hmm...Corsa track fell apart

ILLSMOQ

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After a drive today, I noticed a rattle sound from the exhaust. I pulled the sill and found the noise to be coming from inside the secondary muffler. I decided to operate :ooo:

I cut the outer caseing open and saw another caseing/baffle and it was all rusty. I know stainless can rust a little but this is really rusty. Anyway I banged on it and it rattled. I tried tweaking it a bit but couldn't get rid of the rattle completly. the whole thing is rusty inside so the parts have come loose I guess. My buddy has a couple Roe Racing mufflers laying a round. I'm going to put them on tomorrow.


Anyone have something like this happen with a Corsa system?
 

twinturbo3150

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After a drive today, I noticed a rattle sound from the exhaust. I pulled the sill and found the noise to be coming from inside the secondary muffler. I decided to operate :ooo:

I cut the outer caseing open and saw another caseing/baffle and it was all rusty. I know stainless can rust a little but this is really rusty. Anyway I banged on it and it rattled. I tried tweaking it a bit but couldn't get rid of the rattle completly. the whole thing is rusty inside so the parts have come loose I guess. My buddy has a couple Roe Racing mufflers laying a round. I'm going to put them on tomorrow.


Anyone have something like this happen with a Corsa system?

OH great, dont the corsa's have a lifetime warranty? To late for you though since you cut your's open. How long have you had your corsa's on before they took a dump?
 
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ILLSMOQ

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I think they do, but I didn't feel like dealing with the hassle. I was planning to swap in some real mufflers anyway(just not quite yet ;) ). It's been too loud since the cats came out. I've put about 7000 miles on it. I'll take some pics tomorrow.
 

twinturbo3150

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I think they do, but I didn't feel like dealing with the hassle. I was planning to swap in some real mufflers anyway(just not quite yet ;) ). It's been too loud since the cats came out. I've put about 7000 miles on it. I'll take some pics tomorrow.

did you drive it in the rain alot? Im curious to how they rusted from the inside out?
 
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ILLSMOQ

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no rain.

all rusted and loose inside
rustypipe.JPG


already have one of the Roe mufflers in

newpipe.JPG
 

Camfab

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The by products of perfect combustion are Carbon Dioxide and Water. That coupled with high exhaust temperatures equals corrosion. Almost looks like it's not 304 in the muffler, hmmmmmm. I'd email those pics to CORSA anyway, just to let them know of a possible issue.
 

Steve 00RT/10

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304 Stainless Steel will not corrode like that. Something looks fishy.

...Not sure what's in a Corsa muffler, but as point of fact, T-304 stainless is not a high quality SS. It has some iron content in it. I have seen 304 SS tubing which had an 'affinity' for a magnet. It wouldn't pick it up, but it was definitely attracted to it. It's not totally uncommon where I live to have the occasional 'lifetime' SS system get brittle from heat and break. It's the iron content and less heat dissipation which contributes to this. In reality, aluminized tubing works as well, dissipates heat better, and is considerably cheaper.

Steve
 

zorroespanol

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304 Stainless Steel will not corrode like that. Something looks fishy.

...Not sure what's in a Corsa muffler, but as point of fact, T-304 stainless is not a high quality SS. It has some iron content in it. I have seen 304 SS tubing which had an 'affinity' for a magnet. It wouldn't pick it up, but it was definitely attracted to it. It's not totally uncommon where I live to have the occasional 'lifetime' SS system get brittle from heat and break. It's the iron content and less heat dissipation which contributes to this. In reality, aluminized tubing works as well, dissipates heat better, and is considerably cheaper.

Steve

Ditto. Just make sure to spray some anti-rust primer on the welds, or the steel will start to rust through there, under the galvanized finish and spread like a cancer...
 
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ILLSMOQ

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Well I got it all back together and drove it around a bit. It's quieter now......I liked it loud. ;)

Last night I sent an e-mail with pics to Corsa telling them what happend with the pipes.

Here was the response -

---------
A sincere thank you for including the images and touching base with us.
The team is looking into this, however it is unfortunate that the individuals required to diagnose the scenario are in Florida until Monday, 12/18 attending the Performance Racing Industry event.

We will be sure to respond immediately.
----------

I wonder what they'll say..... :ooo:
 

twinturbo3150

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Well I got it all back together and drove it around a bit. It's quieter now......I liked it loud. ;)

Last night I sent an e-mail with pics to Corsa telling them what happend with the pipes.

Here was the response -

---------
A sincere thank you for including the images and touching base with us.
The team is looking into this, however it is unfortunate that the individuals required to diagnose the scenario are in Florida until Monday, 12/18 attending the Performance Racing Industry event.

We will be sure to respond immediately.
----------

I wonder what they'll say..... :ooo:

sounds like even though you cut it up, they just might warranty it, good :2tu: luck :2tu:
 

Flexx91

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304 Stainless Steel will not corrode like that. Something looks fishy.

...Not sure what's in a Corsa muffler, but as point of fact, T-304 stainless is not a high quality SS. It has some iron content in it. I have seen 304 SS tubing which had an 'affinity' for a magnet. It wouldn't pick it up, but it was definitely attracted to it. It's not totally uncommon where I live to have the occasional 'lifetime' SS system get brittle from heat and break. It's the iron content and less heat dissipation which contributes to this. In reality, aluminized tubing works as well, dissipates heat better, and is considerably cheaper.

