Hi
My 1.2 8v Grande Punto 2006 has a continual leak from the flange between the cat and the centre section, just before the flexi. The mid section is not old, and the flexi is not leaking. However, after cleaning up the flange faces and replacing the gasket it leaks after 10 miles or so. I've tried a metal thin gasket, and a slightly thicker fibrous gasket, but each time it leaks through. Its as if one of the flanges is distorted and the faces cannot meet correctly. Is this a common complaint? Any other form of packing I can use to take out any distortion? Any assistance appreciated

Why not take it to whoever fitted it or a garage/tyre/exhaust place and pay to have it sorted?.

I fighted with this too. First I also bought thick fibrous gasket, but its shape wasnt good -lack of material at its up and bottom part so it was leaking up and down. After that I bought thin metal gasket with molded O-ring on it + applied Bosal paste from both sides. Perfect! And also my old studs broke so I drilled it with 10 drill bit and used my own screws ;-)

nikrox said:

Why not take it to whoever fitted it or a garage/tyre/exhaust place and pay to have it sorted?.

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Hi - I fitted it haha

Rado77 said:

I fighted with this too. First I also bought thick fibrous gasket, but its shape wasnt good -lack of material at its up and bottom part so it was leaking up and down. After that I bought thin metal gasket with molded O-ring on it + applied Bosal paste from both sides. Perfect! And also my old studs broke so I drilled it with 10 drill bit and used my own screws ;-)

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Thanks - Yes thats exactly my problem - It needs a thicker gasket to take up the difference - mine is blowing out the middle section at the bottom (and possibly the top). If its the flange on centre section, not too expensive, if its the flange on cat end then a lot more expense and possible probs changing it (busted studs etc) so gap filler as you suggest I think

Bosal paste I can try but worried not held under sufficient compression so will just crumble away. A birds nest type metal gasket perhaps? Anyone tried that? Doesnt seem to be a typical problem to be honest as nothing come up on searches web or otherwise

Fair enough..I recently had the exhaust off when i changed the front subframe. Gasket was bought,fitted by my fave garage..Eden tyres. They used s metal gasket with silicone sealent..

nikrox said:

Fair enough..I recently had the exhaust off when i changed the front subframe. Gasket was bought,fitted by my fave garage..Eden tyres. They used s metal gasket with silicone sealent..

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Thats interesting - Silicone sealant I havent tried - assuming it handles those temps then I could make a thick bead and let it dry before assembling, like a big o-ring affair. Thanks, I'll try Silicone.

Im not sure if it was specific silicone/heat resistant tbh..go ask or get it done by some firm you trust.

By way of resolution, I couldnt fix it using regular gasket so I bought a collapsable ring gasket and used glue to stick that to a proper punto flange gasket (just to hold it in position while fitting it up) - This bridged the gap and worked immediately and has now seemingly fixed the problem. Sorry, I didn't take pictures of the resulting gasket.
It seems that the flange on the centre section was indeed bent, to the extent I could fit it together and see torchlight through the gap, but I couldn't straighten it.

So finally as simple as a bad (spare) part ..?

Thanks for the update anyway!

BRs, Bernie

I fighted with all these things too, plus both studs had broken thread. So I had to cut both studs by hand with metal saw, dtrill through studs, and used 10mm bolts + nuts - car was only on default jack + I drilled it by hand appr. 2 hours After that I used piece of wood with sandpaper and grinded both flanges to flatness. After that I used thin gasket (made of 3 thin metal plates) with molded O-ring, used Bosal paste on the ring from both sides and that's it

I got a spurious exhaust sealed with a klarius metal/fibre gasket. Immediately after fitting it was sound. However, I hadn't secured the the back box and middle section properly. The mistake I made was trying to clamp (u-clamp) the pipe past the slots which are cut in the to ease fitting. This meant that the joint worked loose very quickly. This in turn created vibration at the gasket which quickly failed. Next I used the the u-clamp in the correct place, on the slotted side close to where the slots end. I used tec7 on the gasket and refitted it. The clamp on the rear section was successful, but the gasket plastered with tec7 failed after a day. Finally I got a metal gasket some flanged bolts and flanged nuts (M8s). Job done.