Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) Found my exhaust leak!

[HookMeUp]

After reading serveral threads about the noises I was hearing from my open filter, I found my exhaust leak this morning. I checked all of the exhaust manifold bolts, they were tight. Got to looking at elbow on the back of the turbo and saw that the 2 bottom bolts where missing, thought ok I'll just replace them, no luck there busted off! Looks like the turbo will have to come off to get them out of there. Hopefully they will come out easy. But it's wierd that the noise would come through the air filter.

 

[dmhollister]

Exhaust leak

When changing my exhaust and elbow I broke two bolts off in the turbo. Was a major pain to drill out at home. Got one out at home but decided to take to a machine shop to have other drilled. Took about an hour to drill out and cost very little. It was definitely worth taking to a shop to extract. They were able to not damage threads and clean up with thread chase after.

My advice is to take to a reputable machine shop and save the headache at home. Good luck

 

[rkressg]

When assembling these turbos, if you look closely, they used gr8. 8 8mm*1. 25p*16mm hex head bolts. These are not hardened bolts, probably why they broke. I replaced mine with gr12. 9 bolts (same size but the ones that use a hex ket to tighten).



These ones should not break.

-Rich