Your exhaust manifold in your car is the first section of the vehicle’s exhaust system. It collects the exhaust gases from multiple cylinders into one pipe, and are generally cast iron or stainless steel units that collect exhaust gas and deliver it to the exhaust pipe. With such an important part within the gas system in your vehicle, a crack appearing or coming up over time in the exhaust manifold can lead to a costly repair. The number for an exhaust manifold repair cost is an average of between $570- $900, with the labor taking up the majority of this price at between $400 and $550 of that, and the ports running you between $130 and $340 for the total cracked exhaust manifold repair cost.
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Let’s dive a little deeper and figure out what an exhaust manifold is, what the exhaust manifold does in your car, what the process of fixing a cracked exhaust manifold repair entails, and what the cracked exhaust manifold repair cost is depending on if you bring your car toa dealership or a local automotive shop.
What is an Exhaust Manifold?
A vehicle’s exhaust manifold plays a huge role within the car or truck’s exhaust system, ensuring that your car stays in good condition and does not overheat. If you have a cracked exhaust manifold, then you will need a repair and need to determine the exhaust manifold repair cost, especially since this key part plays a part in connecting the exhaust port to the engine’s cylinder head and funnels the hot exhaust into the exhaust pipe.
With the help of the exhaust manifold gaskets, the manifold helps to prevent any unwanted fumes or toxic exhaust from getting into your car and harming yourself and the passengers. To keep you and your passengers safe, it is pretty imperative to the health of your vehicle and your passengers to have an exhaust manifold in good working order and keep it without a crack in it.
The typical engine you will find in almost every single car is V-shaped, and has two exhaust manifolds attached to it. One of these exhaust manifolds is for a cylinder bank and the other is for cylinder bank two. The main amount of inline engines have just one exhaust manifold
What is a cast iron exhaust manifold?
As we know there are two different kinds of exhaust manifolds – both of these types of exhaust manifolds can have cracked exhaust manifold repair costs that are attributed to their working parts and use over time.
Cast iron exhaust manifolds do happen to last a long time, so they might be able to prevent a cracked exhaust manifold repair cost from being too high due to these high quality parts. In modern cars, exhaust manifolds are meant to fit into small spaces and corners and live a long time to ensure that everything stays in working order within your vehicle.
Cast iron exhaust manifolds are usually replaced with headers when the vehicle’s owner wants a pair more designed for performance and power, instead of a long-lasting and reliable exhaust manifold. Furthermore, these kinds of manifolds can be heavy and can become brittle over time with extra age. This aging and decomposition can lead to a higher cracked exhaust manifold repair cost.
What is a tubular steel exhaust manifold?
The second kind of exhaust manifold you will find in your car is a tubular exhaust manifold that has better flow and oftentimes found on performance types of cars, like sports cars or those with high horsepower. This style of exhaust manifold can be made from steel or stainless steel depending on what kind of manufacturer and car you have. Since mild steel is cheaper to produce, it will not last as long as stainless steel. This can lead to a more frequent and higher cracked exhaust manifold repair cost in the long run.
What causes a cracked exhaust manifold?
As we know, a cracked exhaust manifold repair cost is exactly what we are trying to avoid. A cracked or broken exhaust manifold is most commonly due to a couple of things, making it easier to diagnose and fix the issue quickly without having more problems arise over time.
The first cause of a cracked exhaust manifold and a high cracked exhaust manifold repair cost is heat cycles or aging over time. Over a long period of use and over time, the manifolds can not take the high heat and the temperatures any more, meaning that cracks begin to form in each manifold. The cracks that form then turn into small holes.
The second common reason for a cracked exhaust manifold and a need for repair is because of broken exhaust system hangers. The entire exhaust system in your car is usually held together with a bunch of hangers, so if one of these hangers break off then the weight becomes the sole responsibility of the exhaust manifold, putting too much stress on the exhaust manifold.
What are the symptoms of a cracked exhaust manifold?
Once you know the causes of a cracked exhaust manifold, you can then keep an eye out for the symptoms and the signs of a cracked exhaust manifold to see if you need to pay a high price for the cracked exhaust manifold repair cost. The most common symptoms are visible cracks, extremely loud noises coming from the exhaust system, a decreased fuel efficiency and miles per gallon performance, and a burning smell coming from the engine bay or the smell coming from the interior of the vehicle.
How to replace an exhaust manifold due to a cracked exhaust manifold
Replacing a cracked exhaust manifold can help you to better understand the process, fix the issue, and potentially give you the information to do the process on your own and save money on the overall cracked exhaust manifold repair cost.
