3 years ago I paid local muffler shop to replace both rear mufflers.
Now (surprise) one completely rotted off, and the other is peeling, cracking, rusting. Temporary patchup with heat-cement is holding the better of the two together.
At the wrecker, the guy gave me two mufflers (stainless steel dual outlet) for $100. That beat the cheapest price for a stock replacement (about $85 plus install & tax).
(Actually, one muff cost about $110 installed, and the other more like $160, since it had a longer piece of custom pipe attached.)
Something else disturbing about the old mufflers: One has a heatshield installed overheat (partly rusted away, and so I fixed it with an added piece of galvanized stovepiping sheetmetal), whereas the other one with the extra pipe has no heatshield above (was it removed?) but has extra ribs welded onto it (I think to act as a built-in heat shield). This can't be the way it was originally from the factory.
I should be able to use the (nearly new) pipe from the one muffler and not have to replace it along with another muffler. And I should be able to make my own heat-shield and install that too.
I had a hard time getting the the remaining intake pipe that broke off one muffler, so I temporarily drilled, screwed, and clamped the old muffler back on, using an 'L' bracket (for shelves) and a 'c' clamp ($3), then cemented the crack. The cement held about one day, after vibrations, but the muffler was no longer in danger of falling off.
I had stuffed the muffler with stainless steel scrub pads (3 for $2 at Wallmart) to replace the rotted out chambers. But I stuffed it too much, and I think it choked out the engine a little, forcing more exhaust out the other muffler.
A guy at the wrecker explained that you can bash the pipe with a hammer to free up clamped joints (I had to do this to remove some extra pipe). His instructions were to bash the clamped area till the ridges made by the clamp were flattened. This advice actually worked, cleaning up the muffler (it was not rusted, being stainless steel).
But the rustier piece from the old muffler on the car was not so easy. I had to saw through it with a hacksaw at several points, and peel it off the inner pipe using vise-grips and needle-nose pliers, and also a flathead screwdriver and a hammer.
However, although the pipe diameters 'matched' (both 2 1/4, I think, measured by the clamps), the old 'stock' pipe was thinner than the pipe that came out of the stainless steel muffler. Close inspection revealed that the other pipe was much thicker and stronger than the pipe on my shitbox.
So when I installed the muffler (and sorted out a new hanger scheme using some bracket metal and an extra clamp on the exhaust tips), it was not tight on the connecting pipe, which supports the end of the muffler closest to the engine.
Even tightening up a new clamp did not remove the play from the connection. I thought I might make up a 'joiner' pipe, but there is no real room. The pipe bends quickly to meet the pipe from the other (driver's) side.
I don't think the new muffler is in danger of falling off, but it is loose, and droops (twists, since the clamp at the end is on one side/outlet).
Both of the 'new' mufflers look approximately like this:
The holding clamp at end goes on one pipe tip (closest to bottom for passenger side).
I am loathe to get the other end connecting to the pipes welded, since I will probably have to replace the pipe and catalytic converter soon anyway.
Is there another way to make the connection more solid and stable?
Also, although both mufflers look about the same, one is about 3x as heavy as the other, and has slightly different exhaust tips:
The lighter muffler has something like this: Exaggeratedly large, angled tips:
Whereas the heavier one has more like the following:
(only separate pipes into the muffler, not a 'y' join).
What brand could these mufflers be?