapors).

It seems like every Subaru I've owned (3 now) has suffered from the same problem, the whole exhaust holds up pretty well but for some reason these stupid flanges rot out. It probably has something to do with how they are welded or the material of the flange or something like that but you go over a bump and your car gets louder, you smell exhaust and go underneath to find something like this:

So the other day I cut out a handful of flanges and made a couple of these:

Quick, easy, permanent. You cut off the tail pipe with a hack saw, angle grinder, sawzall, sharpened toothbrush whatever. This little guy bolts onto the other flange and clamps on around the tail pipe with a regular exhaust u-clamp thingy. Since every Subaru from the '86 brat i have up to the 2001 outback uses the same flange and same 2" exhaust plumbing, this little dingus is pretty universal.

If you want one send me an email. $35 shipped, cheap! I even shot some paint on the weld and unprotected flange so it wont rust so fast.

I put one on the 2001 outback and it worked great. Still a pain in the ass having to jack the muffler out of the rubber hangars, cut the pipe off, somehow everything moved.... 15 minute repair turns into 3 hours.. but its a hell of a lot easier than the alternative which involves going into the parts store, sifting through a catalog to get the right flange (ordering it and waiting 3 days while your car is up on jacks with no exhaust system), removing the whole exhaust, trying to weld the new flange to the rusty old pipe... blah! And the flanges aren't welded on exactly straight!

The slight bit of slop in the slip-fit coupler takes up enough of the wierdness to get it all together, and it makes a tight seal without needing a welder or having to weld an airtight seam on rusty pipe... tough.