What is a flex pipe?

What is a flex pipe?

Wuxi Xishan Huanyu Metal Hose Co.,Ltd - Wednesday July 11, 2018

A flex pipe is flexible piece of pipe that allows the exhaust system some flexibility. Flex pipes are an essential part of any front wheel drive vehicle and on most all wheel drive vehicles. On front wheel cars, since the motor is mounted transversely, when you accelerate the motor rocks, the flex pipe protects your exhaust system from breakage. Without that extra flex pipe, the rocking motion would crack the exhaust system causing a loud leak.

It is sometimes very easy to notice a flex pipe that is starting to break down. During the beginning stages, you may just hear a slight exhaust leak during your vehicle's start up, and it will go away for the most part due to it not having a major leak, but when it finally does let go you will know it! Most flex pipes will break from the inside accordion piece, and it will sound as though you have no exhaust whatsoever. Other forms of a flex pipe leaking can be caused by your car bottoming out, and tearing the outer protective mesh, and scraping a hole into the flex tube, or it could just be from deterioration.

Here is an example of what a damaged flex exhaust pipe and a new one look like:

Occasionally customers will ask do I really need this piece? The answer is YES you do! Not having a flex pipe installed can cause serious damage to your exhaust system, such as breaking bolts, flanges, and even the exhaust manifold itself. A typical flex pipe install can take us less than a half hour of your time, so we can get you back on the road doing what you need to do!

There are a lot of exhaust shops out there that want you to replace an entire section of exhaust, most of which include a catalytic converter and can be very expensive and time consuming.  So you can replace the flex exhaust pipe by yourself or let a workshop do it for you.