My '98 E320 at almost 70K miles developed a rattle in the exhaust. My mechanic found the clamp that secures the exhaust system to the catalytic converter system to be broken, which rattled. There's also a second clamp for a second exhaust pipe performing the same function and it was cracked.

The clamp can be taken off, but there's no way to put a new clamp on the existing system because the two sections aren't going to easily seperate.

Has anyone come up with a creative way of resolving this problem? My mechanic welded the clamp together, but he doesn't expect it to hold for long. The clamp is cast iron, which didn't weld very good. He suggested a split clamp, if one exists. Other than that, my mechanic didn't have a suggestion for when it breaks again other than replacing part or all of the exhaust system, which is in good shape. With 4 catalytic converterts and 1 muffler, I'm sure the complete exhaust system is pretty expensive!

Anyone else run in to this, especially on a W210? Thanks!

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Dave

1998 E320
2001 SLK320
2000 Lexus RX300