I recently bought a 1983 Vanden Plas for $1200. The ad said there was a rattling sound, and that was the only problem. I looked up the symptoms, such as the rattling noise and the smell of gas sometimes, and i discovered it to be an exhaust leak. I was wondering how much it'll take to fix it. I knew i would have to spend at least $400, is an exhaust leak more expensive or not?


Otherwise, this baby handles very well, and it has only 60K miles on it!

 

The original exhaust on these cars was mostly made of stainless steel, although not of a particularly high specification. I suspect from your post mentioning a rattle, that the joint between front down pipe and the "Y" pipe has come loose, (it once came loose on my '80 car). The two pipes are cupped at the ends and a large olive is used for them to each butt up to, with plates and long bolts to clamp it together. Anyway, if a pipe has gone, replacements are readily available in stainless steel. The whole system consists of

- front down pipe (one) - normally has a flexible piece welded in it to handle engine movement
- Y pipe -splits the single pipe off the down pipe into two pipes (one)
- intermediate silencers (two)
- pipes over the rear subframe (two)
- exhaust silencers (two)
- rear swan-neck trim pipes (two) - polished stainless steel

So 10 parts in all, plus the clamping and mounting parts.

 

@Fraser Mitchell could you give me an estimate?

 

It'd be pretty tough to give you an estimate on it...
It could go from a patch kit that you can get at Auto Zone that'd most likely blow off in a week... a used pipe for $20 or so... to a new stainless system for upwards of $800 (or better)...
More importantly, with an 83 no matter how low the miles, you're going to have some more pressing issues... Even if the seller is being completly forthright about any problems he knows of, things are going to pop up.
Right off the bat, you'll need to change fluids, change belts, tune it up, change fuel lines, etc, etc, etc.... Even the on the low mileage ones, stuff gets old, drys up and rots... If the tires haven't been replaced in the past 5 years, well there is your $400....

My everyday-xj was a $300 find... And I've put quite a bit of work and parts into it.. It gets me from point a to b. I don't expect to rack up any Concours points with it this year... But be ready, nothing is quite as expensive as a cheap (Jaguar)...

Cheers,
David
Everyday XJ

 

Are you planning to repair the exhaust leak yourself or take it to a shop that specialises in exhaust work?

In addition to the items listed by Fraser, there is also the possibility that one of the exhaust manifolds has cracked or there is a missing stud from one of the fittings going into the pre-catalyst, which is part of the downpipe in North American specification cars.

Another area of possible exhaust-like leaks is the air injection plumbing along the top of the cylinder head. Sometimes one of the pipes going to each cylinder will crack and cause exhaust gasses to be pushed out through the crack instead of through the exhaust manifold.