The tranny shop put a large dent in my crossover pipe when they rebuilt my tranny. They're argreeing to replace the pipe, thankfully. The crossover pipe they dented starts at the passenger side manifold and goes all the way to the muffler, and includes one of the cats. I was wondering if it's alright to replace the passenger side pipe and not replace the driver side pipe that has another cat on it. Any thoughts?

-Craig

 

Shouldn't be a big deal to replace 1 side. However, I'd request a factory (direct Ford Part#) replacement instead of letting them take it to some "hack" muffler shop and they put some CATCO cheap CAT or removing Stainless factory tubing and replacing it with aluminized tubing or something on your truck. They won't like the $...but, they damaged it.

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If the cat isn't dented/damaged, can they just replace the piping and re-use your cat?

 

Yes, the cat wasn't damaged and can be reused. In fact, the pipe really doesn't NEED to be replaced; the dent isn't big enough to restrict performnace. However, it upsets me that the shop didn't tell me about the dent they made and I had to find it on my own. They could very easily cut out the center section of the crossover pipe and weld a new section in. This would be a cheap and easy fix, but I don't feel it's right, especially since they tried to hide the fact that they dented the pipe in the first place. In any case, they're replacing the entire passenger side of my exhaust system, cat and all. I pick my truck up today, so I can only hope they did it right this time, or else I may have some more stories to tell you guys.

-Craig

 

Honestly if it was just a cosmetic dent that wouldn't affect the performance or longevity of the exhaust system i wouldn't have told you about it either. And i probably wouldn't have offered to fix it if you complained. Those things happen when your trying to squeeze a 400 pound trans in and out of the tight spaces on these vehicles. If they are going to replace the cat though make sure they use Ford parts, the aftermarket ones are junk and i have seen them cause check engine lights. And yes replacing just one is perfectly fine.

-Jon