First, you need to spray the bolts with a rust penetrating fluid in advance so that you can remove them without any issues and keep them from sticking during the process.
Next, make sure you remove the oxygen sensor within the exhaust manifold before you take out the cracked exhaust manifold from the engine. If you decide to waste, it will be much more difficult to remove the cracked exhaust manifold afterward.
Third, remove the o2 sensor when the manifold is hot, but be careful since this could burn yourself and your hands during this step. Make sure that you keep gloves on or prevent yourself from touching the material so you can safely remove the oxygen sensor from the cracked exhaust manifold.
In addition, if you see any of the bolts that you need to replace are questionable or look like they need to be replaced or are rusting over time, then you should replace them at the same time as the exhaust manifold so that you can save on labor and save on time. If you can cut down on the cracked exhaust manifold repair cost by replacing the bolts at the same time, this will help you in the long run.
Furthermore, always replace the exhaust manifold gaskets when you decide to replace a manifold. You don’t want to do all of this work and have the new exhaust manifold leak worse than the old one or enhance the cracked exhaust manifold repair cost.
Lastly, when putting back together the parts, use anti-seize on the bolts that attach the exhaust manifold to the rest of the exhaust system so that the process is easier for the next person and the overall cracked exhaust manifold repair cost is faster and slower.
Benefits of Exhaust Manifold Repair
By getting this repair done and out of the way before the problems get worse, this means you will have lots of money on gas and fuel costs, and your vehicle will become more fuel efficient over time and earn more miles per gallon, saving you money and time. In addition, it also means that you will be able to protect your vehicle from additional damage if you wait too long to pay for the cracked exhaust manifold repair cost.
How to save money on cracked exhaust manifold repair cost
If you want to save money and do the job yourself to save costs on repairs of the exhaust manifold repair, then you should only try this step and process if you have caught the problem easily on ,if you are confident in your skills, and you have done the right amount of research about the steps needed to take.
At the later stages of a cracked exhaust manifold repair process and exhaust failure, then the damage might be too severe for most people to have the skills and knowledge to handle at home with their own tools. Furthermore, you might not also be able to correctly diagnose the real cause of the cracked exhaust manifold, meaning that you won’t know where to start with remedying the issue.
Another option is just to compare prices in order to get the best deal when finding the lowest cracked exhaust manifold repair cost for your specific vehicle. You can compare labor costs and parts costs from mechanics and suppliers in your area to save some money and still get your necessary repair done at a low price level.
What It Takes
As we have stated, replacing a gasket that is causing an exhaust manifold leak that has resulted in a cracked exhaust manifold repair process is actually a pretty simple step by step process. You will need a couple of wrenches or sockets to remove the manifold if you are doing it yourself. You will also need a tool that can remove the traces of the old gasket.
Labor Costs
If you decide to not do this process yourself, then most shops will use what is commonly known in the automotive world as a parts and labor guide to figure out how much labor is required for any given repair, thereby determining the total charge. Usually, this kind of cracked exhaust manifold repair will charge at around $80-$90 per hour, so with the total running at around $160-$270 for the cracked exhaust manifold repair cost in total. If you decide to go with a dealership instead of an independent shop, then a labor rate of approximately $100-$110 per hour will run you at about $220-$330 for the total cracked exhaust manifold repair cost.
Parts Cost
The cost of the replacement gasket can depend on the make, model, and year of your car and how many cylinders are in the engine of your vehicle. For certain cars, it can be between just $18-$30 at your local retailer for the gasket, but can increase to double as much if you go to a local dealership.
Sample cracked exhaust manifold repair costs
There are certain types of cars that have brought about specific exhaust manifold repair costs on the market today. For example, the first one is a Ford F-Series, with the labor coming in at $270-$344, while the parts run at around $204-$343, with the total cracked exhaust manifold repair cost running at around $474-$687 total.
The lowest cracked exhaust manifold repair cost is for the Honda Accord, with the labor being around $90-$115, the parts running at around $259-$472, and the total cracked exhaust manifold repair cost totalling around $349-$587.
one of the highest cars in regards to the exhaust manifold repair costs on the market today is the Honda Civic, with the parts coming in at a whopping $583-$851, and the labor running at around $270-$344, meaning this is a more difficult job for a mechanic to do correctly, and costing around $853 to even over one thousand dollars for the total cracked exhaust manifold repair cost.
Depending on the kind of car you have and whether you take your vehicle to a dealership or to your local independent mechanic, it will affect the total price of your cracked exhuast manifold repair cost.