Brainstorm With Me! (broken weld in Exaust)

[strnjss]

I know this is more of a Camry forms subject, but I want to ask you guys since I know a lot of you have some great ideas.

So I have a Camry which I've owned for about a year now.

When idling or when engine is under load, it vibrates somewhat (which is no big deal and I'm working on that as a separate issue today), however, the whole car sounds like someones shaking a bell really fast or a coin being shaken in a metal jar.

I've tried really hard to find where it's coming from, but couldn't find anything loose anywhere.

When I took it in for some work at the mechanic, they said the previous owner welded a new section in to the exhaust and they think a weld has broken off inside, (possibly the piece is in the catalytic converter) and want to charge me a **** load of money to replace my perfectly intact (but welded in) exhaust with a new one.

I'm not quite ready yet to spend all kinds of money just because it's making some annoying noise at idle,

but the noise is driving me crazy, and I'm trying to think of some cheap solutions to stop the noise.

My first idea is to order some high temperature neodymium magnets (only like $5 online) to stick to the exhaust and CAT, hopefully getting that broken piece of weld to stick to them instead of bouncing around freely.

Do you guys think this would work? Or would I just end up getting all kinds of weird metal things on the road stuck to my undercarriage, or mess up sensors with the magnetic fields or something.

I've thought about removing the whole exhaust, and trying to shake out the piece, but that would be way too much trouble. the bolts are going to snap, and it will be a lot of work. If I were going to go that route, it would be easier to just replace the exhaust.

Let me know what you guys think or if you have any good ideas.

thanks.

 

[Lotek]

Sounds like your cat is bad, probably caused by the misfire that's making the engine vibrate. If the p/o welded in a piece of pipe in place of the flex coupling, you have that to fix as well. If you let it go any further it could get even more expensive.

 

[NASTYZEN]

Personally ,I would go to a local Midas or something.
They are all set up to remove the exhaust system, fix the brake and put it back on again within the hour.
Should cost less than 100 bucks if they don't replace any thing.
Trust me, you could spend days messing with it in your driveway. When these guys can do it in a blink.
Even though I have a fab shop, I go to a muffler shop when I have a problem with mine. I stopped crawling around and burning myself years ago on my daily drivers.

 

[strnjss]

Sounds like your cat is bad, probably caused by the misfire that's making the engine vibrate. If the p/o welded in a piece of pipe in place of the flex coupling, you have that to fix as well. If you let it go any further it could get even more expensive.

Thanks for the feedback, there doesn't seem to be a misfire that I'm aware of, no codes or anything, but the 2.4L engine in my Camry is notorious for low idle which may be responsible for the vibration. I replaced the plugs yesterday and need to clean the throttle body today which will hopefully cut way down on the vibration.

Personally ,I would go to a local Midas or something.
They are all set up to remove the exhaust system, fix the brake and put it back on again within the hour.
Should cost less than 100 bucks if they don't replace any thing.
Trust me, you could spend days messing with it in your driveway. When these guys can do it in a blink.
Even though I have a fab shop, I go to a muffler shop when I have a problem with mine. I stopped crawling around and burning myself years ago on my daily drivers.

That's a good idea. I don't trust Midas anymore than I trust any chain though. But taking it to a private muffler shop, or small shop or something is a good idea.

Have you gotten Midas to do little stuff for you like this? I can only imagine them just wanting to replace stuff like every chain. It would be nice if they would though.

 

[GirlnAgarage]

Don't make this more complicated than it should be (it'll drive you nuts). Take it to a muffler/exhaust shop have 'em cut the offending parts out, clean out or replace pieces then weld it back together.

Like said above $100 if they're not replacing parts(..ie the cat) and about an hour.

 

[LumpyMusic]

Local mom and pop muffler shop replaced everything between the manifold and the muffler, including CAT, for 140 bucks parts and labor inc.


Lumpy - The Anti Yanni

www.digitalcartography.com/GILumpyDesertCamo.jpg

 

[Lotek]

Don't rule out the cat just yet, take a rubber mallet and start tapping the exhaust pipe, you can trace a rattle that way. Another thing to look for is contact between the exhaust and the body, bad motor or exhaust mounts, possible misalignment during the previous repair. Don't forget that the motor and exhaust will shift when you put it in gear or accelerate, see if the noise goes away in reverse.

 

[GirlnAgarage]

^^ very true

I had a metal rattle at idle. Turned out to be a broken weld on one of the hangers.

 

[Kevin54]

Check all of your hangers first. Grab, pull, jerk and shove them to make sure they are solid. If they are thump the pipe rather hard in front and back of the CAT. Then thump the heat shield. If you hear the rattle then it may be time to replace the CAT. If the car has less than 80,000 miles, the Government mandates that it be replaced free of charge. If so, take it to a Toyota Dealer and get a factory CAT put on. If over 80,000 and it is the CAT that is bad, take it to a place like Monroe, Midas, or wherever you choose and have a hi-flow CAT put on at around $80-$100 plus labor.

And just for the heck of it, if you have worked on the car lately, make sure you didn't drop any tools that would be laying where they could vibrate and make a noise. It does happen.

 

[Agent1320]

Yup, bang on it with a mallet, see if you can pinpoint the noise. Sometimes the tack welds that hold the heat shields to the pipe will break and rattle. You can just bend it up a little and the noise will go away. If it is infact a piece of something inside the pipe...you should be able to pinpoint the location. If that's the case and you find where the noise is coming from (could be bouncing around the inlet of the muffler or converter) take it to the local muffler shop and have them cut the pipe, dump the rattler, and weld it back up.

 

[pop pop]

A piece of metal inside sounds far fetched, but may be correct. I'd mallet the converter. If it rattles, the honeycomb is likely coming apart from overheating. I'd also look at the motor mounts. All 4's vibrate, you just aren't supposed to feel them. And if it came with a flex coupling and that is what is removed, I'd put it back in.

 

[GarageEnvy]

I'm just a Camry owner and definitely not in the same league as the mechanics on here so take this for what it's worth. I have the same rough vibration and haven't solved it yet. I did have a ringing that sounded similar to yours. There are several heat shields on the exhaust. One of mine had a snapped band causing it to ring. It might be a long-shot but consider checking those. It might be a near-free fix.