Flex pipe has a hole in it

EXAVIER ROBLEDO

MEMBER
2008 CHEVROLET IMPALA
V6
2WD
AUTOMATIC
270,400 MILES

I had the car inspected by Pep Boys mechanic he informed me it was the catalytic converter. I took a to another shop and muffler shop the gentleman told me it was the flex pipe that had a hole in it and he even told me. So, I saw that. Now I'm driving it on the highway and all of a sudden it started to make a much louder noise and I lost power and it doesn't pick up very good and power so I now know it's flex pipe but what do I do now?

1 Reply

STEVE W.

MECHANIC
13,461 POSTS

Sounds like it needs to be replaced. If this is the flex coupling at the front of the converter as in the image it is part of the converter like the Pep Boys guy said. However, you might find a shop willing to cut a section out and weld in a short flex tube to replace it. There are some made that way. However, depending on your location and their pricing it might end up being cheaper to just replace the entire thing over a repair. In a state like CA oy NY where they require a CARB certified unit a replacement could be well over $1,000.00 while a repair might be $200.00 or so. The reason for no power is that the O2 sensors are now getting very wrong data and the PCM doesn't know what to do with that data and the engine has no power. It needs to be repaired as the way the PCM is likely running it can cause serious damage to the engine.

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