Hole in exhaust?

[BlackTigers]

'98 ZX2
104k

I was cruising last night at about...80? or so, and all of a sudden my car got loud.

Obnoxious loud.

It's louder when I accelerate, and if I'm cruising it's only slightly louder than it was a day ago. But if I lay into my pedal, it sounds like my car has bronchitis (no loss of power, though).

My mom heard me coming from a few blocks away last night, which is a bad thing, lol. There is no codes, I had it scanned. Everything looks okay from up top, that I can see...

Nothing loose or hanging underneath, just an obnoxious growl coming from the front of my car.

I'll try and get a sound clip up after work.

 

[Savij]

I'm far from an expert, but I would guess a hole in the exhaust near the engine. Probably a bad thing to have an exhaust leak directly under the car like that if you're idling in place. You should probably let the guys who actually know what they're talking about chime in.

 

[heymrdj]

Maybe the header/manifold separated and you're leaking exhaust under the hood? Maybe a rusted broken off manifold bolt.

 

[Fern]

Well, if it's that loud the 'hole' has to be in front of the muffler (between engine and muffler).

You should be able to find the location of the problem by 'following' the noise. You should also see (smell) leaking exhaust fumes. They should be coming out with some pressure.

Since it's coiming from the front of the car you might have a look under there. Often, near where the tranny is, the exhaust pipes coming from the engine compartment bolt onto pipes running underneath the length of the car. The flange connecting them could be broken, seperated etc.

Fern

 

[BlackTigers]

Now that I think about it, I should have replaced the cat to pipe flange bolts when I had the cat off when I put my transmission in. They were kind of torn up.

I'll go give that a look. I know it's in the front of the car, I'm hoping it's as simple as a broken bolt.

It's it's a manifold stud....then fuck.

 

[Black88GTA]

Rusted out flange or broken bolt at one of the exhaust connections near the front of the car, I bet. The fact that this happened all at once as opposed to a gradual increase in volume indicates that something likely broke / failed, rather than a hole gradually rusting through the pipe. Check the header pipes ==> cat converter flange and bolts, and the flange just aft of the converter as well. Any leak / broken spot should be obvious.

 

[BUTCH1]

Exhaust manifold gasket..