Hi friends.
I have a 2000 honda civic lx with a cracked manifold. Is this a serious repair…pricey wise? I understand its very important to get it fixed… Firestone quoted it around 500. I’ve found inexpensive exhaust manifolds online… and looking it up on how to repair, most of the articles say that it is an easy fix… If so, why so pricey?
Any comments or suggestions?
Thanks!
Many exhaust manifolds are pricy. Some online ones may be cheap and you get exactly what you pay for; lousy materials and something that may, or may not, fit.
Can the crack be easily seen and accessed? If so, drop by a welding shop for an opinion. They may be able to weld that up without even removing it from the car.
If your exhaust manifold has a fat section in it just before the exhaust pipe connection, looks like a soup can, then you have a built in warmup catalytic converter and you must replace it with the same type manifold. Make sure the manifolds online match the the one in your car.
If your manifold is made from stainless steel instead of cast iron, a muffler shop should be able to weld up the crack for you.
If your exhaust manifold is like the one in my 1998 Civic (and I believe it is), it isn’t just the exhaust manifold. It’s also the catalytic converter, and that can make it as expensive as $900. $500 sounds like a pretty good price, and I would jump on it before they come to their senses and raise their quote to $800 or $900. You can’t just replace this exhaust manifold with a header. You need to replace it with an identical part.