Signum 3.2 Flexi joint

**fastcarmanaic** · 4th December 2009, 20:07

Yesterday the exhaust started blowing on my 3.2 Signum.

Took it to the local exhaust place who said its the flexi joint next to the CAT which has gone. (so you have to get the cat too)
But no-where makes an aftermarket version of these as its still a fairly new car???

Took a trip to Vauxhall to find its..... £520 + fitting!
Can get the part for £435 from LMF but thats still pricey!

Anyone else had problems with Vauxhalls flexi joints going?
I've already had to replace the same bit on the other halfs Vectra 2.2 SRI

**Big Sig** · 4th December 2009, 20:19

I believe plasma recently cut the old flexi off and welded a new one on

**AntB** · 4th December 2009, 20:32

I had the same thing with mine, it was still under warranty but VX insisted it was wear & tear but I managed to get a 55% contribution out of them.

If it went now I'd remove the cat altogether (as it's not really needed due to the pre-cats in the manifolds) and just get a £20 flexi & extension pipe welded in.

If your local zorst place says they can't get hold of one then I'd shop around as surely it's just a case of getting the correct diameter.

<edit> Just had a look and there's loads on ebay, just a case of finding the correct size I guess.

**gtr1000** · 4th December 2009, 21:13

I decided last year on my GSi to remove my exhaust cat. Took it to MIJ @ Walsall only to find that the flexy was shot as well.

Total cost to de-cat the car plus a new flexy came to £120

. Have a look here for more details http://www.vectra-c.com/forum/showpo...32&postcount=7

Ignore the negative comments I made on my visit and what you end up with is that the flexy can be replaced for £70 including labour.

HTH

**fastcarmanaic** · 5th December 2009, 00:02

Have managed to get a second hand one ordered from a 3.2 Vectra.
Hopefully this'll do the job!

Going by the previous posts above are you saying that as the car has a CAT fitted to each manifold you can get rid of the other CAT?

If thats so I might take the old exhaust in to get de-catted and keep it as a spare...

**AntB** · 5th December 2009, 00:25

That's correct, a smaller pre-cat in each manifold. There's a few 3.2 owners on here that have removed the main one with no MOT issues and it's supposed to give a bit more torque, too.

**fastcarmanaic** · 5th December 2009, 00:37

Originally Posted by AntB

That's correct, a smaller pre-cat in each manifold. There's a few 3.2 owners on here that have removed the main one with no MOT issues and it's supposed to give a bit more torque, too.

almost sounds too good to be true!

**bigbnlr** · 5th December 2009, 01:19

The flexi went on my old car I was a bit skint so I got a mate to cut it out and weld a piece of scaffold pole in its place. Wasn't questioned at MOT time and it's still there afaik lol

**Chocki** · 5th December 2009, 08:27

My flexi went on my 1.9 CDTi so rather than spend over £500 I had a stainless exhaust and decat done by MiJ, a lot cheaper plus a stainless system.

**gtr1000** · 5th December 2009, 10:03

Originally Posted by fastcarmanaic

almost sounds too good to be true!

. IMO, car becomes more "driveable" at <3k rpm.

When mine was de-catted, it was the sole intention just to get this one job done. It was only when the car was jacked up did MIJ notice the flexy joint was a bit dodgy. The flexy joint is actually a soild convoluted bellows type joint with a stainless steel braid covering on the outside. In my case, the soild bellows was intact but the braid was damaged. Not wanting to go through replacing the joint at a later date, I decided to get it done there and then.

Now you've got a used bellows, you could always de-cat at a later date?