DPI Spec I Exhaust Heat Shield Mount Failure

[81dmc]

Yesterday, I started hearing a rattle from the exhaust, and found one Z mount to the heat shield broken. After removing the remnants of the upper left mount, I found that the lower left mount had also broken. Seems like the thin stainless didn't like the stress.
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Anyone else ever have this issue, and more importantly are these systems even covered under a warranty?

[sdg3205]

Contact josh before posting threads like this. It’s always a good idea to check in with the vendor first.

But no, no failures over here and I got my spec 1 used!

[Jason]

I had the same issue. Josh offered to replace the muffler if I sent the old one back, but I at the time I didn't want to have the car off the road for that long, so I ended up modifying my old heat shield (also stainless) and heat shield mounts that I had been using with the original style exhaust to fit with the DPI exhaust.

This seems like a better solution to me, as the heat shield isn't in contact with the thing is supposed to be shielding heat from, but I have no data or measurements to show that it makes a difference.

[81dmc]

I had the same issue. Josh offered to replace the muffler if I sent the old one back, but I at the time I didn't want to have the car off the road for that long, so I ended up modifying my old heat shield (also stainless) and heat shield mounts that I had been using with the original style exhaust to fit with the DPI exhaust.

This seems like a better solution to me, as the heat shield isn't in contact with the thing is supposed to be shielding heat from, but I have no data or measurements to show that it makes a difference.

Do you have any pics of that setup? Would be quite expensive to ship my muffler to Josh.

[DaraSue]

I actually had that happen just now on a long road trip. The mechanic who was with us said it would be a quick weld and his shop might not even charge me for it so I didn't even bother contacting Josh about it yet. I might drop him a line just to make sure it won't hurt anything to weld with it still on the car but if you've got somebody local who can fix it cheap that might be easier than trying to ship the whole thing back to DPI.

[Jason]

Do you have any pics of that setup? Would be quite expensive to ship my muffler to Josh.

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I have about 30-40k miles on that setup. I should probably remove the brackets and clean and paint them.

[DMC5180]

After seeing that failure and now hearing that it’s not isolated. It definitely appears to be a weak design.

A better and more stable configuration would be this. |__| welded with the legs vertical. The only thing that would be needed is to profile the muffler curvature to the flat pattern design before press-brake forming. Cost of the would be identical, roughly the same amount of material with 2 bends and welds, but with twice the structural integrity. Much less likely to fatigue.

What ever is done to fix yours, it needs to be tig welded with a Stainless filler wire.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[81dmc]

After seeing that failure and now hearing that it’s not isolated. It definitely appears to be a weak design.

A better and more stable configuration would be this. |__| welded with the legs vertical. The only thing that would be needed is to profile the muffler curvature to the flat pattern design before press-brake forming. Cost of the would be identical, roughly the same amount of material with 2 bends and welds, but with twice the structural integrity. Much less likely to fatigue.

What ever is done to fix yours, it needs to be tig welded with a Stainless filler wire.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is exactly why I decided to post on talk first... to see it there is a fault in the design.

Will probably do a stock heat shield if I can figure out how to mount it.

[Michael]

This is exactly why I decided to post on talk first... to see it there is a fault in the design.

Will probably do a stock heat shield if I can figure out how to mount it.

The thing is DPI is the golden boy of vendors for Talk. Negative threads get locked and locked quickly. Most other vendors are fair game.

[Delorean Industries]

The thing is DPI is the golden boy of vendors for Talk. Negative threads get locked and locked quickly. Most other vendors are fair game.

Thanks for highlighting our community status. While I would like to think we are the only ones who receive preferential treatment... we are not alone.