So while changing my belts, I noticed that the flex pipe lost all the wire mesh and i saw a hole under the spring part of the flex pipe. What do most people do to fix this? I have a 04 Galant 3.8L. I read on here of people getting the flex part cut and get a new one welded on. Is that the normal, cost effective method? I thought of changing out the Front no 1 exhaust pipe (got the name from the manual) where the flex pipe is part of the pipe. I can't find the part number for the exhaust pipe; if anyone has that, i'd appreciate it.