Brought my car into a muffler shop to check for leaks. They showed me that one of my exhaust manifold stud was gone or boken. I couldn't even see the stud there anymore, just the hole ring. Also there's something loose in my cat. conv. Very strange.

Anyways anyone know or give me an estimate of how much it would cost to fix the Manifold stud problem?

 

I had three that got broken in an accident on the rear....a pain for anyone to get to and replace....the old studs have to be tapped out and the head rethreaded to accept the new stud.....this is where you had better trust your mechanic and choose a good one...because if they mess the head up then that could cost serious bucks.....for a new gasket and tapping and replacing cost me about $280.00.....the total parts cost was $40.00...the rest was in labor...

 

If I keep driving around with boken studs???

 

wouldn't suggest that...the support that the stud provides for the heavy manifold is important....one less leaves room for move to fracture or completely break if you hit a rough spot in the road....plus Nissan manifold studs are notorious for being weak...maxima's, 240 sx's, pathfinder's, etc. have the same damn problem. I suggest fixing it as soon as you can....being just one you might come out pretty good price wise.

 

it's not that difficult of a job as far as skills go, it's just a PIA to get to the studs.


you will not damage the heads if you take your time and do things right.. you won't even need to re-thread the holes unless you screw something up.
use a small (1/8" or smaller) drill bit and drill through the center of the stud, then use an "E-Z out" tool, made specifically for this purpose.
Just be very careful when you're drilling into the stud. make sure you're going straight in, not at an angle. if you drill straight in, you'll only need to go about 1/2" in, then tap the E-Z Out into the hole with a hammer or back of a screwdriver (Disclaimer: a screwdriver is NOT a hammer, but sometimes will do the job if you're too lazy to get a hammer out of the toolbox.
once it's tapped into the hole, just hook up some vice grips or a wrench that fits the E-Z out, and unscrew the borken stud.

now that you have the stud out, just put a drop of oil or thread lubricant, and screw the new studs in. put manifold back on and finish the job..

as has been said, the parts are $40-60, depending on whether you get them from courtesy or your local dealer or someone else. you'll need 6 new studs, washers, and nuts, then the gasket. that's all.

can be easily done in an afternoon if you have the tools.

 

Matt, where are you located? Maybe you can fix it for me. I'm willing to pay just not as much as the shops since I'm back in college now.