So my XS headers have been leaking for about a week now. The stud on the very left side of the front header fell off. I am guessing it broke off actually. I went to one shop who told me they would have to take everything off and put in new studs to fix it.

Should i find another mechanic? Any easy fix? Could it have fallen off, or is it most likely broken?

 

Who installed them? Cause sounds like they over tq'ed the nut & broke the stud. If it was a shop go back & complain.
If it was DIY then sorry, a new stud is what's needed, but since it's the front header all you have to do is take the front off & then drill the old stud out & screw in a new one.
An Acura parts website listed in the FAQ should sell them

 

What do you mean by drill the old stud out? Like with a tap?

 

Depends on where the stud is broken. If there's enough of it you can twist out with vise grips, but some studs are stuck on really good , or are broken down to the block & the only way to get them out is to drill them out, with a drill bit.

 

If the stud is broken they over torqued it like Fuzzy said. However, I can attest to the fact that some of these flanges aren't properly milled and just using the normal amount of ft/ lbs of tq that Honda calls for isn't enough to get a seal. There may be a slight exhaust leak so maybe the shop tightened the bolt more and more hoping to get a seal.

 

The stud broke after they were installing my straight pipe instead of the mid-resonator, so i am thinking that they let the exhaust hang off the headers, and broke it from stress.

Only question is, should have the exhaust shop replace all the studs? Or just the one that broke? I used the parts that came with the headers.

 

sorry to say that its been talked about a lot the nuts and bolts that came with the headers are not heat treated and are very soft. you shouldve reused the stock ones. you should replace all of them because eventually all of them will break on you

 

That's not 100% true on the bolts. Some have been fine. But my question is if the shop broke it they should be fixing it. You should only need the 1 stud replaced. Unless the others are messed up.

 

If the shop screwed up that 1 stud, I wouldn't be surprised if they over torqued the other studs as well.

 

they probably didn't even torque it...

 

How's that possible when the OP said the stud fell off.

 

if you're going to go down there and replace one stud. might as well spend more time replacing the rest just in case. saves time and money=]