I have a 2008 Audi S6, had it now for close to four years, very fun car but maintenance cost is up there, as expected. Well recently I took it into the shop to fix the AC, they are going to find out if it has a leak somewhere due to me refilling it not even two years ago, and also I requested a transmission fluid change as I’ve not done that in the 4 years I’ve had it (bought at 117k miles, currently at 145k). I’ve done loads of work including carbon cleaning, deleted the rear resonators, and a lot more to remember right now. Well since I last took it to the shop, I was let know that " Upon removal of exhaust to gain access to transmission pan, found passenger side flex pipe is broken in half due to corrosion under the wire mesh. Will need to replace pipe assembly as it is stainless steel " and they sent me pictures of it which I have attached. They also got me a part number since they were quoting me $1.2k for the replacement part, part number being 4F0253154 . I found the part online for a fraction of what they quoted me. But overall when I asked them if they can temporarily fix it or if I can take it to a local muffler shop, surely they’d be able to help but the shop was basically telling me I can’t drive the car like this and I’m not sure if that’s true, he kept insisting since it’s stainless steel I can’t just take it to any muffler shop. Also with the part it is I was wondering if I were to get a whole new exhaust system would that part be replaced with the new exhaust system? I was particularly looking into getting MILLTEK CAT BACK EXHAUST - RESONATED - SSXAU622. Now if I were to get this would that take care of the issue that’s the broken flex pipe? I’d appreciate any input on this.
Hey Johnny,
It would be ok to drive, short term, but would be loud obviously. I wouldn’t take it to Mufflers n More but a reputable performance shop local to you could replace the flex pipe for you easily. Our exhaust isn’t made of any special metal that is un-weldable, it’s a low grade stainless. It will weld with most wire, some may oxidize quicker than others but it’ll hold. I may have a spare if you’re looking to go the OEM route too.
I had a similar issue on my S6 and in the end bit the bullet and replaced them with OEM parts. I took her to 3 specialist custom exhaust shops and none of them would fix it insitu and to make a custom exhaust they all wanted the down pipes taken off to make a template. So in the end I thought I’d just change them out. I’ve heard other people just swap out the flex pipes but here in the UK I had no luck. It might have been possible to buy the OEM parts get them templates and then return back to Audi???