cracked manifold???

bloody hope not,will check in the morning,oh the joy of landies eh!!

Have a look at the first joint - between manifold and downpipe. The downpipe is quite long and there is quite a bit of unsupported pipe between the manifold and the next support. Essential to take up engine movements on starting and taking up drive.

My S3 has brass nuts (!) which come loose - aided by the fact that the studs have rusted a bit. This causes the downpipe to loosen and this generates a rasping noise from the exhaust.

I bought a complete stainless steel exhaust system believing the existing system to be life expired, but tightned the bolts up on the first flange instead and its been fine for the last 2 years. However, over the last few weeks some holes have appeared in the taile pipe, silencer and upstream - patched with gun-gum for now, complete replacement is inevitable.

Do however look for holes in the exhaust pipe as the holes only need to be 2 or 3mm dia to make a lot of noise....

when i read yer man's post he said he had checked manifold studs and that the exhaust had no holes in it which is why i sugested a cracked manifold rather than sugest he rechecks wot he says he has checked