Well it appears that one of the 2 exhaust sleeves on my 98 2.8L 30v is disintegrating. About a month ago one of the sleeves developed a nickel sized hole – in what felt like overnight. I patched it up with my $7 tube of exhaust weld/stainless screen and it is still holding.

2 days ago I start to hear the exhaust getting loud again. I get under the car and another good sized hole on the same sleeve developed. The other sleeve has no holes, but that too was leaking a bit at each end. I plugged that one at the same time with the exhaust weld and it is holding strong.

I ordered 2 sleeves from ECS as I want them fixed before winter comes. Just curious how many out there have had to replace just the sleeves from them falling apart? Both exhaust pipes otherwise look great. It is just the 2 sleeves that are rusting away and developing holes.

 

Some ******* before me must of ha the same problem and decided to weld them on >:0

 

I've never had them rot. But after taking them off and on a few times, they get so they don't seal. But your problem is pretty weird.

 

It was/is weird. The passenger side sleeve was leaking a tiny bit just at the sleeve ends. The drivers side had the nickel-sized hole in it. Both of them are visibly worse than any other part of the exhaust.

When I was sealing them up with the exhaust weld, I was afraid of poking my finger through the drivers side one because it was paper thin in some spots. I guess the shelf life on them is about 14 years! New sleeves should be at my door today from ECS.

 

FYI, you could have got the sleeves at advanced or local auto store.

I worked on an A4 with your problem. Its metal, its bound to rust sometime.

 

I checked 3 places near me. None of them could confirm the diameter and/or did not have in stock. No biggie. It will be done this weekend and all will be quiet again.

 

The sleeves ECS sent were the wrong diameter. Turns out what I received were sleeves that were supposed to be used in a different area of the exhaust - although I thought there was only one set of sleeves - between the cats and the resonator.

I did not have time to do so I brought to a Monroe Muffler shop near my house. After he cut off the rusted old sleeves, the tech (old timer) comes back to say they are not even close. He whipped up some sleeves with some pipe scraps the perfect diameter and clamped/bolted them on. Took about an hour and it sounds perfect.