Downpipe to Turbo Stud Broke

[Status Update]

This past weekend a friend and I were working on my downpipe and one of the studs was being a bitch and would not budge. Long story short the stud at the bottom left that connects the downpipe to turbo snapped... Right now there are 4 studs/nuts that are holding the dp and the turbo together with a new replacement gasket in-between it. I understand that there are 5 studs for a reason but my friend says that as long as the other 4 studs are in securely and with a new gasket in place there shouldn't be an exhaust leak there. How can I test for an exhaust leak in that spot since its the bottom stud I cant really do the soap/water trick since it would drip right down. If I need to fix this what would I need to do to go about this? This install has been such a pain in the ass!

[speed3sailor]

you might be able to look at your fuel trims. I believe they will go negative if you have an exhaust leak. could be wrong on that one. you could also just get under the car while it is running and see if its leaking. possibly have somone give a little rev. I personally think it will start leaking. Best thing to do is order a new stud or two and change it out when you get it in. to remove the broken one, youll have to remove the DP again and then back two of the nuts up against each other with the flat parts of the nuts touching. tighten them against each other really tight then turn the bottom nut left and with a little luck the stud will turn with the nuts. good luck.

[Status Update]

Originally Posted by calizoomzoom fawwkk..i hope it works out for you but i really think it will leak.. and drilling out broken studs aint no walk in the park.. goodluck sir

Thanks and if it comes to drilling oh boy I have nooooo idea how this is going to work out lol I found a thread on IWSTI and I'll probably have to pull the turbo and drill it out and then screw extractor it but the bit that snapped off is only about 1/4th of the original stud. Id take off the downpipe and try and vise grip the stud but it snapped off good and there is nothing to grab.

Originally Posted by speed3sailor you might be able to look at your fuel trims. I believe they will go negative if you have an exhaust leak. could be wrong on that one. you could also just get under the car while it is running and see if its leaking. possibly have somone give a little rev. I personally think it will start leaking. Best thing to do is order a new stud or two and change it out when you get it in. to remove the broken one, youll have to remove the DP again and then back two of the nuts up against each other with the flat parts of the nuts touching. tighten them against each other really tight then turn the bottom nut left and with a little luck the stud will turn with the nuts. good luck.

I'll take a look at my STFT's and LTFT's but on top of that I have a pretty bad dp to cbe exhaust leak too so its going to be hard to find out whether its the stud that would cause the exhaust leak or the actual dp-cbe.

[calizoomzoom]

fawwkk..i hope it works out for you but i really think it will leak.. and drilling out broken studs aint no walk in the park.. goodluck sir

[speed3sailor]

sounds like your exhaust is F'd in the B.

[Status Update]

Originally Posted by speed3sailor sounds like your exhaust is F'd in the B.

Oh yeah definitely lol... I have a magnaflow cbe on the way so once thats in hopefully i'll be able to figure out if its leaking at the turbo-dp. Shits been fucked up since I got the dp installed lol. Threw a p0137 and p2096 simultaneously when i went 3/4 throttle and overboosted so hopefully I can clear those codes and they wont come back.

[Jkspeed]

Any luck?

[Status Update]

I've been running 4/5 studs and so far no exhaust leaks from the turbo/dp so its pretty good I'm still waiting to install my magnaflow cbe since the dp to cb is where I'm leaking at. Running a lot better now that I'm on my first revision of my stratified tune.

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[Jkspeed]

Good to hear. I know @plak424; broke some studs doing his dp so he may have some input if you want to replace it down the road.

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[LatinKraze]

Start the car and shove a multi-purpose lighter next to the broken stud. If the flame goes out, there's a leak

[Johnasaurus]

You might not need to remove the downpipe to get the stud out. If there's toom for an easy out I would do that instead.

[mike w]

I broke one of the studs when I installed new dp this summer. I had to take the turbo out, drill the bolt and I was able to use an easy out to get the broken stud out. You must take your time drilling. You do not want to break the drill bit in the stud. And get a good drill bit/easy out set. There are a lot of how to's, also. Good luck. You can definitely do it.

[Status Update]

I would attempt to get the stud out but when it snapped 95% of the stud came out idk. Seems to be a big headache so as long as its not giving me any problems ill just leave it but I do appreciate the help guys. I guess ill be saving up for a bnr s3

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[ForAiur]

Sorry to revive this but any change on your broken stud situation? Are you still running with 4 without issue? This just happened to me too, seems to be running leak free for now...

[Status Update]

Originally Posted by ForAiur Sorry to revive this but any change on your broken stud situation? Are you still running with 4 without issue? This just happened to me too, seems to be running leak free for now...

Its actually leaking now -.- the primary o2 sensor wire and part of the firewall is covered in black soot so blah

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[ForAiur]

Shit thats no good, sorry to hear that. Guess I should just bite the bullet and get it sorted sooner than later. Hopefully it can be done without pulling the turbo.

[Invisible_2.3]

You will have to pull the turbo

[bean59]

I stripped one of the stud holes when removing my dp flange and yea you can't get anything in there. I'm afraid you will have to remove the turbo which is what I did. There is just no room to move around. Once you get the turbo out it is a breeze. Kinda of a pita ass for one bolt I know. I also used some of that red rtv gasket where the flange mates to the turbo just to be sure of no leaks. Good luck

[Status Update]

Originally Posted by bean59 I stripped one of the stud holes when removing my dp flange and yea you can't get anything in there. I'm afraid you will have to remove the turbo which is what I did. There is just no room to move around. Once you get the turbo out it is a breeze. Kinda of a pita ass for one bolt I know. I also used some of that red rtv gasket where the flange mates to the turbo just to be sure of no leaks. Good luck

Gives me an excuse to go bnr LOL

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[ForAiur]

Originally Posted by bean59 I stripped one of the stud holes when removing my dp flange and yea you can't get anything in there. I'm afraid you will have to remove the turbo which is what I did. There is just no room to move around. Once you get the turbo out it is a breeze. Kinda of a pita ass for one bolt I know. I also used some of that red rtv gasket where the flange mates to the turbo just to be sure of no leaks. Good luck

Thanks for the info, curious when you reinstalled your turbo did you need to replace the gaskets/washers or did you reuse everything? I think there are some crush washers involved no? Just want to have everything before I start hah..

[bean59]

Yea buy some new crush washers. I tried to reuse them but it gave me an oil leak. I reused the stock dp flange gasket mine was pretty new don't know how yours is. Theres another gasket underneath the turbo for the oil drain line too and one on the other end that goes into the block.

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[Nitr0EngiE]

a word of advice to any of you using factory style turbo flange REPLACE THE NUTS EACH TIME, if you try to re use the nuts they get very distorted and the threads fuck up which is why so many people have issues removing the nuts, they strip and bind to the stud so badly allowing the studs to snap.

make sure you replace all 5 nuts each time or your guaranteed fail. and re install new nuts with anti seize. i swear they are designed to disintegrate on removal .... im soo soooo asoooooooo glad i dont use those nuts anymore they fucking SUCK, they are the difference between a 1 hour downpipe install and a 4-5(or 2 day for that matter) hour install.

the studs that come off with the Nut do not need replacing, just the ones that come off without the stud alone, REPLACE those

the nuts get so bad i had one fall apart and peel apart like an orange before it came off.