Exhausts - horizontal split on elbow towards rear box

[nico506]

Hi ALL,
Hope everyone is enjoying Christmas and either full or recovering from enjoying good food and company- and best wishes for 2013 and long may we all enjoy our loti to the full!.

See attached photo and this is a new rear silencer fitted to a S3 and it has developed a horizontal split along the elbow leading into the transverse rear box. I bought the silencer as part of the restoration back in 2004/5 and it was not until the car was running in 2010 onwards that it has been in use and has only managed 3000 miles.

Has anyone experienced this type of fault ?- and being a stainless steel system I suspect the pipe may have had a fault and slowly opened up in use????

Any coments ideas and I'm thinking of repairing it using TIG welding -would it open up again ?

Thanks for help and have a great New Year and meet up at some events !

Nico
Elan S3 DHC

[AHM]

Looks like the "continuously welded" tube isn?t ....
Wire brush the crack and lightly file the immediate area.
Tack weld in several places to prevent the stress relief from the heat opening the crack.
You should be able to get a really neat weld to run if you don?t make it too hot.

Also:
Take it off the car!
Don?t forget to weld the bit that hasn?t cracked yet.
The exhaust soot will burn and smoulder for quite a long time, it will get hot even after you have finished as the wadding in the silencer might catch too.
The fumes given off are exhaust fumes and right in your face