Exhaust leak somewhere in the front. I raised the car on jack stands, crawled under but could not see the problem. I "assume" it is either the manifold or the curved section of pipe attached to the manifold. This section of pipe has a heat shield over it so I cant see it. Well after a weekend of wrestling with the connections I removed both sensors and disconnected the front pipe from the manifold. I was hoping to be able to spin the whole thing out from under the car. no luck.
Looks like I have to separate the muffler from the middle pipe (have to use a dremil to cut the bolts.) This will allow the center pipe section to come out.
QUESTION: In front of the cat. there was a type of clamp. after I cut it off I could see a raised seam. Unfortunately it looks like it is a permanent connection not meant to come apart? The clamp was there to help keep it from coming apart??? If this joint had come apart I could get the pipe and muffler out as one piece. It looks like there are only 3 sections to the exhaust. The muffler (and tail pipe), the middle pipe which has the cat in it and the manifold.... If I am correct and the leak is under the heat shield on the middle pipe just before it connects to the manifold it looks like I will have to replace the whole middle pipe including the cat??$$$$$
I've never seen this type of setup, usually the cat is connected to pipes that could be replaced without doing the whole thing. Also new to me was the connection to the manifold is spring mounted... One side I got out no problem but the other bolt could not be reached because of the O2 sensor. when I tried to remove the sensor it was blocked by the length of the bolt with the spring on it.. I ended up cutting the spring with a dremil. this allowed things to move so I could slide the O2 sensor out and get at the bolt from under the car.... Hopefully I can find a replacement spring when its time to reassemble??? It may be part of the replacement???
Other than being load the pipes I have been able to examine all seem pretty solid. If I remove the heat shield on the front bend of the middle pipe and don't fine a problem I'll have to look at the manifold a little closer or remove it..
Any advice, comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated..
TIA
SR