Exhaust leak

[Wazza 0]

Hi all, I've had my golf 4motion for about a week now and loving it, the cars developed a little exhaust leak which is coming from the manifold area on bulkhead side, had the car up on ramps but can't see naff all because of all components in the way it's really tucked away! I'm "ok"with a spanner but this looks a bit like a garage job to me if I'm honest about my mechanical skills.

The leak is only little but it's bugging me because I no it's there and I like everything to be mint. You can only really hear it when it's ticking over, under acceleration it's not noticeable.

My question is, is it as tricky to get to as it looks? And how much should I expect to pay in labour charges to expose the problem? I'm hoping it's something simple like a manifold gasket and not a cracked manifold.

Any info on this would be great. Thanks

[Vw_owner 1]

iv recently fitted the 24v v6 from a 4mo into my corrado and judgeing by that yea its tricky!! you got the metal heatshield cover above the exhaust manifold that can come off for better access just a few 6mm allen head bolts, remove the intake manifold aswell!!, you got x6 13mm nuts on the downpipe to manifold flanges which need to be soaked in penetrateing fluid before hand, there prety tricky to get to but not impossible, but i think its best just to make access and try and see where the leak is comming from , remember its an exhaust so its best not to drive it if you plan of doing work on it straight after or give it time to cool off before you start work. working above a hot engine is no fun...

heres what it should look like

[Wazza 0]

thanx for info, gonna try and get under the bonnet this weekend

[JeffDy 0]

Hi,

I noticed the same exhaust leak problem after buying my own car last year. It was becoming noisy only with hot engine when climbing steep slopes. And beginning of this year the whole downpipe dropped down (exhaust free...)

In fact the downpipe broke behind both flanges on the exhaust manifold side. The why is a bit long to write down here.

It's possible to repair the downpipe: you will have to weld the flanges back on the tube (make clean TIG welds on both sides and take care of correct positionning) or buy a new part (400€).

Be prepared to remove the subframe (you can leave the steering gear on the car) off the car in order to move the downpipe down under the car. If you don't want to pay for a new catalytic exhaust remove the nuts (heavily rusted) don't cut the bolts because it's impossible to replace them (cost me a lot)

Took me a week to do the job.

Hope it helps

Jeff