Any ideas are appreciated, as I hate going to the garage without any clue what’s wrong. Yesterday I was driving home from work and noticed when I got off the interstate my car was really loud…it reminded me of a lawn mower. When I start her she’s louder than normal and get even louder when accelerated.
I suspect this has something to do with the muffler, but my car knowledge is non existant. I drive a 97’ Ford Escort. Currently she has (are you ready) 192,000 miles on her, she old and tired, but I need her to make it until November. Does this sound like the muffler or could it be something else? If it is the muffler is this expensive? I don’t want to spend more than she is worth. Thanks!!!
there could be so many things wrong here, you could just have from an exhaust leak, which should take about 10 minutes to weld up, or you could extend to have a exhaust manifold bolt back out, any of that shouldnt be very expensive at all, but you will need to check it out to get exactly what it is. hope this helped
You really need to do a simple investigation yourself. With the car parked and the engine running, check under the hood. Peer underneath. Examine the muffler itself at he back of the car. You are trying to locate the source of the noise. As a minimum, determine whether it is from the front, middle, or rear of the car.
Definitely sounds like an exhaust leak. The question is, from where? With the engine running, and parked with the brake on, walk around the car, and try to pinpoint the location of the noise. You’ll most likely have to crawl down around the car. To give you an idea of what to look for, it will most likely be in the exhaust pipe running from the engine to the tail pipe at the rear of the car. This car has a flex pipe that is located under the engine. Then the first muffler looking thing is the catalytic converter. Be very careful, this thing gets extremely hot. It will next go through the connecting pipe to the muffler. Then from the muffler to the tail pipe. The flex pipe is a bit pricey, but the catalytic converter is the most expensive, about $200. The other pipes are cheap and easy, and a muffler shop will repair these quickly. The muffler isalso cheap. We had to replace the connecting pipe, muffler and tail pipe for my wife’s car, and total price was about $150 with a 1 year warranty.
I would recommend having this checked out. Bad exhausts can very hazardous to your health as the carbon monoxide(you can’t smell it) can kill you.
Make sure to drive around with windows cracked at all times until this is fixed.
It sounds like your car needs exhaust surgery. Post back when you get this surgery completed and see if it can be reversed. I’d like for my lawnmower to be as quiet as my car. (I did have a pushmower without an engine, but I was turning the air blue with the foul language it caused me to use).