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ugh... just when I least expected it...

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Nunyas

Nunyas

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went to lunch... had a rather large passenger in my 'B with me (6'+ in height easily 250+ in weight). After the comical comments from the co-workers watching this guy bang the heck out of his head on the hard-top, we left and got food. Brought the food back and proceded to pull into the parking lot. The office parking lot we pulled into has gates that run on metal tracks on the ground. I *aimed* for the low side of the track which I've driven over many times without problem, but that's always been without a passenger. Today however, I guess the extra weight of a large passenger brought the car down to "just the right height". As we crossed the gate tracks I heard a 'bang' under my seat followed up with a sudden change in exhaust sound./ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif I'm guessing the front edge of the muffler caught the top edge of the gate track and gave it just the right amount of tug to spring a leak. It's not a big leak mind you, but it is certianly enough to make it sound like there's a small R/C motor under my car at idle. I looked under the car to see if I could audibly pin point the location, and it *sounds* to be coming from the front of the muffler. Didn't wanna go probing around there with my hands to try and pin point the leak... that stuff gets hot you know.

Assuming it's in a reasonable location to reach, anyone here have a suggestion/method for patching a hole in the exhaust? Don't wanna replace the entire exhaust just yet... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nonod.gif
 
You may have just pulled it away from the manifold somwhat causing the noise. When it cools, start there.
 
It was probably the center silencer that got hit. It's the lowest point on the car. My recommendation is to remove it altogether. I just had this done on my GT (I do it to all my cars). It only cost about $40 parts and labor. I can recommend a very good shop if you need it.
 
eh... non-stock exhaust on my car. I had Morse Mufflers put in a cat and muffler last year (they're accross from the Costco in Burbank near I-5).

hmmm... now that I think about it; this could be the perfect excuse to have exhaust rerouted to under the rear axle and move the silencer/resonator to behind the axle...

errmmm... no... need to try and 'patch' this first... have other anticipated expenses coming up that need tending to first...
 
Mine's been loose for a long time... After a while you actually like the sound. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Tend to those "other" things and worry about the slightly louder muffler later. When you do, take it to a local, non-chain muffler shop. They'll probably weld up the leaky part for $10-20.
 
Hey Kenny... are ya sure it ain't th' "giggle-gas" syndrome causin' yer apathetic attitude toward fixin ' the muffler leak?

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
I don't know, it's only 1 mile to work, but when I get there the headaches really start... No wait that happens in all my cars. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
 
Rules out th' gas theory then.
 
maybe there's a leak in his office? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jester.gif

the leak in the exhaust isn't loud, per se. Only really noticeable at idle due to the odd sound coming from under the car. Like I said before, sounds similar to a model airplane engine at idle... kinda detracts from the illusion of driving a "sports car" that I put myself into while driving to and fro work... heh
 
Have a looksee, Maybe the rubber broke on the exhaust hanger. The one just in front of the rear tire. Mine's been broke since I bought mine - causes that sort of little 2 stroke sound from vibration at idle.
 
hmmm... just got home... and I think it's running better with the leak in the exhaust ... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif usually about half way home, the engine idle gradually starts going up til it's around 1K-1.2K RPMS, and I would get occassional wafts of raw petrol while driving. Whenever, that stuff started happening the car would stumble like a civ off the line if I didn't rev to 2K+ RPMs and let the clutch slip.

Tonight, after the exhaust leak sprung, I noticed the idle dropped to 500 RPMs (was set to 750-900) sometimes lower. I never got the smells of raw petrol floating into the car. Although, I did have the occassional waft of exhaust fumes creep in the driver's window. The cars idle did go up a little during my drive (to about 750 RPMs), but usually settled back down to 500'ish if the light was long. The best part of it was the car *never* developed a stumble, nor did it hint at wanting to develop a stumble. I could floor the loud pedal at any RPM and it would just pull smoothly until I let up. The only other thing that I noticed was that it definitely seemed to be running rich. I could smell it in the exhaust, and the idle characteristics were that of far too rich.
 
Wow at the idle speeds... Mine is right about 1000 rpm. Sometimes just under - maybe 900 rpm at the least.

Maybe the muffler is clogged up with carbon deposits.
 
yeah... I think I may go grab some pipe and clamps from a parts store or something, and see what happens.
 
If your running rich all that extra carbon might have clogged up your exhaust system....do you have a cat?(the exhaust peice not the pet)If so that could be clogged up....My Camaros got clogged up once(the auto choke was messed up casuing it to run rich) and when I got rid of the Cat, it ran alot better.
 
hmmm... yeah, I have a Cat on my car...
 
There's usually a cat on my car, but only when it's parked at home. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gif
 
When I had the GT parked in the driveway last summer, I found a cat on the hot tin roof.
Does that count for anything?

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif


Paul
 
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