Is this normal? The piping joints (dunno what the technical name is) are rusting! Here are some pics. I'ved had the exhaust for about 3-4 months and I live in California. The rusting makes the exhaust piping cheap looking... although everything else is stainless steel. How is this rusting going to affect the exhaust on the long run? Any solutions to this problem? Would it help to clean it? HELP!





Should I complain to the exhaust manufacturer?

 

yes its completely normal, dc sport uses mild steel flanges and and stainless piping for their exhaust. clean it up with a wire brush or sos padand spray some kinda wd40 type stuff on it, dc sports tells you about this in the instructions. mine looks a lot worse than yours but I live in seattle and there is probably a little more rain around here.

 

I do have a couple more questions concerning the DC Sports exhaust that's on my STi. I just noticed the following 2 things this past week.

1) The part where the exhaust tip connects to the canister (where its solded) has weird colors... mostly orange/red (on the driver's side) and blueish/green (on the passenger's side). Here's 2 pics of that problem from both sides of the canister. I honestly don't recall how it looked like when it was new so I just want to make sure whether or not this color is normal or not and what is happening.





2) I believe the canister and the tip have the same stainless steel finish right? I just cleaned my exhaust today and noticed that the tip and the canister looks different... the canister was shinny and nice looking, while the tip looked dull and simply not shinny like the canister. The difference is really obvious, and no matter how hard I tried cleaning the tip it was useless (I only used a wet cloth to clean). When I took the pics and cleaned the exhaust, the exhaust was not hot at all... the car has been sitting there the entire night. I recall that both the canister and the tip was the same finish. Is there something wrong with my exhaust? What can I use to clean it so that the tip will be shinny like the canister? Here are 2 pics for you to compare what I am talking about.





... And compare those 2 pics to this photos which was taken when the exhaust was brand new.



Any feedback would be deeply appreciated. Sorry, I am just super **** about my car and how everything looks.

 

the flanges appear to not be stainless, so if they are either advertising it as a 100% stainless exhaust, OR if the implied specifically that the flanges are made of stainless, then I would return it and get something quality like the Tanabe Super Medallion Racing.

They will probably try to get you to exchange it, but if they just aten't making the flanges out of stainless, demand a refund.

As far as the color difference between the cannister and the tip, I think that's a cosmetic issue, and they might just exhange it for a new one for that kind of defect.

 

BTW, I tried using Mother's "Mag and Alum" polish ("Great for ALL Metals") and it doesn't work either... its a bit shinnier but still bronze looking when compared to the canister. What can I do to restore my tip and piping?!?!?!?!?!?! Any specific brand and model that would REALLY work so I don't need to keep spending my money on unnecessary stuff? Thanks.

 

stainless will get that bronze look from the heat, Im guess maybe the stainles dc is using might be of a slightly lower quality than others? I have some SS cleaner/polish I will try on mine in a few days to see if it help.

 

Please let me know if it worked or not... BTW, what brand is your SS polish? I tried looking for SS polish at Kragen and they only had the Mother's Mag and Alum polish but its suppose to be "great for all metals"... But how come the canister is still soooo shinny? Only the tip and the piping are getting bronzeish.

 

dude you should have just gotten a Tanabe, I remember when you got your car, you were so hard up for a Greddy Evo or some other POS exhaust...

 

so....what did you do about it?

 

Greddy Evo2 is a great exhaust. They have fixed the problems with the Evo1 and it does not rust and fits perfectly.

And who the hell would stick a DC sports anything on a STi? Thought DC=Honda.