Sigh.... broken exhaust hanger just ruined my week

[PIUtility]

Well, looks like an exhaust hanger broke on my Ute today, and before I could slow down in time, it ripped the system off at the flex connectors, making them look like a damn accordion, there in which drug everything backwards and bent the hell out of the pipes to the rear. Entire system is trashed and just before a road trip weekend too.

God I hope warranty covers this, Ive never hit anything the life of this vehicle, still under factory 3/36 too.

Couldnt get a photo of the rear in time before roadside got there.


Edit: I forgot to post an update last night. I went to inspect the truck and I'll be damned if I didnt see something in the road, but I sure hit it. Looks like I hit a trailer tire or something, was more paying attention to running code to the station than **** in the road, and probably didnt hear the initial impact over the siren. Some scuffs on the cross member were barely visible, but 2 dings in the front downtube were noted, and ofcourse, what you see above.

 

[sheltonfilms]

Just as a back up what is your deductible on comprehensive?

 

[PIUtility]

$250, that was the first thing I checked. I'd go aftermarket to save them a few pennies but I like my nice and quiet ride on the highway. Highway drone drives me up the wall on friends' vehicles with aftermarket exhaust

 

[sheltonfilms]

Could probably save some money by finding someone that is getting an upgraded exhaust and buying their old parts.

 

[PIUtility]

Probably not anywhere near Houston though :-/ I'm pushing for warranty, i dont jump curbs in the damn thing, so there is NO reason this should have happened

 

[1995E]

Probably not anywhere near Houston though :-/ I'm pushing for warranty, i dont jump curbs in the damn thing, so there is NO reason this should have happened

I got the 2011 Ford Explorer XLT with 4WD. I've jumped a few curbs and hit the bottom of the car ( I think the exhaust ) a few times and bent that really huge thing in the middle ( dunno what that is, maybe the muffler? ) multiple times and it's stayed on just fine. How did that happen? It just fell off or did you hit a speed bump hard? I can't imagine what could cause something like that to happen.

 

[PIUtility]

I got the 2011 Ford Explorer XLT with 4WD. I've jumped a few curbs and hit the bottom of the car ( I think the exhaust ) a few times and bent that really huge thing in the middle ( dunno what that is, maybe the muffler? ) multiple times and it's stayed on just fine. How did that happen? It just fell off or did you hit a speed bump hard? I can't imagine what could cause something like that to happen.

I was coming off a freeway in a turn pretty fast on the way to my fire station when CLUNKGEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. Pulled to the side 6 seconds later and thats what I saw. One of the hangers for the mid pipe and flex coupling is torn =/

 

[boominXplorer]

Probably wasn't installed right after the fuel pump recall......

 

[dco43054]

Did the rubber hanger break?

From the picture, the damage is kind of hard to assess. Since we're all guessing, it just doesn't make sense that the system would sag enough with one hanger off to catch the ground and pull everything else apart, but who knows.

 

[cwescapexlt4x4]

Man, that sucks and hope they get it done in time for your weekend trip

 

[PIUtility]

Ford said no freaking way is it going to be warranty, which pisses me off for various reasons, mostly in which they're blaming me for running over or something, because there's damage to the exhaust. Of course the exhaust its something, it hit the damn ground at 70 miles an hour looks like a pick a part exhaust system may be in my future unless I just claim insurance and look at new exhaust. I wonder if any aftermarket exhaust give any gains and don't drone like a bumble bee on the highway.

 

[sheltonfilms]

Is the exhaust the lowest hanging part of the car? Hell the bumper maybe lower. If you don't have a mark on your lower bumper then I would fight it out with them.

 

[MCnoHammer]

Ford said no freaking way is it going to be warranty, which pisses me off for various reasons, mostly in which they're blaming me for running over or something, because there's damage to the exhaust. Of course the exhaust its something, it hit the damn ground at 70 miles an hour looks like a pick a part exhaust system may be in my future unless I just claim insurance and look at new exhaust. I wonder if any aftermarket exhaust give any gains and don't drone like a bumble bee on the highway.

Stuff like this disgusts me. No other car brand treats it's customers this way. These Explorers are falling apart left and right an Ford doesn't care one bit.

 

[1995E]

Stuff like this disgusts me. No other car brand treats it's customers this way. These Explorers are falling apart left and right an Ford doesn't care one bit.