Steve

Ditto. Just make sure to spray some anti-rust primer on the welds, or the steel will start to rust through there, under the galvanized finish and spread like a cancer...

Sorry, but I have to disagree (respectfully)......

304SS (austenitic) offers generally good corrosion resistance in atmosphere. It contains only trace amounts of iron but its primary elements are chromium (18-20 %) and nickel (8-10.5%). Under these conditions, this material should not corrode. Yes, this metal for the most part is non-magnetic in the annealed condition but can become slightly magnetic due to cold-working (bending, flaring, drawing, etc). Most of the corrosion that occurs in this material is localized, and therefore intergranular due to sensitization or stress corrosion cracking - not when exposed to a relatively mild external corrosive environment (the inside of a vehicle's exhaust).

If you're really interested in finding out, send me a PM. Maybe I can have it analyzed in our lab. If I had this exhaust installed on my car, my curiosity would probably have me ripping off my sil to confirm. :2tu:
 

Steve 00RT/10

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Sorry, but I have to disagree (respectfully)......

304SS (austenitic) offers generally good corrosion resistance in atmosphere. It contains only trace amounts of iron but its primary elements are chromium (18-20 %) and nickel (8-10.5%). Under these conditions, this material should not corrode. Yes, this metal for the most part is non-magnetic in the annealed condition but can become slightly magnetic due to cold-working (bending, flaring, drawing, etc). Most of the corrosion that occurs in this material is localized, and therefore intergranular due to sensitization or stress corrosion cracking - not when exposed to a relatively mild external corrosive environment (the inside of a vehicle's exhaust).

I certainly won't argue about metallurgy with an expert. My experience comes from over 30 years in the construction racket -- mostly industrial -- working side by side with pipe and tubing fitters who have installed thousands of miles of all kinds of SS tubing. It was they who showed me the magnet pulling on a piece of 304. Perhaps the quality control in the mid/late 90s was not so good. I have personally seen racks of installed 2" 304 SS tubing starting to corrode. I do believe the paper mill I was at went after the manufacturer for this. The pipe fitters I worked with then didn't put much stock in 304 at that time and told me they would use a better grade for their personal exhaust if they had their druthers. My muffler guy of over 20 years has replaced several SS systems(under warranty) that got brittle and broke. The explanation from him was that the less heat dissipation and iron content caused the brittleness which eventually broke. I guess it's these real life situations which have given me a biased view of 304 -- perhaps wrongly so. I have just about 60,000 miles on my aluminized tubing Viper exhaust and nary a problem. I think SS is a blown up a little much as 99% of all owners of all cars will never keep their car for the 'lifetime warranty' to kick in. The mufflers on most SS 'lifetime warranty' systems are not covered--as I found out on our Cadillac last year.

Thanks for the info. Caused me to go and look up austenitic SS and do a little reading ;)

Steve
 
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ILLSMOQ

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.....and they say it's not 304 inside.

----

Hello Kurtis,

All CORSA Performance exhaust systems are constructed of complete stainless steel.
The outer muffler cases, exhaust tips, and outer end caps of the muffler systems are in fact all made of 304L (low carbon) stainless.

Due to excessive exhaust growth associated to the Viper because of heat, we produce these exhaust kits internally of 439 stainless steel. The 439 material has a more favorable expansion property and will not experience failure from corrosion/ rust. Although all forms of 400- series stainless steel can experience minor surface coloring as a by-product of exhaust gases and heat being ran through the assemblies, the carbon oxide deposits located on the surface will not ********* the material.
It has been determined upon detailed review, that your mufflers would not have failed from this.

Hopefully this proves to be of help, however do feel free to ask if any questions arise.

Thank you once again and have a wonderful holiday season.

----

It's a bit more than minor surface coloring LOL, but is it the reason it started rattling? I don't know for sure, could have had an assembly defect. I think the rust contributed to the problem though.
 

BruceW

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"304SS (austenitic) offers generally good corrosion resistance in atmosphere. It contains only trace amounts of iron but its primary elements are chromium (18-20 %) and nickel (8-10.5%)."

Are you sure that 304 only has trace amounts of iron? The major element in all steels is iron. My tables show 304 having at least 65% iron.
 

Flexx91

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"304SS (austenitic) offers generally good corrosion resistance in atmosphere. It contains only trace amounts of iron but its primary elements are chromium (18-20 %) and nickel (8-10.5%)."

Are you sure that 304 only has trace amounts of iron? The major element in all steels is iron. My tables show 304 having at least 65% iron.

Was thinking of C (carbon) since we were on the discussion of corrosion. But you are correct when considering the balance.
 

bigmike32172

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304=cheap stainless, the lessor grades of stainless are always used just so they can have bragging rights! a cars exhaust gases and liquids are full of corrosive contents which kill all types of metals over time, kinda like the drinking water here in arizona eating the SS on the drinking fountains at the gym!
someone should make an exhaust out of surgical SS
 

Racer Robbie

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thats Way in the marine industry the best bow rail manufactures use 316 s/s. We also have a old saying in the marine world,

"Stainless Steels Stains Less Than Steel"
 
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