Well, these headers wouldn't last all that long... did expect more than 6 months though...

About a month ago on a ski trip I noticed more noise coming from under the hood than normal. This progressed for about a week and has stayed constant since. Under initial investigation, I discovered one of the nuts on the rear manifold had broken off, leaving just 4 to hold the header down. I thoguht that maybe the passenger side edge of the header had become loose and was letting gas escape. I finally got under the hood and did some fixing of that today, however in my fixing I discovered the real problem: The drivers side collector on the rear header developed a significant crack.

Seeing as I plan to buy a new car in a couple months, I'm going to leave this for now. I have the original manifolds, so I can always put those back on when I have more time. For the meantime, anyone ever repaired a header collector pipe? I might just wrap the cracked location with some header wrap and hope that gets me through a couple months.

But just thoguht I'd let everyone out there who has the XS headers that mine have cracked. I'd take pictures, but its a real bad angle to get a shot of... might try later today though if people want.

 

This sucks to hear. I hope this is a unique incident, I don't want these to go cracking on all of us.

Thanks for sharing.

 

Dang ! That sucks ! How long have you had the headers? Are they still unders warranty?

 

did you use the bolts that came with the headers?

 

there XSP headers there is no warrenty. they are the furthest thing from having a warrenty on our cars.

 

Beh, guess this is the first incident with these on here. Lets hope there won't be too many. I know a few folks have had these for a long time now.

 

im thinking that it might be because of the broken bolt and the crappy flex pipe that they put on there. too much tension and pressure.

 

I also want to kno if you used the bolts that came with the headers?

 

I hope it is an isolated problem. I bought 10X40/1.25/8.8 bolts. Still a good bargain for $150.

 

No I bought better bolts from the hardware store

 

The crack looks like a stress crack, possibly from the broken bolt? not real sure

 

where did u buy ur bolts?

 

My guess is the stress from teh broken bolt caused it. This is the first incident of it and there are many that have had them along time without incident. Ive got 7 months 18k on mine now

 

Man that sucks mine have yet to be installed. You said you were getting rid of the car but are you going to try to have someone weld the crack? Or would it end up not even being worth it?

 

Sorry To hear,

Still no problems with mine and I have had them for at least 7 months now

 

I just guess people have to be more careful in installing them right.

 

I agree and if you have to end up buying another set, its still a bargain for a header.

 

Lowe's or Home Depot...

The bolt that broke is not one of the ones that I bought though. Actually I guess you'd call it the stud that is in the engine block which you use to bolt the header to the engine block. One of those, the furthest one on the passenger side of the car, snapped (probably over torqued initially then due to cyclic thermal loading finally broke off). So I only have 4 remaining nuts attaching the header to the engine block, however thats still 80% of the original strength. The header itself does not move, if it did I'd be getting a whole lot more noise. Rather, i think as the rest of the exhaust system moves around it stresses the header, and the drivers side tube must have been most susceptible (spelling?) to this motion, i.e. the most load got transferred to that pipe.

It is probably a unique case, but worthy of mentioning as others might encounter this as well. I've put ~15k miles on the car since I installed the headers, and most of my driving is under 15 minutes (lots of heating - cooling - heating etc, thermal cycles). That probably played some role in the cracking as well.

 

The thought crossed my mind, but I'd probably put the stock manifold back on instead if my "quick fix" that I'll do next weekend doesn't cut it for me.

 

I just ordered my headers the other day, and since then i've only heard bad things! lol...lucky me

 

The longest anyone has had them on is a CL guy and it's only been a year I believe. That really isn't that long.

And the OP was not referring to the bolts/nut holding the manifold to the j-pipe. He's saying his stud snapped so that shouldn't effect the collector.

I was wondering how long these headers would hold up. Maybe this is a unique case; I guess we'll find out.

And to someone who asked about warranty, you will not be getting any semblance of customer service/warranty from XS Power. They are notorious for horrible customer service and lack of warranty.

 

^ It's about to be a year in 2 months since installed my headers, I have yet to complain about anything. The only nasty thing I have is this HUGE dent on the bottom of my downpipefrom going over a speed bump. Other than that, they're holding up very well.

 

since we're on the subject.

I just installed my XSP headers this past weekend. I didnt really encounter any major problems but the quality of the product is obvious, its a BANG for the BUCK. Thats it. Period.

When I first installed the headers I heard something of a leak from the front of the headers. I assumed right away it was a fitment issue untill I went back and re-torqued all the nuts properly. I didnt have a problem.

Sorry to hear your headers cracked bigdo26. To be honest I'm not too suprised.

The headers do suck as far as quality but hey, 20HP for $150? Cant beat that.

Do you think its from the cold weather you got out there?

 

Update:

I did quick fix of the header this afternoon, which entailed wrapping the cracked section of header with some thin sheet metal, then using pipe "zip ties." It worked wonderfully, for now at least.

 

Wow I hope that works hehe.
My XS headers had some resonance but I got rid of it with head wrap on the flex pipe. That got rid of about 80% of the resonance, which is good enough for me.

There was an exhaust leak too and when I got under the car I found that 1 bolt on the front and 1 bolt on the back header had fallen off. I replaced those bolts with longer ones and it has been ok so far. I'm not sure if it is leaking though. It makes a hissing sound when I accelerate but I don't hear anything just sticking my head under the hood.

 

so far the repaired headers are actually more muffled then they were in the first couple months i had them. Thats probably because i also realigned and then bolted down the rear manifold, with an extra gasket... But the metal clamps i used to secure the aluminum sheet metal are nice and tight and seeing as the aluminum is pretty flexible (being that it is sheet metal) i don't forsee any immediate problems with the fix.

I've had a couple WOT runs to ~85 or so and there is no hissing or other signs of leaking even under WOT, so I think for now i'm good

 

Sorry for hijacking the thread.

Where did you get the wrap? I am thinking of doing the same thing.

 

the hissing sound is normal if im not mistaken since mine makes it too

 

At the auto parts store.. sorry that should be "heat wrap". It is the stuff used to fix holes in mufflers.

 

I have had mine on for a little longer than 1.5yrs and they are fine minus the hissing but they have been checked and no cracks oh yeah and the mesh that wraps the pipe in the flex pipe section is getting loose and is causing a rattle so I need to replace the flex section, besides that its all good.

 

Well my nasty resonance came back with a vengeance.. I lifted the car to find that my heat wrap was just dangling there like a dirty old piece of aluminum foil. I put a couple new pieces of wrap around the flex pipe and that fixed it, for a day. I checked all the bolts while I was under there, so i don't know why it is happening again. I'm thinking I should check the o2 sensor and the cat heat shield like others have mentioned. I was about to have someone weld a straight pipe in place of the flex pipe but if that's not even the problem that'd be a huge waste of money.

 

Dont have the flex pipe removed and a straight pipe put in. If you do any thing have a better flex pipe put in. resonance is from it being misaligned and stress on it.

 

I was thinking about trying to put some hose clamps around the flex pipe to stop it from rattling and to hold the muffler wrap on.