+1. Own 3 Ford vehicles that are 2011+ MY and they all have had some sort of problem/ recalls, or issues that need to be address. So many warranty claims have been made and so much time has been wasted. :/

I am sure these cars are engineered properly. It's just that they aren't built right...

 

[dco43054]

Ford said no freaking way is it going to be warranty, which pisses me off for various reasons, mostly in which they're blaming me for running over or something, because there's damage to the exhaust. Of course the exhaust its something, it hit the damn ground at 70 miles an hour looks like a pick a part exhaust system may be in my future unless I just claim insurance and look at new exhaust. I wonder if any aftermarket exhaust give any gains and don't drone like a bumble bee on the highway.

OK - while I love to hold Ford accountable for their screw-ups, something doesn't make sense.

What is your theory on how this occurred? I looked at the hangers on my 2011, and there are hangers in front and back of the muffler, and another near the rear axle. The one in front of the muffler is shown in your picture. In front of the expanded metal piece, the exhaust pipe attaches to downpipe at the rear of the engine.

If one of the mounts fails, it does not appear the exhaust system would fall far enough to catch the ground and rip it backward and do the damage you are showing.

Absent any other information, I can see how they came to their conclusion that this was road damage. If it were me, I'd try to file a claim with my auto insurance.

 

[PIUtility]

I'd like to know the answer to, but unfortunately I don't know. I've pulled my car off the road over curbs plenty of times before, working scenes, and never had an issue with the exhaust catching anything, or anything under the vehicle for that matter. I was coming off the freeway, taking a turn too fast and may or may not have hit some road debris that I did not see, but something failed and the exhaust came off the vehicle. I can't imagine anything that tall and stout to hit the exhaust at the flex coupling to do that kind of damage.

 

[OffTrac]

Not to be rude, but that is a lot easier to imagine than the exhaust hanger just getting tired and letting go. Easy to say on this side of the situation over the internet, though.

Perhaps from one of your previous curb jumps and it just happened to fully release at that moment instead of when the damage occurred?

Not defending the dealership because it still sounds as if they aren't very willing to even try to find out the cause but from where I'm sitting, I would also assume this was related to a damaging incident. Exhaust hangers are not a newly attempted engineering marvel; it's harder to imagine they're that poorly constructed than to imagine damage caused this.

 

[dco43054]

I'd like to know the answer to, but unfortunately I don't know. I've pulled my car off the road over curbs plenty of times before, working scenes, and never had an issue with the exhaust catching anything, or anything under the vehicle for that matter. I was coming off the freeway, taking a turn too fast and may or may not have hit some road debris that I did not see, but something failed and the exhaust came off the vehicle. I can't imagine anything that tall and stout to hit the exhaust at the flex coupling to do that kind of damage.

I feel your pain. Sounds like you are a volunteer firefighter and/or EMT. I work with a station full of them and have the utmost in respect for them and what they do for our community. It would suck to be out there helping people and then incur this kind of cost to repair something that occurred as you were responding to an incident.

If I thought for a minute that this was a vehicle or design problem, I'd be right there with you demanding that Ford step up. From the information you've pulled together though, it points to something catastrophic happening that hit the muffler and tore the system loose from the vehicle.

From the position of the hangers, it doesn't make sense that losing any single one would cause the system to hang low enough to catch something on the road surface and rip the muffler loose. It would seem you would have heard banging coming from the exhaust as it flopped around if you lost one or more of them.

Having a big object lying in the road doesn't make sense because it would have taken out the air dam and other parts of the underbody before it got to the muffler.

From what you've been able to put together, it's seems like you ran over something that flipped up and caught the muffler and jammed in the ground hard enough to rip the system off.

No matter the cause, I'd take the dealer's statement that it was some road hazard damage to my insurance company and see what they can do.

 

[boominXplorer]

I would see if the fuel pump recall had been done. If so a tech was paid to remove and install it under warranty (half pay job for tech) and some hangers could of been forgotten in a rush. I have worked in a ford dealer before and seen way worse.

 

[PIUtility]

I forgot to post an update last night. I went to inspect the truck and I'll be damned if I didnt see something in the road, but I sure hit it. Looks like I hit a trailer tire or something, was more paying attention to running code to the station than **** in the road, and probably didnt hear the initial impact over the siren. The downpipes are toast, as well as the entire system and 3 rubber hangers. I've spent all weekend looking up options to replace it with, in lieu of the OEM system, but everything seems to be a royal PITA since the system is totally different than the Sport and Limited.


Atleast insurance is letting me pay the deductible in a few payments.