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Finding an exhaust leak
Zakk:
--- Quote from: USSEnterprise on March 09, 2007, 07:23:27 pm ---My car has a relatively bad exhaust leak. Not enough to kill you, but the smell inside the car is pretty noticeable. I doubt it would pass inspection. Anyone know of a means of locating the leak? I was thinking of running compressed air through the system, with all the pipes covered in liquid soap, but I don't know how I would go about getting the compressed air into the system. Any ideas? Any other methods?
--- End quote ---
My suggestion is that you take the bottle of soap, and instead of using it on the pipes, use it on yourself, and see if that takes care of the smell in the car. If so, you've just saved yourself a hefty fee!
USSEnterprise:
I'm not dismissing your advice. When tomorrow comes, I'll give a call up to the Vovo Clinic and get their pricing. They service everything, relatively cheap, but relatively cheap is still expensive for me. Maybe I'll give Midas a call too. Here's the (probable) difference though, between your CRX and my 850: The catalytic converter. If you actually had everything replaced between the Exhaust Manifold and the Muffler for $50, you don't have one. Such a thing tacks on at least another $100 in parts alone.
DrewKaree:
"Jim's Muffler Shop".
Not "Volvo Repair Clinic".
"Jim's Muffler Shop".
Car-X = Midas = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. And THEN some.
Midas is a crap place to get a muffler done.
"Jim's Muffler Shop". Maybe "Bob's".
Here's what you need to do. Grab your Yellow Pages. Page through it until you find the "Mufflers" page. Take a sharpie marker. Black out EVERY dealer, Midas or Car-X in there. You should now see a list of "Jim's Muffler Shop"s. Maybe "Barney's Muffler & Radiator".
They have a machine that does nothing but bend tubing. They will have enormous amounts of tubing in different diameters. That same machine will enlarge the ends of said tubing to fit your fittings and/or convertor and/or muffler. They simply need to take a calipers to your tubing to figure out which one to use, if they even need to do THAT. The entire process for "Bill's Muffler & Radiator Shop" should take less than half an hour. You're mistaken about my not having a catalytic convertor. They will simply remove it and reuse it, as they did in my case. Unless the problem is actually WITH your catalytic convertor, they can reuse that, and SHOULD reuse that.
Midas PURPOSEFULLY takes channel locks to people's pipes and shows them "see how it's weak and flimsy here? That needs replacing. We can do that for eleventy brazillion dollars. We also need to charge you an outrageous amount for every fitting that we deem to need replacing, which means every fitting in your system". Midas and places like them, such as Car-X, are TheRapists for your car.
If it's got Volvo IN THE NAME of the place, there's no reason to believe that they won't overcharge you, that's why "Jim's Muffler Shop" is the place to go. This ISN'T a "European car" thing. It's a "you need exhaust TUBING replaced" thing. Tubing isn't ordered or formed to European standards, it's simply tubing. THAT'S why "Sammy's Muffler and/or Radiator Shop" will do this for what you should find to be far cheaper than you thought possible. They can do this because 1) that's ALL they do, so they're better at it than even a Volvo place, since you're just replacing the TUBING, and 2) since they have a machine that can make a pipe bend to whatever angle/dimension they want it to, they don't get PRE-FORMED tubes, which is why the Volvo dealer or any other place will be MORE expensive than them, since that machine is thousands of dollars, and simply isn't worth the time for the Volvo dealer to deal with, or to let you know they have it when they can charge you exorbitant amounts because they have "Volvo" in the name of their shop.
"Kenny's Muffler Shop" is all about speed and service, which means you'll tell others, meaning their cheap prices and speed of service will be told to others, with no advertising on their part. Look at me, I don't even KNOW "Bocephus' Muffler Shop", but what I'm confident of is that they'll do it quicker and cheaper than anyone else, because that's ALL they do.
Done.
USSEnterprise:
Fine, when I get home from my road test today, I'll call around.
USSEnterprise:
The three "muffler shops" I called in the phone book all quoted me around $75 an hour, including diagnostic time, plus parts. Meineke will do free diagnostic work.
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