Exhaust gasket rusted out

[johnpaul]

I was halfway into a 300 mile trip when I noticed what sounded like an exhaust leak from where the header pipe meets the cylinder head on the left cylinder of my 2013 V7 Special. I pulled over and thought to check the exhaust flange nuts, but one of them felt tight, and the other was stripped. I hadn’t touched it previously, so I assume that it came that way from the dealership.

After riding it home, i ordered some new exhaust flange nuts and new exhaust header seals and managed to easily remove the stripped nut by hammering in a torx bit, but when I tried removing the other one, the bolt snapped off with very little force. I’ve now ordered a new bolt. It snapped off with such little force that it was obviously weakened previously. As mentioned already, I had not previously messed with these, so the only other people who could have touched them was the factory and the dealorship.

Anyhow, when I pulled the exhaust, all that was left of the gasket that seals the space between the head and the exhaust pipe was a thin, brittle layer of rust. It is pictured below - the new one is on the bottom for reference and what I found when I removed the exhaust is on the top of the picture.

Thought I’d post so that others won’t be surprised to find somethig similar.

 

[Vagrant]

Pre 2017's needed to be retorqued every 300 miles for the first 1500 and then every 500 for a couple of times more. yours torched the bolts to death. fix both sides.

 

[TimmyTheHog]

don't have a strip header bolt (thank god), but my exhaust clamp bolt did snap due to heat.

I slapped on some nickle anti-seize...so far so good...