’Stainless steel’ exhaust rusting (pic)

[hydeyho]

I understand that nothing is perfect, but is this much rust normal for a stainless exhaust?

http://erc.qmuc.ac.uk/cliosport/gallery/full/1080056742__Rusty.jpg

 

[Tom]

hmm. me thinks thats a bit dodge

 

[cliosportcraig]

SS shouldnt rust !! Thats probably made of mild steel !! What exhaust is it ? and where did you get it ?

 

[hydeyho]

Its from, powerflow, so its stainless, but i have been told they use the lowest grade stuff.

 

[Speiro]

Quote: Originally posted by cliosportcraig on 23 March 2004

SS shouldnt rust !! Thats probably made of mild steel !! What exhaust is it ? and where did you get it ?

Sounds dodgy, SS doesnt rust. Used to work at an exhaust ctr years ago and most ss systems had a lifetime guarantee!

 

[McBunny]

but note powerflow !!

some ss does rust if its the wrong grade

 

[Dust]

Dont Powerflow have a lifetime guarantee?

 

[night.icon]

s/s can rust but it is only low grade s/s will

 

[mark_cliomk3]

they have a liftime garantee but if u look at it only if u take it to an aproved powerflow installer everyyear and get book stamped so like most of us who havent botherd out ass were f**ked

 

[rockport]

Since fitting my decat ive noticed a split in the mid section of my exhaust. Not really caused by rust but bad build quality. Its a MAGNEX as well - last time i ever buy one of there products again. When they say "life time guarantee im not sure what exsactly the guarantee protects you for.

In my case ill have to get a gas weld - in your case i think you should find your documentation and make sure that it is infact STAINLESS STEEL. The way to tell is to place a magnet on the rear box. If it sticks its not stainless.

James.

 

[hydeyho]

That exhaust has only been on my car for 3 months ! ! ! Still got all the paper work so looks like im taking a trip to topgear AGAIN

 

[JAY172]

3 month old! defo got some rust there and at 3 months old thats shocking.

 

[Slugger]

Every stainless exhaust ive has has rusted

Ill have to spend more next time methinks

 

[JAY172]

the stainless system i got from ascar hasnt got any rust on it.not sure what grade there stainless steel is but i think its good.think it says on there website ill have a look.

 

[hydeyho]

Ive contacted them and the bloke seemed pretty helpful. They are going to speak to powerflow about what should be done. Its a good job ive got 4 weeks off from uni, but i aint gona be happy bout karting myself to west brom to get it sorted.

 

[Final Maxim]

west brom.. just down the road from me.. im from wednesbury

FM

 

[hydeyho]

Im in wednesfield (wolvo) so it aint too far from me, but id prefer not to have to go at all

 

[hydeyho]

Got an email back from them this morning and they say that the warranty covers perforation by corrision only, and not surface rust. So whats the point in buying a stainless steel exhaust if its just going to rust !!! Anybody else had any rusting problems with powerflow?

 

[Mole]

stainless steel will rust especially at the welds, as u burn off the other metals that are in there to stop it rusting, cant remember what the actual name of the metal is. but must admit, thats some major rustage for a young exhaust

 

[Bryan]

yeah all the exhausts i have had bar one have had surface rust, the worst of them all being k-tec, it started to develop surface rust within 2 months of ownership, rob fenn then bought it off me and returned it to k-tec, they polished the tailpipe and removed it, and guess what, its returned shortly after

 

[RobFenn]

My k-tec rusts. They polished the whole exhaust on their machine which essentially took off a layer of steel and bingo, new exhaust!

-Rob

 

[m_darby]

SS does rust/corrode in a corrosive environment. probably has too much carbon in the material. it will probably have microscopic pits on the surface with corrosion products in them

 

[tonykart]

a lot of steelsorts are called stainless. But stainless steel which does not rust has to have 12 percent of free chrome after its chemical bonded with e.g. nickel. So the guys where not telling a story its made of stainless but probably not rostfree stainless.

Cheers

 

[m_darby]

it forms chromium carbide if the carbon content is too high, no good for corrosion resistnace. but carbon is added to make the steel stronger.

 

[hydeyho]

But isnt rust a form of corrosion? I was always expecting it to rust, just not as much as it has in just 3 months.

 

[m_darby]

yes it is. all i am saying it will rust and proably get worse. if still in warrenty take it back and say it is corroding quicker and may shorten its service life

 

[tonykart]

dont they use salt in the UK when the raods are slippery well theres your explanation



@M_Darby the amount of Carbon is VERY low in stainless steel for normal FE360 or so your theory works but not fot stainless. for corrosion resistance the amount of carbon has no influence. I can explain this if you want but then you have to give me our mailaddress cause it will not be interested for a lot of readers....... I got hit 12 years in total on this subject on Uni.....

 

[m_darby]

carbon does effect corrosion resistance. cant comment on Fe360 in specific terms but the more carbon there is, the more chromium must be used, because carbon can take from the alloy about seventeen times its own weight of chromium to form carbides. Chromium carbide is of little use for resisting corrosion.

this is really boring to the rest of the guys on here, sorry

anyway nice to see another materials engineer, we are a dying breed mate!

 

[tonykart]

well with my MA in material engineering I am doing momentarilly zipp !!

 

[rsclio]

The rusting on the weld will be down to poor quality welding. The flow rate of the argon will prob be to low causing the weld to be contaminated.

 

[M.C..]

I had a scorpion back box on my focus for about 1 1/2 years and no rust at all and a middle box from power flow in west brom for about 6 months and there is surface rust on it, they use very poor quality stainless